The Memorial Cup begins Friday May 26 and will run until June 4. Four teams from the three major junior hockey leagues in Canada will be competing in Kamloops for the highly-prestigious trophy.
Team previews will be published in four parts between May 23-26, and will showcase the teams and players attending the 2023 Memorial Cup.
For the first time in 17 years, the Peterborough Petes are the Ontario Hockey League (OHL) champions and will attend the Memorial Cup.
The underdog Petes finished the OHL season 10th overall (35-29-2) and went on to defeat the top two teams in the playoffs en route to the final, where they defeated the London Knights in six games.
After being shutout in the first game of the series, the Petes went on to win three in a row and take a commanding 3-1 series lead.
The lost game five 4-1, but the Petes came back in game six and Tucker Robertson scored the game-winning goal halfway through the third period to break the 1-1 draw and give the Petes an eventual 2-1 win.
Michael Simpson stopped 36 of 37 shots in the series clincher and was named the recipient of the Wayne Gretzky 99 Award as the Most Valuable Player of the 2023 OHL playoffs.
Simpson finished the playoffs with a 16-7 record, a .918 save percentage and two 50-save performances in the finals. He is the first OHL goaltender since 2001 to be a recipient of the award.
Before beating the Knights in the final, the Petes beat the Sudbury Wolves, upset the top-seed Ottawa 67’s and came back from down 3-2 against the high-powered North Bay Battalion on their way to lifting the trophy.
This is the 10th OHL championship for the Petes and their first trip to the Memorial Cup since 2006, which is coincidentally the last time the Quebec Remparts, who are also attending this year's Memorial Cup, won the tournament.
Despite nine previous trips to the Memorial Cup, The Petes only have one Memorial Cup victory to their name and it came in 1979.
If they want to win the tournament for a second time, they'll need Simpson to stay hot between the pipes.
They'll also lean heavily on a pair of forwards in their top scorer, Seattle Kraken prospect Tucker Robertson, as well as New York Rangers prospect and Canadian World Junior standout Brennan Othmann.
Their first game is 3 pm on Saturday, May 27, against the WHL champion Seattle Thunderbirds.
