Vancouver Giants Win Memorial Cup

The Vancouver Giants won the 2007 Memorial Cup in front of a hometown crowd as they defeated the Medicine Hat Tigers 3-1 in the Championship game on Sunday, May 27th at Pacific Coliseum in Vancouver, B.C.

Hosting the Memorial Cup in Canada's third largest city was a huge success, as Vancouver set a new attendance record after just 7 matches.

The three major junior hockey leagues - the WHL, OHL and QMJHL - many of the franchises and the Memorial Cup itself are so incredibly rich in hockey history it is simply mind boggling.

I've never even truly scratched the surface on junior hockey history when it comes to my personal research. I've done some work on the World Junior Hockey Championships, but can never find enough time in the day to conquer the junior hockey history on top of it all.

So I present to you today some quick links and resources I found for those who are interested in junior hockey history.

Wikipedia - For a brief but concise look at the the history and story behind the Memorial Cup as well as a listing of all winners. You can also find links to individual Memorial Cup tournament trophies including lists of all winners, such as the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy (MVP), George Parsons Trophy (Sportsmanship), Hap Emms Memorial Trophy (Outstanding Goaltender), Ed Chynoweth Trophy (Scoring Leader) and the Memorial Cup year by year All Star teams.

Interactive Memorial Cup - If you can't make it down to the Hockey Hall of Fame to see the famous trophy, check out this interactive model.

Also, there's a couple of excellent books to thumb through. Richard Lapp and Alec MacCaulay came up with The Memorial Cup : Canada's National Junior Hockey Championship. The book was published in 1997, so it is admittedly a bit dated but an excellent read on past tournaments.

Four years earlier Lapp teamed up with Silas White to look back at the hockey careers of some of the Western Hockey Leagues' greatest stars in Local Heroes : A History of the Western Hockey League. I thoroughly enjoy the book as it looks into individual player careers and circumstances, but it doesn't give a thorough history of the league or its' member teams.

I'd love to hear of some more online or in print resources to learn more about junior hockey/Memorial Cup history. Send me an email or leave a comment below!