CALGARY — The fireworks erupted in flashes of gold and red. The cheers from the crowd were deafening. All in celebration of the Calgary Hitmen winning the Western Hockey League title Friday night.
Michael Stone scored a pair of goals and Martin Jones made 32 saves as the Hitmen defeated the Tri-City Americans 4-1 before a crowd of 15,335 on Friday night at the Pengrowth Saddledome.
“It wasn’t the prettiest game,” said Calgary coach Mike Williamson, whose team won the Ed Chynoweth Cup for the first time since 1999. “We got outchanced tonight, but Jonesie was incredible and we found a way to score.
“This was a close series. The team that got the timely goals and the saves at the right time won all the games. We certainly didn’t want to leave here and go back to Tri with the momentum they were building. I’m glad we got it done.”
A pair of Prince Albertans — forwards Joel Broda and Tyler
Fiddler — are key members of the Memorial Cup-bound Hitmen. Fiddler scored the final goal Friday.
Calgary, which won the best-of-seven series 4-1, will join the host Brandon Wheat Kings and Ontario Hockey League champion Windsor Spitfires at the Memorial Cup that begins May 14. In the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League final, Moncton and Saint John are tied at two games apiece.
For the Americans, it ends a season that saw them win a third straight U.S. Division title, their first Western Conference title and play in their first WHL final.
“There’s nothing to be ashamed of,” said first-year Tri-City coach Jim Hiller. “There’s everything to be proud of. We talked at the beginning of the season of trying to take this (team) from good to great. In the end, we didn’t reach our ultimate goal, but you have to say that’s a great hockey team and they had a great season. Any time you can say that about a team, you have to feel pretty proud.”
For team captain Jarrett Toll, it’s not quite the way he wanted to end his five-year career in Tri-City.
“It’s frustrating because we are such a better team that what we showed in the series,” Toll said. “We were nervous the first two games. We just didn’t have the experience they did. Hopefully, the guys coming back next year can take that with them. They capitalized on every mistake we made.
“We were picked to not be very good this year and we were the best team in franchise history.”
Tied at 1-1 after the first period, Stone gave the Hitmen a 3-1 lead midway through the second with a pair of goals.
The first came at 6:43 as his shot from the top of the left face-off circle clanked off the crossbar and landed in the net. Stone beat Tri-City goalie Alex Pechurskiy from the right point on the power play at 9:57 to put Hitmen up 3-1.
Fiddler gave the Hitmen a 4-1 lead at 13:34 of the second period as he pickedoff a pass by Brendan Shinnimin in the slot and beat Pechurskiy over his shoulder.
