McKenna and Medicine Hat open Memorial Cup against host Rimouski on TSN
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Gavin McKenna and the Western Hockey League champion Medicine Hat Tigers take on the Rimouski Oceanic as the Memorial Cup tournament opens on Friday night.
The Tigers qualified for the tournament after defeating the Spokane Chiefs in five games to win the Ed Chynoweth Cup, while Rimouski is the host team after coming up short against the Moncton Wildcats in the QMJHL Final.
Medicine Hat finished the regular season with the second-best record in the WHL at 47-17-4 and were the league's highest scoring team with 300 goals.
The Tigers entered the playoffs on a 10-game winning streak to narrowly beat out the Calgary Hitmen for top spot in the Central Division and first place in the Eastern Conference and carried their hot play into the playoffs.
Medicine Hat cruised through the first three rounds of the playoffs, only losing one game.
McKenna was the star of the entire Canadian Hockey League during this stretch, leading the Tigers with nine goals and 38 points in 16 playoff games.
Entering the playoffs, McKenna was on a 40-game point streak, which continued through to the WHL Championship Series, topping off at a modern day CHL record of 54 games before it ended.
The 17-year-old phenom had 41 goals and 138 points during that span and failed to show up on the score sheet only four times this season in games he played.
McKenna won the Four Broncos Trophy as the WHL player of the year, and the Memorial Cup appearance is another feather in his cap after taking home gold medals at the 2024 Under-18 World Championship and Hlinka Gretzky Cup, and appearing for Canada during the 2025 World Juniors.
"I've been on big stages before and I've played with lots of pressure, McKenna told The Canadian Press leading up to the Memorial Cup. "The whole year there's kind of been a spotlight on me, so it's nothing I'm not used to. It's just some more hockey games, is the way I'm looking at it."
The Whitehorse, Yukon, native missed Games 3 and 4 of the WHL Final with an undisclosed injury, but has had a week of rest leading up to the Memorial Cup opener on Friday.
Entering the WHL Final, the Tigers received two tremendous additions to their forward depth when forwards Cayden Lindstrom and Andrew Basha came back from look term injuries.
Lindstrom was drafted fourth overall by the Columbus Blue Jackets in the 2024 NHL Entry Draft, but did not play in the regular season or in the first three rounds of the playoffs while recovering from back surgery.
Basha, a Calgary Flames draft pick, started this season on a torrid pace with nine goals and 29 points in 23 games before an ankle injury knocked him out until the final.
Both players had significant contributions in the final with Lindstrom recording two goals and four points while Basha added three goals and four points.
Defenceman Bryce Pickford was named WHL Playoff MVP after registering 13 goals and 24 points in 18 playoff games, including goals in each of his last seven games.
The 6-foot defenceman is eligible for the 2025 NHL Draft on June 27 and is ranked No. 68 on TSN Director of Scouting Craig Button's most recent draft list.
Rimouski finished the regular season with the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League's second-best record of 46-14-4, behind Moncton.
Despite knowing that they were going to participate in the tournament regardless of how they finished, the Oceanic pushed all their chips on the table this season, picking up last year's MVP Mathieu Cataford before the season and adding leading scorer Jonathan Fauchon and star forward Eriks Mateiko at the trade deadline.
In the playoffs, Rimouski has had some adversity in dealing with injuries, losing star defenceman Spencer Gill for the entirety of the playoffs, while Cataford and Mateiko were in and out of the lineup.
After getting through the first two rounds with only two losses, the Oceanic and Shawinigan Cataractes battled to a seventh game in the QMJHL semifinals that saw Mateiko score the winner in double overtime.
“They’ve learned how to play together without some of their better players,” Button said earlier in the week. “What that does is it forges a strength in them where not only are they going to play hard and smart, but they know they’ll be successful. Even with injuries they never wavered and just kept winning.”
Rimouski was then pitted against the Wildcats, who proceeded to take a 3-0 series lead on the Oceanic. Rimouski was able to battle back to force a sixth game, becoming the first team in QMJHL Final history to do so after going down 3-0, but was unable to complete the comeback.
The team relied heavily on captain Jacob Mathieu with players coming in and out of the lineup throughout the playoffs.
Mathieu, 21, had 41 goals and 68 points in 59 games in the regular season and led the QMJHL in playoff scoring with 17 goals and 31 points in 23 games.
The 5-foot-11 winger has committed to play for Northeastern in the NCAA next season.
"We’ve talked about the whole being greater than the sum of the parts and you need someone who leads by example and determination,” said Button. “Mathieu sets the tone in how they’re going to play and everybody follows. He never waivers and was rewarded by leading the playoffs in scoring.”
The Memorial Cup on TSN continues Saturday when the Easton Cowan and the Ontario Hockey League champion London Knights take on Caleb Desnoyers and the QMJHL champion Wildcats in their tournament opener at 5:30 p.m. ET/2:30 p.m. PT on TSN5, TSN.ca, and the TSN App.