2008 Memorial Cup
The 2008 Memorial Cup was played in May 2008 in Kitchener, Ontario at the Memorial Auditorium. It was the 90th annual Memorial Cup competition and determined the major junior ice hockey champion of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). Kitchener defeated competing bids from Oshawa, Saginaw, London, Sarnia and Kingston to host the Memorial Cup, with the official announcement being made on May 10, 2007. The tournament was competed between the WHL champion Spokane Chiefs, the QMJHL champion Gatineau Olympiques, the Kitchener Rangers as host of the tournament and OHL champions, and the OHL representative Belleville Bulls, who earned their place by reaching the OHL finals against Kitchener. The Memorial Cup tournament is a four team tournament with a round-robin format.
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Venue(s) | Kitchener Memorial Auditorium Kitchener, Ontario |
| Dates | May 16–25, 2008 |
| Teams | 4 |
| Host team | Kitchener Rangers (OHL) |
| TV partner(s) |
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| Final positions | |
| Champions | Spokane Chiefs (WHL) (2nd title) |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Games played | 8 |
| Attendance | 53,545 (6,693 per game) |
The tournament began on May 16, 2008, with a round-robin game between Gatineau and Kitchener and ended on May 25, 2008, with the Spokane Chiefs defeating the Kitchener Rangers 4–1 in the championship game to win the Memorial Cup. As of 2023, this is the last Memorial Cup won by an American team; only Spokane (twice) and Portland (twice) have taken the Cup to the US.
A memorable moment of the tournament occurred immediately following the championship game. As Spokane Chiefs captain Chris Bruton was about to hand the trophy to teammate Trevor Glass, the cup detached from the base and fell to the ice. This was not the original Memorial Cup, which resides at the Hockey Hall of Fame, but a replica.