The Memorial Cup schedule has officially been released, as we get to watch the OHL's two best teams battle it out against the top teams from the QMJHL and the WHL.
With the OHL Playoffs coming to an end, we have gotten the official schedule for the 2024 CHL Memorial Cup. The tournament begins on May 24th, 2024, and will last nine days in Saginaw, Michigan. Full schedule: Here.
With the tournament being hosted by the OHL's Saginaw Spirit, we have the privilege of watching two of the best OHL teams battle it out against the top teams from the QMJHL and WHL. The Moose Jaw Warriors won in the WHL Finals, and the Drummondville Voltigeurs won the QMJHL Finals — as both teams have advanced to the Memorial Cup from their respective leagues.
The J. Ross Robertson Cup winning London Knights advanced to the Memorial Cup after sweeping the Oshawa Generals, and the Saginaw Spirit are the fourth team in the tournament as the hosts.
The Saginaw Spirit and the London Knights will unfortunately have to wait until the final round-robin game to face one another, as they will have their first rematch since the OHL's Western Conference Finals. Saginaw was the only team in the playoffs to hand London a loss, and they will look to have the last laugh on May 29th when they face each other.
The first game of the Memorial Cup is between Moose Jaw and Saginaw, which is played on May 24th at 7:30pm. Saginaw will look to kick the tournament off with a win as the hosting team, against a very loaded Warriors' roster.
London will play their first game of the tournament on May 25th at 4:00pm against Drummondville. These are two teams that swept their final series in the playoffs — and both should have a lot of confidence heading in.
The round robin concludes on May 29th with that final game between Saginaw and London, and there is a tie-breaker game scheduled on May 30th. This tie-breaker game will only be played if there is a tie in the standings after the round robin games.
Otherwise, the top team from the round robin gets a by to the Memorial Cup Final, and the 2nd and 3rd placed teams will play a Semi-Final game. The winner of that game faces the first placed team in the final, which goes on June 2nd, 2024 at 7:30pm.
From an OHL perspective, this will be a fantastic test of just how good the London Knights and Saginaw Spirit are compared to the champions of the QMJHL and WHL.
Just because Saginaw did not win the OHL Championship does not mean that they should be counted out. Many host teams have won the Memorial Cup — most recently it was Saint John who won at home in 2022.
Saginaw has a loaded roster as well, and they played a very tight series with the London Knights in the third round of the playoffs. The Spirit have had a much longer rest than the other three teams at this tournament, and that could play in their favour.