Photo credit: RocketFAN

By Regan Bartel

The first is always one of the best

2003 – The Kelowna Rockets debut at the Memorial Cup

May 23, 2024 | 9:00 PM

Five Memorial Cups, with five distinct memories when the Kelowna Rockets represented the Western Hockey League at the high-profile tournament. 

On the eve of the 2024 event in Saginaw, Michigan, RocketFAN looks back at the Kelowna Rockets’ first attempt, from a broadcaster’s perspective, at capturing major junior hockey’s top prize.  

The first appearance of three straight stops at the Memorial Cup came in 2003 when the 10-day event was hosted by the Quebec Remparts. Despite having seven years of junior hockey broadcasting under my belt, attending the event for the first time was an eye-opener. 

What do I remember? Being late for the ‘coaches press conference’ was one of several early tournament follies as we made our way to the Colisee, the former home of the NHL’s Quebec Nordiques. With colour analyst Roger Snow in tow, we made it as the presser was wrapping up, sweat coming from our foreheads on a hot humid day in May and likely perspiration seeping through our golf shirts, which the Kelowna Rockets graciously gifted us so we could look the part as the organization’s radio broadcast team. 

The second miscue happened during the Rockets opening practice in the 15,000-seat arena when I summoned then 20-year-old forward Kiel McLeod over to the far side of the ice for an interview after the ice session was over. Unbeknown to me, I was breaking prodigal, with scheduled one-on-one opportunities to speak to players and coaches planned under the watchful eye of the Canadian Hockey League. I remember starting my interview with McLeod, only to have someone shout at me to end it immediately.

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It wasn’t all miscues and mishaps in 2003, with three memorable interviews featuring a current NHL general manager, a retired NHL goaltender turned scout, and an NHL goaltending great. 

With McLeod being a second round draft pick of the NHL’s Columbus Bluejackets, we arranged to have GM Doug McLean on our radio broadcast during an intermission. McLean was very accommodating as we grilled him on why the franchise hadn’t offered the big skating forward a contract. McLean went as far as to tell our listening audience it wasn’t going to happen. It was Twitter worthy, yet in 2003, the startling news didn’t go any further than those listening at the other end of the radio. 

Gaining confidence as a reporter, my courage meter needed to be high when I set eyes on Ron Hextall, who was seated in the crowd at the Colisee watching a game involving the host team and the OHL champion Kitchener Rangers. During the intermission, I bravely yet cautiously approached Hextall for an interview on what his life was like now as a pro scout. Hextall, while a little standoffish at first, did allow me to stick my microphone in his face for a few minutes for the interview. 

The biggest get for our broadcast crew at the 2003 Memorial Cup came a few days into the tournament when we were asked if we wanted to interview legendary goalie Patrick Roy. At the time, Roy was a big deal, having just retired a month prior after 19 seasons in the NHL. Both Snow and I were nervous speaking to the hockey legend, regarded back in 2017 as one of the 100 greatest NHL players in history. Not one for small talk between the commercial break, the now 58-year-old became talkative once he knew we were ‘on the air’. Once the interview ended, Roy, with the media handler close by, quickly walked away from our broadcast location giving us the general sense we were wasting his time. 

With the Rockets losing two of the three games during the round-robin of the tournament, it still afforded them a berth in the semi-finals where they would lose to eventual Memorial Cup champion Kitchener. 

As disappointing as the 2003 Memorial Cup was for the Kelowna Rockets, it was a learning experience for the organization, who a year later would host the event and would win it on home soil. 

For our broadcast team, it was a steep learning curve, yet it laid the foundation for a better prepared broadcast, when instead of calling just four games in Quebec City, we were tasked with calling all eight games, including the championship final before 6,636 rapid fans at the Master Card Memorial Cup in 2004.