The four best Major Junior hockey clubs in Canada are ready to battle to be the best in the country at the 2008 Memorial Cup championship in Kitchener.
While the WHL representative (the Spokane Chiefs) and the QMJHL representative (the Gatineau Olympiques) don't feature any local Greater Sudbury connections, the two clubs from the OHL (the Kitchener Rangers and the Belleville Bulls) certainly do, and will give fans something to cheer about during the week of May 16 to 25.
The host club, Kitchener, which also won the OHL title after seven hard-fought games against Belleville, employs Azilda boy Mike Mascioli as their grinder, mucker, and general big pest.
Mascioli rose to the challenge this season in the OHL after not making the team in 2006-07. In the regular season, the fiery forward recorded six goals, 20 points, 125 penalty minutes and a +16 rating in 50 games.
The scrappy, five-foot-ten, 185-pound winger also engaged in some of the more memorable fist fights during the season, including two wild tilts in the game Kitchener played in Sudbury.
Mascioli took on the two Sudbury Wolves resident tough guys - Marco Maggio and Tyler Sheldrake - and asserted himself quite well.
In the post season, Mascioli has been the perfect role player, getting deep under the skin of opponents and also supplying some scoring. In 20 playoff games, Mascioli picked up three goals, four points and 37 penalty minutes.
Mascioli showed his spark in the league final against Belleville, a spark which started a small fire.
In Game two at the Belleville Yardmen Arena, Mascioli dropped the gloves with Stephen Blunden and pounded him relentlessly in the late stages of the game. After the fight, a Belleville player threw Mascioli's jersey into the stands where Belleville fans lit it on fire and burned a small hole in it before it was taken by Kitchener fans.
You know you're doing a stand-up job as a pest when the other team's fans are so enraged by your antics that the first chance they get to retaliate, they go overboard.
At least no one tried to wipe their behind with the jersey.
Mascioli is going to be a key figure in the Ranger's bid to win their first Memorial Cup since 2003. He has the brawn and grit level to challenge the big western boys and the skill and tact to take on the Quebec boys.
I hope Sudbury hockey fans will be cheering for him.
As for the Bulls - who showed some of the gutsiest play ever by coming back from a 3-0 deficit against Kitchener to make a series out of the OHL final before losing in the seventh game - they feature former Wolves players Andrew Self and Keaton Turkiewicz.
Yes, I know these Sudbury connections are stretching it a bit, but that's what the playoffs are all about - stretching your resources until they almost snap.
Most local fans will vividly remember Self, as he put forth one of the most inspiring efforts ever by a Wolves player in the playoffs.
Self, though not overly gifted and skilled, came alive on a line with Justin Donati and Nick Foligno, and supplied muscle and scoring for Sudbury in 2007 as they marched all the way to the OHL final before losing in six, hotly contested games to Plymouth.
The six-foot-three, 200-pound forward tallied eight goals, including three game winners, and 20 points in 21 games last season with the Wolves.
This year, Self started at Carleton University before going back to Belleville as a free agent overage player.
He recorded 38 points in 56 regular season games before producing five goals and 14 points in 21 playoff games with Belleville this season.
The other player on Belleville is former Wolves player Turkiewicz, who played 41 games for Sudbury in the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons before being sent to Windsor as part of a package for Akim Aliu.
Turkiewicz scored 23 goals and 41 points in 67 regular season games this season, before generating six goals and 15 points in 21 playoff games.
Both players will also be key cogs in Belleville's attempt to win their first ever Memorial Cup championship.
Maybe fans can, to a lesser extent, cheer for these two fine lads as well.
Regardless of the eventual outcome, the Memorial Cup is always full of great action and true hockey fans will appreciate the fact all the games will be aired on Rogers Sportsnet.
Tonight, fans can catch Kitchener versus Gatineau at 7 p.m.
Here's a look at the rest of the schedule involving
Kitchener and Belleville:
- Sat., May 17: Belleville versus Spokane at 4 p.m.
- Sun., May 18: Kitchener versus Spokane at 4:30 pm.
- Mon., May 19: Belleville versus Gatineau at 7 pm.
- Wed., May 21: Kitchener versus Belleville at 7 p.m.
- The semifinal match goes Fri., May 23 at 7 p.m.
- The Memorial Cup final takes place Sun., May 25 at 4:30
p.m.
