Posted: Tue May 16, 2006 2:09 pm
The Memorial Cup opening ceremonies will be twice as nice this weekend, with two nights of official opening festivities planned to welcome fans and players from across Canada.
That's good news for fans of the Moncton Wildcats, who want to see their beloved team participate in opening ceremonies.
The Wildcats, QMJH league champions, don't play their first game of the tournament until Saturday, the second night of the tournament. They will face off against the Vancouver Giants.
The 10-day tournament opens with a game between the OHL champion Peterborough Petes and Quebec Remparts, who take the host spot in the tournament since being defeated by the Wildcats on Sunday.
Bill Whalen, chairman of the Cup's marketing and events committee, said yesterday the organizing committee felt all four teams needed a big welcome and celebration.
"We wanted to do something special for the first time each of the four teams played," he said. "And particularly because the Wildcats are playing the second night."
The two games will open at 7:20 p.m. when the teams warm-up for 15 minutes. After some ice resurfacing, the official pageantry begins at 7:45 p.m. when the Memorial Cup will be skated into the arena with Wildcats alumni and a welcome from league officials.
Also on hand will be a marching band, and members of the Royal Canadian Legion to celebrate the tournament's theme "For Honour, For Glory."
The national anthem and ceremonial puck-drop will be broadcast live on television both nights, shortly after 8 p.m.
Bill Schurman, the Wildcats' general manager, said the Wildcats won't be playing the first night because they won the QMJHL championship.
"We've spent 10 years trying to be the league champions and we want to take every benefit and we're not going to have our team called anything less," he said.
The Memorial Cup host duties subsequently fall to the Quebec Remparts, the other QMJHL team in the tournament.
And while the tournament schedule means all four teams play each other, being QMJHL champion means at least one more day of rest than the host team who start the tournament Friday.
No matter which team you're rooting for - and for the record it should be the Moncton Wildcats - the Memorial Cup will welcome fans from across Canada.
The participating teams, and their fans, are travelling thousands of cumulative kilometres to Moncton to watch the Memorial Cup be awarded in New Brunswick for the first time.
Local fans still angling for tickets aren't totally out of luck. There were about 300 ticket packages left yesterday afternoon - 150 standing-room only and 150 single-seats, Schurman said.
