WHL Portland Winterhawks

Memorial Cup Hockey Championships on Local Television

Published on May 19, 2005 under Western Hockey League (WHL)
Portland Winterhawks News Release


Comcast Northwest has made arrangements with the Canadian Hockey League and Rogers Sportsnet of Canada to show all eight Memorial Cup games from London, Ontario starting this Saturday, May 21, on Comcast CNW-Channel 14.

The first five games of the tournament, which is a "round-robin" format, will be aired live on CNW-14. The last three games will be aired by tape and delay due to other programming conflicts.

Here is a complete schedule of televised games:

Memorial Cup on CNW14 Air Times - All Times are Portland, Pacific Daylight Time:

Saturday, May 21 - Rimouski vs. London - 4:00 p.m.

Sunday, May 22 - Ottawa vs. Kelowna - 1:00 p.m.

Monday, May 23 - London vs. Kelowna - 4:00 p.m.

Tuesday, May 24 - Ottawa vs. Rimouski - 4:00 p.m.

Wednesday, May 25 - Kelowna vs. Rimouski - 4:00 p.m.

Thursday, May 26 - London vs. Ottawa - 4:00 p.m.

Friday, May 27 - Tiebreaker Game, If necessary - 7:00 p.m. **

Saturday, May 28 - Semi-Final Game - 6:30 p.m. **

Sunday, May 29 - Championship Game - 6:00 p.m. **

** - Tape and Delayed for local airing

CNW-14 aired six live telecasts of Portland Winter Hawks' games from the Rose Garden this past season. Comcast also aired numerous Western Hockey League regular season games and playoff games in an agreement with Shaw Cable Canada. Portland area hockey fans were treated to great coverage of the Kelowna Rockets' run to the Western Hockey League championship. All but one game of the league championship series between Kelowna and the Brandon Wheat Kings was shown in the Portland market.

"We got tremendous response from viewers regarding our WHL coverage," said Comcast local programming manager Ken Lotka today. "We always try to give our local viewers what they want when there is clear demand and this time we were able to pull it off," Lotka said.

Comcast CNW-Channel 14 has established quite a following among local sports fans by carrying tape and delayed broadcasts of Portland Trailblazer games, University of Oregon football and basketball, and many other sporting events of local interest.

The Memorial Cup is one of the oldest trophies in sports, originally awarded in 1919 to honor the men and women who made the supreme sacrifice in World War I. It is the "Final Four of Amateur Hockey" and is held on a rotating basis between the three leagues, and 56 teams, that compete for the Cup every year, including the Portland Winter Hawks. The Hawks won the Memorial Cup in 1983 in Portland and in 1998 in Spokane.

This year's Memorial Cup field features Kelowna, the Rimouski Oceanic of the Quebec Hockey League, and the Ottawa 67's and London Knights of the Ontario Hockey League. Kelowna is the defending Memorial Cup champions, winning as the host team in 2004 in Kelowna. Rimouski features the most exciting young player in the world, forward Sydney Crosby, who amassed 31 points in 13 playoff games after leading the entire CHL in scoring during the regular season with 66 goals and 102 assists for 168 points in 62 games. Crosby would have been a guaranteed number one overall selection in this summer's NHL draft had it not been cancelled due to the ongoing NHL dispute between the owners and the player's association. The London Knights are the host team of the tournament, but they also won the Ontario League championship. The Knights set the all time CHL record by starting the 2004-05 season with 31 straight games without a loss. London finished the regular season with a (59-7-2-0) record and then went (16-2) in the playoffs, beating Ottawa in five games to win the Ontario League championship. Ottawa automatically received the fourth berth in the tournament for reaching the league championship series.

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