Madden Coveted A Different Trophy
Most Valuable Player
The Memorial Cup awards ceremony didn’t follow the script and Chris Madden was left to stand in the corner to await a consolation prize as the Portland Winter Hawks celebrated one of the most coveted prizes in Canada.
The Guelph Storm goaltender was named the winner of the Conn Stafford Smythe Trophy as the Most Outstanding Player of the 9-day junior hockey championship tournament.
The presentation was made after the Winter Hawks received the Cup and skated around the ice at the Arena Sunday afternoon.
“Right now I’d rather give up any personal trophy for the team one,” he said. “I guess maybe in time, I can look back and enjoy this year.”
For the second straight game, Madden made more than 50 saves, but this time, he had to watch helplessly as the other team celebrated an overtime goal.
“Madden was unbelievable,” Portland coach Brent Peterson said. “Fifty-six shots. I mean, how many do you need? And we have some good snipers.”
Madden made 52 saves against Portland, one more than he made 24 hours earlier when the Storm beat the Spokane Chiefs 2-1 in overtime in the semifinals.
“He had a great playoffs and a wonderful week,” Guelph coach George Burnett said. “He gives us a chance to win every night. He’s been given a lot of credit but he’s very worthy of it.”
But, in his opinion, not right now.
“Maybe later,” he said. “Right now I’ll go in the room, sit down with the guys and reflect on the fun we did have. We had a good week here. One goal in overtime to a great team, I guess it’s something we’ll have to live with.”
Madden also received the Leighton “Hap” Emms Trophy as the Most Outstanding Goaltender and was the goalie on the Memorial Cup All-Star team.
It was quite an accomplishment for Madden, who was pulled early in the third period of Guelph’s first game, a 6-2 loss to Portland last Sunday.
“We’re a hard working team,” he said. “We tried to be the hardest working team in the OHL all year. We wanted to prove that here. I think we did. We came back. We worked hard every night. The first night got away from us. Tonight it wasn’t because of a loss of effort.”
Andrej Podkonicky of Portland picked up the Ed Chynoweth Award as the top scorer in the tournament. He had seven goals, one short of the tournament record. Among those who have scored eight goals in the Memorial Cup is former Spokane Chief Pat Falloon, who was also MVP in 1991 when the Chiefs won.
The George H. Parsons Trophy for the player who best exemplifies the qualities of sportsmanship, character and skill in the Memorial Cup went to Manny Malhotra of Guelph.
Podkonicky and Malhotra made the all-star team, along with Portland’s Marian Hossa and defensemen Brad Ferrence of Spokane and Francis Lessard of Val-d’Or.