May 26, 2002 the Kootenay ICE beat Victoriaville 6-3 to win the Memorial Cup.
Colin Sinclair scored 2 goals, including the game winner. Cole Fischer, Igor Agarunov, Duncan Milroy and Shaun Norrie had the other goals. ICE outshot the Tigres 40-23.
Here is the story from CP on the game ...
Sunday, May 26, 2002
ICE 6, Tigres 3
Ice cap long journey
By JON COOK -- SLAM! Sports
GUELPH -- It started with a double-overtime loss two years ago in Halifax.
The lessons learned from that crushing defeat against Barrie are the ones the Kootenay Ice applied this week in Guelph that catapulted them to a Memorial Cup championship with a 6-3 victory against Victoriaville on Sunday.
Head coach Ryan McGill and five returning players from Halifax desperately wanted to erase the stigma of being the first Western Hockey League champion to go 0-3 in the tournament since it changed to its present format in 1972.
In the final it was those players - Jarret Stoll, Cole Fischer, Colin Sinclair, Richard Hamula and B.J. Boxma - who refused to let another opportunity slip away.
"He (McGill) just told us if we ever get a chance again, not to piss it away," said Sinclair, who scored a pair of goals, including the game-winner at 5:16 of the second period. "Coming in we felt confident with our play and we knew we didn't want to go 0-3 this year."
Fischer, who had lost in the semi-finals as a 16-year-old with Spokane in 1998, scored the all-important first goal of the game for the Ice. The 20-year-old defenceman took a soft pass from Stoll and wristed it over Tigres' goalie Daniel Boisclair. Hamula drew the second assist.
Throughout the regular season and playoffs, the Ice were 41-7 when taking a 1-0 lead.
Hamula and Stoll again drew assists on Duncan Milroy's third-period goal, which was a nice way for the teammates to end their junior careers. While both could return next year as overagers, it's unlikely.
"From losing every game to being a Memorial Cup champion is definitely a sweet feeling," said Stoll, who after five years with the Ice will likely be signed this week by the Calgary Flames who drafted him in the third round in 2000. "Every year is a journey and from where we came four years ago, even from where the Edmonton team came, to now is just leaps and bounds above that."
Fischer collected his second point of the period assisting on Igor Agarunov's first goal of the tournament at 17:59. The 19-year-old's short-side shot eluded Boisclair.
The Ice's strong forechecking was very effective in wearing down the Tigres, who were playing their third game in as many days. The Tigres didn't even register a shot until Danny Groulx's long slapper nine minutes into the game.
The Ice outshot the Tigres 40-23 in the game, but the scoring chances were much more lopsided as Victoriaville rarely got anything from in close.
"I think in the first two periods we had only one or two good scoring chances," said captain Carl Mallette, who scored the final goal of the Tigres' season with 42 seconds left in the game. "You have to give credit to Kootenay. There was no space. They play a forechecking style of hockey and we had only two or three power plays tonight, so when you play five-against-five and you don't get shots, it's hard to score."
After Mallette's first goal cut the deficit to 2-1, Sinclair put the game out of reach with two goals in a 4:32 span in the second. Both scores should have been stopped by Boisclair, who surrendered Sinclair's game-winner on a bad angle shot from below the face-off circle and his second goal off a rebound from Tomas Plihal's floater from the point that handcuffed Boisclair.
"Nothing worked for me," said the 19-year-old, who was yanked following the fourth Ice score, but re-inserted after a brief heart-to-heart with head coach Mario Durocher. "He said 'Do you want to come back?' and I said 'Yeah, you know I deserve to come back.'"
Yet Boisclair's bad luck continued, as the Sept-Iles, QC native surrendered two more goals - to Milroy that went five-hole, and Shaun Norrie that deflected in off his own defender.
Durocher pulled his goalie for the second time in the game and inserted rookie Daniel Manzato, who ironically was displaced in the Victoriaville nets during the their second-round playoff series against Hull. But he put Boisclair back in for the final 1:27.
"The future of our team is Manzato, so I was just thinking that he deserved to be there at 6-1 to get some experience," said Durocher, who has compiled a record of 82-47-8 since taking the coaching job two years ago. "I brought back Boisclair, because he deserved to be there in the end and not on the bench."
The Tigres, as they had done in the tie-breaker and semi-finals, rallied with two late goals by Lombardi and Mallette but it was too late this time.
"We were missing a little juice at the end and we just couldn't get it," said Lombardi, who led all scorers at the tournament with nine points off two goals and seven assists. "We're all proud of ourselves and everything we accomplished."
Groulx became just the first player on a losing team to win the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as tournament MVP, since Guelph goaltender Chris Madden won it in 1998. The 20-year-old had seven points.
"It's not really the award I wanted, I wanted the big cup," said Groulx, a free agent who will try to translate his Memorial Cup success into an NHL contract. "It's a good way to end my junior career. I think I had a good year and it's looking good for next year. My agent has been talking to a few teams and we're looking forward to signing a contract somewhere."
Kootenay's win gives the WHL three of the last five Memorial Cups and the league's second straight.
The Tigres' dream of being the first team to go 0-2 and win the title died, but they gave the QMJHL it's third consecutive Cup finalist.
NOTES: The tournament All-Star Team members were: Defencemen Groulx and Kevin Dallman (Guelph), forwards Lombardi, Sinclair and Cory Pecker (Erie) and Erie Otters goalie T.J. Aceti.
Summary
GUELPH, Ont. (CP) -- Memorial Cup final Sunday afternoon:
First Period
1. Kootenay, Fischer (Hamula, Stoll) 11:35
2. Kootenay, Agarunov (Fischer) 17:59
Penalties -- Lombardi Vic (boarding) 8:35, Fischer Ktn (hooking) 14:04.
Second Period
3. Victoriaville, Mallette (Deev, Lombardi) 3:26
4. Kootenay, Sinclair (Dicaire, Svatos) 5:16
5. Kootenay, Sinclair (Plihal) 9:48
Penalties -- Pottie Vic, Norrie Ktn (fighting) 12:16.
Third Period
6. Kootenay, Milroy (Stoll, Hamula) 7:42
7. Kootenay, Norrie, (Makway, Agarunov) 9:22
8. Victoriaville, Lombardi (Snowball) 17:17
9. Victoriaville, Mallette (Groulx, Lombardi) 19:19 (pp)
Penalties -- Pottie Vic (roughing) 0:49, Sheen Ktn (slashing, misconduct) 14:53, Plihal Ktn (holding) 18:33.
Shots on goal by Victoriaville 6 15 2--23
Kootenay 11 13 16--40
Goal (shots-saves) -- Victoriaville: Boisclair (L,3-3) (start, 12:16 second, 18:33 third) (36-30), Manzato (9:48 second, 9:22 third) (4-4); Kootenay: Boxma (W,3-1).
Power plays (goals-chances) -- Victoriaville: 1-3; Kootenay: 0-2.
Referee -- Francois St. Laurent. Linesmen -- Brent Holdsworth, Kevin Hastings.