Welcome to Halifax

While the Halifax Mooseheads have known for 13 months that they will participate in the 2019 Memorial Cup because they were named the host team, the three other teams are now determined as well. The league finals wrapped up last night after the Prince Albert Raiders defeated the Vancouver Giants in overtime of Game 7 to win the Ed Cheynoweth Cup.

So I thought I would do a little preview to get you set up for the tournament. It will run from May 16 to May 26 here in Halifax.

TEAMS
A host club plus the three league champions participate in the 10-day tournament. This year the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies (QMJHL), Guelph Storm (OHL), Prince Albert Raiders (WHL) and our Halifax Mooseheads (hosts) will look to become national junior champions.

HOW THEY GOT HERE
Many people thought that Halifax would take the back door into the tournament as hosts, especially after the team lost their first two playoff games but the Mooseheads rebounded and made it all the way to President Cup finals. The club even showed that they could hang with the top dogs as they defeated the CHL's best Rouyn-Noranda Huskies twice during the last series. They defeated the Quebec Remparts in 7 games, swept the Moncton Wildcats in the quarter-finals, beat the Drummondville Voltigeurs in 6 matches before losing to the Huskies.

The biggest story would have to be the Guelph Storm, who have been the come back kids all playoffs long. The Storm swept the Kitchener Rangers in the first round before finding themselves down 0-3 in the second round to the London Knights which they ended that series in 7 games. Guelph defeated the Saginaw Spirit in 7 games to take the Western conference than pulled off 4 straight wins to finish the Ottawa 67's in 6 matches to get the J. Ross Robertson Cup.

Prince Albert also swept their first round, defeating the Red Deer Rebels in 4 games, then they took down the Saskatoon Blades in 6 matches before dispatching the Edmonton Oil Kings also in 6 to win the Eastern conference title. The Raiders were up 3-1 in the final series before the Vancouver Giants won two straight to force a Game 7 which as I mentioned above went to extra time with Dante Hannoun scoring the game winner.

The Rouyn-Noranda Huskies didn't have an easy time getting out of the opening round either as they defeated the last place Shawinigan Catactes in 6 games but defeated the Victoriaville Tigres and Rimouski Oceanic both in four matches. They won the President Cup in 6 games on Scotiabank Centre ice.


CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL
This is great. The last game will be an exciting one no matter who is in it.

SCHEDULE
We've known for a couple of months the dates and times but now we can put the teams in. Our Mooseheads will take on Prince Albert in the opening game of the tournament on Friday.

May 17   Prince Albert       Halifax              8:00pm/AT
May 18   Rouyn-Noranda   Guelph              4:30pm/AT
May 19   Halifax                 Guelph              8:00pm/AT
May 20   Rouyn-Noranda   Prince Albert    8:00pm/AT
May 21   Guelph                 Prince Albert    8:00pm/AT
May 22   Halifax                Rouyn-Noranda  8:00pm?AT

May 23   Tie-breaker       8:00pm/AT

May 24   Semi final       8:00pm/AT

May 26   Championship      8:00pm/AT

TICKETS
There are still tickets available for the round robin matches. As far as I know you can still get two game packs, there are three options for these all of which include at least one Mooseheads game. Single game tickets are also on sale and have been since April 9, they start as low as $35 plus a ticket Atlantic service charge. You can buy them at the box office, online or by calling 902-451-1221.


GOOD LUCK! It certainly should be #OneToRemember