Rematch Gives Coaches Pause

The Guelph Storm withstood more than 72 minutes of do-or-die hockey Saturday afternoon.

The Portland Winter Hawks, winners of eight straight postseason games, have been off since Thursday night.

But it doesn’t matter, Winter Hawks coach Brent Peterson said.

“When you get 24 hours of rest …. How many times to do you play two games in two nights in the playoffs? They’re fine,” Peterson said of his opponent’s endurance.

Today’s Memorial Cup final will be a rematch of last Sunday’s game. The Winter Hawks, regarded as the No. 1 team in the country, won 6-2.

Still, Peterson takes caution as the Portland franchise attempts to win its first Cup since 1983.

“There’s not a favorite when you get down to this,” Peterson said. “The four best teams started.”

Guelph, meanwhile, won the Cup seven times when the franchise was called the Toronto Marlboros. Its last title came in 1975.

“I think for the next few minutes we’re going to enjoy this one first,” said Storm coach George Burnett, moments after his team eliminated the Chiefs Saturday in sudden-death overtime. “They’re (Portland) a tremendously well-balanced team, speed, skill. We gotta be looking forward to tomorrow.”

Getting noticed

As Memorial Cup goaltenders go, Portland’s Brent Belecki and Guelph’s Chris Madden might be undrafted, but they certainly aren’t unappreciated.

Spokane’s David Haun, by contrast, goes virtually unnoticed.

But the Chiefs would have been in dire straits without his emergence in the playoffs - and for the second time in the tournament Saturday, the little 19-year-old came away with one of the three stars for a solid performance in the overtime loss to Guelph.

Haun turned back barely half as many shots as Madden - 27 - but had some big saves early when Guelph threatened to turn the game into a rout.

“Maybe this opened a few doors for me,” said Haun, who is also undrafted. “I thought I played to the best of my ability. Playing against goalies like these gave me something to challenge myself and I couldn’t ask for anything more than that.”

Second to none

Madden may have had more action than Haun, but he didn’t think it was that much tougher, thanks to his friends up front.

“Even though we did give up 50 some shots, we didn’t give them second chances,” he said. “The guys were not leaving the rebounds, not giving them too many sticks for tip shots. We gave them a lot of first chances but mostly from off angles, nothing too tight.”

Opposite end

After having shots rifled at him all afternoon, Madden didn’t think the Storm’s winning play would ever reach the goal.

“You could see the puck, it looked like it was slow motion where I was standing,” he said. “The puck just kind of drifted through and nobody got their stick on it. It’s just something that happens. Lindsay (Plunkett) was there, he just did his job and banged it home.”

He saw no fault.

“Every game, there’s somebody alone in front of the net,” he said. “It’s just a matter if the pass can get to the guy.”

Mighty good seat

Anaheim Mighty Ducks coach Pierre Page attended Saturday’s game and as luck would have it, he was seated next to the mother of the Guelph Storm’s stellar center Manny Malhotra.

“She introduced herself, and I noticed she had a French accent,” Page said. “She’s from Quebec City and it turned out she’s Malhotra’s mother.”

Malhotra is being regarded as a potential top-10 pick in June’s National Hockey League Entry Draft.

“He catches your eye,” Page said, “but he’s not playing as well as he has in other games.”

Going south

The first time a host team was granted a berth in the Memorial Cup was 1983, when Portland was the first U.S. host city.

The Winter Hawks, who lost to Lethbridge in the WHL finals that year, became the first U.S.-based team to win the Cup, beating Oshawa of the OHL 8-3 in the final.

The tournament was in Seattle in 1992, with the Thunderbirds falling in the semifinals and Kamloops winning the title.

By the book

That’s book, singular. Next year, the three CHL members should be governed by the same rule book.

CHL president David Branch announced at the Presidents Luncheon that the Ontario, Quebec and Western Leagues plan to adopt the National Hockey League playing rules for the 1998-99 season, “except for a few areas where we can be more stringent.”

Ice chips

The semifinal winner has lost in the championship game the last five years and is 6-12 in tournaments in which that format was used… . Average attendance is just under 9,000 a game. The Cup record is 9,961 for a four-game tournament in Montreal in 1973… . Today’s game is sold out but will be shown on KAYU-Fox 28.