The Acadie-Bathurst Titan’s Memorial Cup victory last weekend in Regina and the Las Vegas pre-game show just prior to last Monday's Stanley Cup opener between the Golden Knights and Washington Capitals in “Sin City” were the most talked about topics at local sports watering holes across the Island this past week.
The Titan were without a doubt the best team at the Memorial Cup tournament and their championship game 3-0 victory was most deserving; in fact, in every game the Titan outplayed and outshot each opponent and even in their only loss to Hamilton, they outplayed and outshot Hamilton but the Ontario goalie stole the show.
The Cup victory was a great one for the Quebec league and, when one considers the fact that the Charlottetown junior Islanders forced Blainville-Boisbriand Armada to seven games, and the Titan won the Quebec championship in seven games over the Armada, it tells me that the Charlottetown Islanders would not have looked out of place in the national junior hockey tournament. It also suggests that the Islanders could be one of the two Quebec teams in the Memorial Cup at Halifax next spring.
Summerside's Noah Dobson who was a standout on the Titan blue-line at the Memorial Cup
and if he wasn't on every NHL team's radar for the upcoming NHL draft, he certainly is now. He's a likely top 10 candidate for sure.
The other sports hot topic had to be the pre-game opening ceremony in Las Vegas last Monday night which looked like the opening night of a classic MGM movie launch, complete with castles, armoured Knights against villians in a battle scene, a terrific rendition of the U.S. national anthem topped off with Gladys Knight singing God Bless America, the hit written by Irving Berlin and made famous by Kate Smith and Philadelphia Flyers during their playoff runs 40 years ago. The game also featured cameo appearances by well-known boxing announcer Michael Buffer and illusionist Chriss Angel. It was quite a spectacle. It was without a doubt one of the most entertaining pre-game shows ever, proving once again that when it comes to entertainment, Las Vegas is tops.
A look back
Since we stepped back a little in time to reference the Philadelphia Flyers of the mid-1970s vintage, how about a little look back at the local junior A Maritime championship team from the same era the Sherwood-Parkdale Metros.
The present-day Sherwood-Parkdale junior B Metros under head coach Alex Smith tried and did capture some of the Metros’ past glory as he led the A&S Sherwood-Parkdale Metros to the Island championship only to lose in the final to the Western Red Wings.
This year's junior B runners-up were sponsored by A&S Scrap Metals and Al Stewart, ironically the same outfit that sponsored the Charlottetown Abbies, the bitter rivals of the 1970s Metros. Head coach Alex Smith's father, Andy, grandfather Don Smith and his uncle, Peter Smith, are also co-sponsors of today's Metros but ironically the union of Al Stewart and the Smith family is a combination I would not have believed 40 years ago. Isn't it great that sports help build lasting friendships.
The Sherwood-Parkdale Metros dumped the Abbies on the road to the Maritime championship and 1979 Centennnial Cup with a club that included Dave and Doug Currie, Danny Revell, Dunstan Carroll, Ron Carragher, defenceman Steve Gallant and the electrifying Robert “Greasy” Gallant, among others. Under head coach Angie Carroll, the Metros were a great draw throughout the region and on the Island against arch-rivals Charlottetown Abbies and Summerside Caps.
The 2018 version of the Metros will have returning standouts like standout defenceman Zach Ladner, goaltender Tanner Lund, captain and team leader Cody McPhee plus Colin Koughan, Jordon Birt, Barrington Duffy, Connor Gray, Dylan MacDonald, Taylor Runighan, Nick Currie, Cale Pierce, Ryan Boswell, Calen McInnis and Alex Hall. Head coach Alex Smith will be back in some capacity next year but will take a much lesser role due to work commitments but he is confident that coaches Brandon Birt and Harrison Wood will do a great job.
On the diamond
In local baseball, the Charlottetown junior baseball Islanders are on the road today but are in Summerside Sunday at noon in a doubleheader at Queen Elizabeth Diamond against Saint John. Johnny Arsenault will start one of the games for the Islanders who have plenty of Summerside players in their lineup.
Birthday candles
One of Charlottetown's most popular old-timer hockey players and an ex-UNB regular Gordon Tweedy turns the big 69 again on Monday. When big Gord was at his best, players on both sides had to have their heads up. Let's hope there many birthdays for the big fella.
On the track
Live harness racing continues tonight at the Charlottetown track with an 11-dash card, post time 6 p.m. Euchred has been assigned the outside post in the five-horse $2,650 field against the likes of Rose Run Quest, Czar Seelster, Mr Irresistible and Tobinator. There's also the $2,350 Preferred class with Donnie MacNeill's crowd favourite Mick Dundee and the $1,700 class where horseman of the year Mickey Gallant sends out his top pacer Zero Rate. It's a great card.
On Sunday afternoon, racing starts at 1 p.m. at Summerside and the $2,100 top class goes in Race 9 where top driver Walter Cheverie and George Riley's Heart and Soul loom as the favourite.
Yonkers, New York, is dark until next Saturday but in New York Sire Stake action last week, Ozzie MacKay's Ubettergo Go scorched the Saratoga half-mile track in 1:52.3 in a $60,000 stake for three-year-old fillies for driver Mark MacDonald.
At Pocono last week, Maritime-bred Rancousy (Western Paradise) took a new record of 1:49 and change.
At Mohawk tonight, many of the best three year olds in North America are in action in the Somebeachsomestakes as they get ready for the three-year-old North America Cup eliminations. It's a great card.
We saw Southern Governor at the race track last Thursday night, not the horse that Mike MacDonald raced in the 1980s but none other than Frank Lewis, one of the most popular lieutenant governors ever in this province. His many friends will be happy to learn that He looked great.
Fred MacDonald’s column appears every Saturday in The Guardian. He can be reached at [email protected].
