{"id":76577,"date":"2016-05-30T04:31:48","date_gmt":"2016-05-30T08:31:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=76577"},"modified":"2016-05-30T04:33:46","modified_gmt":"2016-05-30T08:33:46","slug":"matthew-tkachuk-plays-overtime-hero-knights-beat-huskies-win-memorial-cup","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2016\/05\/30\/matthew-tkachuk-plays-overtime-hero-knights-beat-huskies-win-memorial-cup\/","title":{"rendered":"Matthew Tkachuk plays overtime hero, Knights beat Huskies to win Memorial Cup"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\u201cWe<\/a>
\u201cWe just want to be remembered just as much as that ’05 Memorial Cup team,\u201d said Tkachuk. \u201cThat was the first one to win in London.\u201d (Instagram photo<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

RED DEER, Alta.\u2014Matthew Tkachuk didn’t care who scored the winning goal. All that mattered was that the London Knights could call themselves the best team in the Canadian Hockey League.<\/p>\n

Tkachuk was credited with the winner 7:49 into overtime as the Knights captured the 2016 Memorial Cup on Sunday by downing the Rouyn-Noranda Huskies 3-2.<\/p>\n

A grinning Tkachuk, who had been playing on a sprained ankle suffered during the OHL championship, said the goal may not have even been his.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt actually might have hit off (Christian Dvorak’s) back, it changed directions a little bit, doesn’t matter, we’ll both take it,\u201d said the draft-eligible forward.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt something hit me but I don’t really care, winning’s all that matters,\u201d said Dvorak.<\/p>\n

A Memorial Cup victory was fitting for the Knights, who dominated the competition, first in the OHL playoffs and then by going undefeated at this year’s tournament. The last time they suffered defeat was April 1.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo win so many games in a row through the playoffs and this tournament is a credit to these guys because we’re playing good teams,\u201d said coach Dale Hunter. \u201cThese are all the top-end teams. To go 17 in a row is unheard of. Likely never be repeated.\u201d<\/p>\n

It’s London’s second Memorial Cup in franchise history. Its other came in 2005, when the team was led by Corey Perry.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe just want to be remembered just as much as that ’05 Memorial Cup team,\u201d said Tkachuk. \u201cThat was the first one to win in London.\u201d<\/p>\n

Most of the Knights celebrated the victory on the ice with friends and family. Finnish defenceman Olli Juolevi skated around the ice on a cell phone talking to people back home while tournament MVP and CHL player of the year Mitch Marner captured the moment with a camera strapped to his chest.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey gave me a GoPro to wear. We’ll see what kind of footage I can get,\u201d said Marner, who finished with 14 points in four games to lead all skaters.<\/p>\n

Tkachuk and Dvorak scored for the Knights in regulation while Tyler Parsons made 29 saves. Dvorak’s goal was his tournament-leading seventh, a proper way to end his junior career as he’s expected to join the Arizona Coyotes organization next season.<\/p>\n

\u201cUnbelievable. No words for it, what else could you ask for? To go out as a Memorial Cup champion is the best way to go out,\u201d said Dvorak.<\/p>\n

Francis Perron and Julien Nantel scored for the Huskies. Chase Marchand stopped 30-of-33 shots.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe could have won that game. It happened that we lost, but we’re still really proud of what we did,\u201d said Perron. \u201cIt was a such a great journey.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a big challenge for us today, but we were confident to win this game,\u201d said Huskies coach Gilles Bouchard. \u201cOur players played like champions, so I’m very proud of the team today.\u201d<\/p>\n

London and Rouyn-Noranda were two of the top offensive teams in the CHL this season, but it was a goaltending battle in the finals.<\/p>\n

\u201cTheir goalie was hot, you have to give him credit,\u201d said Hunter.<\/p>\n

\u201c(Marchand) played unbelievable tonight,\u201d said Parsons, who is the third-ranked North American goalie heading into this year’s NHL Draft. \u201cIt’s sad to see it end that way for him but it’s great for us to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Knights led 11-6 in shots after 20 minutes, but failed to score a first-period goal for the first time all tournament. Rouyn-Noranda seemed to have many of the 7,384 fans at Enmax Centrium rooting in its favour even though the Huskies eliminated the host Red Deer Rebels in the semifinal.<\/p>\n

Tkachuk finally opened the scoring with 10:41 to play in the second, tipping in a saucer pass out of the air from Marner. The lead only lasted 15 seconds as Perron beat Parsons from the goal crease off a pretty feed from Timo Meier, who circled the net before finding his captain.<\/p>\n

Nantel scored 9:13 into the third off a pass from Fortin to give the Huskies a 2-1 lead and London’s first deficit of the entire tournament.<\/p>\n

Dvorak came through for the Knights with the tying goal with 4:11 to play, taking a back-hand pass from Aaron Berisha and putting it blocker side on Marchand.<\/p>\n

Hunter said Tkachuk’s winner gave him flashbacks to 11 years ago when London was on top of the junior hockey world.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt’s hard enough to get here, but it’s a lot harder to win it,\u201d Hunter said. \u201cTo come here and win four straight is unbelievable, just like 2005.\u201d<\/p>\n

Notes: The OHL’s Windsor Spitfires will host the 2017 Memorial Cup.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RED DEER, Alta.\u2014Matthew Tkachuk didn’t care who scored the winning goal. All that mattered was that the London Knights could …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":76578,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1482,44],"tags":[10957,10956,10955,10958,10954],"class_list":["post-76577","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-breaking","category-sports","tag-huskies","tag-knights","tag-matthew-tkachuk","tag-memorial-cup","tag-tkachuk","mauthors-kyle-cicerella","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76577","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76577"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76577\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76578"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76577"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76577"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76577"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}