The 08-09 Junior hockey season came to an end with Windsor winning the 2009 Memorial Cup with a 4-1 win over the WHL's Kelowna Rockets.
It was the 1st time a team has won the cup after losing the 1st 2 games of the tournament. The Spitfires won 4 in a row to claim their 1st ever title.
This tournament brought back memories of the ICE in Guelph in 2002. The ICE were 2-0 and facing 0-2 Victoriaville. The ICE had clinched a spot in the final and the game had no meaning to them. The ICE lost the game and almost everyone thought the ICE didn't try their best thus forcing a tiebreaker game. I think most of the media wanted a day off instead of covering another game.
Victoriaville won the tiebreaker on Friday, then won the semi-final on Saturday. The Final was on Sunday. The Tigres not only had to win 3 games but needed to do it in 3 days while the ICE had 3 full days off.
The format was changed last year in which there is now a day off between the semi-final and the final making it more likely we could see more teams coming out of the tiebreaker to win the Cup.
Much like the ICE, I don't think the Rockets lost on purpose in their last round robin game. Could they have tried harder, probably. But it was a 1-goal game. It's not like they played their 3rd string goalie and scratched their best players. They earned the right to handle the bench anyway they wanted.
In 2002 the WHL ICE played the QMJHL Victoriaville in an OHL city of Guelph. Talk about no atmosphere. It seemed like most of the non-ICE fans were cheering for the cinderella Tigres but the game wasn't close.
There is nothing like winning 4 best-of-seven play-off series' against teams from your own league. The Memorial Cup is a 1-week tournament and you can't afford 1 off-day.