Saginaw crushes Moose Jaw, setting up dream Memorial Cup final vs rival London

The Saginaw Spirit were not going to let Moose Jaw stand in their way of one last shot at the London Knights.

The Memorial Cup hosts crushed the Warriors 7-1 in Friday’s semi-final to reach the championship game.

They will face London for a 12th time this season Sunday night.

“We want to play them (London) again. Like they have our number it’s no secret. We have a lot of guys in the room that solve Rubik's cubes, but we can't beat London. So we're going to have to try to figure try that one out going into going into Sunday,” said Spirit head coach Chris Lazary. 

The score was tied 1-1 after twenty minutes, but the Spirit poured in five goals in the span of 12:31 in the second period to take a 6-1 lead heading into the third.

The game was never in doubt in the third.

It sets up a final for organizers could only have dreamed. Wednesday had an amazing atmosphere in the Dow Event Center, and the product on the ice matched the energy in the building.

“To be able to have a final game against the London Knights, the number one team in junior hockey, what a dream come true for all of us. This is this has been a dream 22 years. We've been a franchise here in Saginaw. And you know, we dreamed that someday we'd be playing against the London Knights [at the Cup final], an iconic franchise, is really an amazing thing,” said Spirit President Craig Goslin. 

It will no doubt be replicated Sunday.

Two evenly matched teams, and now rivals meeting on a national stage for junior hockey supremacy.

The Saginaw Spirit crushed the Moose Jaw Warriors 7-1 in the Memorial Cup semi-finals on May 31, 2024. (Source: Canadian Hockey League)

“A lot of games are coming down to the third period, and are one-goal games,” said Knights forward Max McCue. “It’s just who gets the bounce late. Fortunately, seven of those 11 times [we played against Saginaw], we’ve got the bounce late.”

London goaltender Michael Simpson was unaware London had won seven of the 11 previous meetings.

“They always play a hard game as they are a really good team,” said Simpson. “It’s kind of a coin flip at times, but if we stick to our game I know we usually end up in the right spot.”

It will be a sellout crowd with Saginaw fans cheering on their home team, but London will be represented with plenty of green and gold in the stands as well.

“Last time their crowd was going and it was a really fun game to play in,” said Knights forward Kaleb Lawrence. “You could tell they (Saginaw) really fed off that energy, but we’ll be ready to go against their team and their crowd.”

London will look for the third Memorial Cup title in franchise history, while Saginaw will try for its first.

No matter the result Sunday, the Ontario Hockey League will produce its first winner since the Windsor Spitfires in 2017.