The day every junior hockey player dreams of is here for the Everett Silvertips and Kitchener Rangers.
Sunday at 4 p.m., the puck will drop for these two teams in the 2026 Memorial Cup championship game at Prospera Place in Kelowna.
“It’s definitely pretty exciting,” said Silvertips defenceman Luke Vlooswyk on Saturday. “I mean, this was our goal all along and to finally be at the end of the road is obviously a good thing and it’s pretty special.”
Everett punched its ticket to the final on Friday, May 29, after beating the Chicoutimi Sagueneens 6-1 in the semi-final. Meanwhile, Kitchener has been off since Tuesday after going 3-0 in the round robin of the tournament, clinching a berth directly to the final.
Having five days off is an aspect the Rangers are looking to take advantage of.
“It was great. We were able to recover a lot from the games… these games are hard for the body and it was nice going out on the lake,” said Rangers goaltender Christian Kirsch, whose only allowed four goals in his three games. “Exploring the city, it’s beautiful around here, so it was a lot of fun… for the mind, just turn off there, and now the last two days we had great practices, so we’re ready for tomorrow.”
Rangers forward and Ottawa Senators prospect Luke Ellinas said the whole team is ready for the big moment.
“We’re super excited. We look forward to this game all year. We’ve worked towards this game all year, so we’re super excited to play in it,” said Ellinas. “It’s super cool. Every team wants to be playing in this game. Every team wants to win this tournament, so we’ll be able to have a chance to do that, and the final game of the year is a pretty cool and really special.”
In the round robin, Kitchener was able to beat Everett 6-2. The Silvertips are viewing themselves as the underdog going into the final.
“I think we’re the underdog going into this game, and I don’t think there’s a place that we’d rather be,” said Vlooswyk. “We’ve kind of always had that mentality… and I think that’s awesome. We want the fight, and we want what’s coming.”
Everett’s 17-year-old defenceman Landon Dupont agreed.
“It’s cool being the underdog. It’s cool proving people wrong, and I think we’ve been doing that all year,” said Dupont. “I think this is a good chance to prove a lot of people wrong.”
Having seen each other once already, both teams know that adjustments will be made for Sunday’s rematch.
“They’re a great team, we’re a good team too,” said Kirsch. “We watched video. They have the things that they like to do and I try to keep them back my head during the game and then go from there.”
“I feel like just it’s a new game, it’s new day,” said Everett 20-year-old forward Rylan Gould. “Just play our game. I feel like they haven’t seen the best of us and we’re really looking forward to kind of showing them Silvertip hockey and playing our game. Obviously, they’re a really good team over there. They have a lot of skill. They’re fast, but I think if we play our game, we’ll be just fine.”
Kitchener’s Sam O’Reilly and Jared Woolley both played in and won the 2025 Memorial Cup with the London Knights. The Rangers players have been talking to them about the experience to get ready for the moment.
“[They’ve shared] lots,” said Ellinas. “There’s so much stuff, all the pressure and everything, but I think the main thing is it’s another hockey, and we’ve had 90 of them all year, and we know how to play, we know how to play our game. There’s nothing we need to change up to do anything special on this last one.”
Kirsch is treating it the same way.
“It’s just the same. Puck’s the same size, the goal is the same size, everything’s the same,” said Kirsch. “I’m used to the spotlight, I’m used to the cameras, that just helps me. But otherwise, approach the same as the first game of the year, so nothing changes.”
For Gould and Rangers forward Carson Campbell, Sunday’s Memorial Cup final is the last game of their junior careers.
“It’s pretty awesome,” said Campbell. “It’s something you look forward to as the start of your junior career, even before then, but at the end of the day, as long as the team has success and the team plays well, I couldn’t care how I do.”
“[I’ll] prepare the same and whatnot, I think there’ll probably be a moment where… it is your last junior game, you got nothing to lose, so you may as well go and enjoy and work as hard as you can,” added Gould. “That’s kind of the approach that I’m going take in and hopefully have the result that we want.”
Going into Sunday’s final, Kitchener and Everett are the two winningest teams in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL) this season, combining for 142 wins. Now, it comes down to one game for junior hockey supremacy.
“It’s a huge opportunity, we’re all super excited,” said Dupont. “It’s going to be some guys on our team, their last premiere game, it’s a pretty good way to go out, so I’m just going to try and make sure they go out on a high.
“It’s going to be hard, obviously, Kitchener’s a great team. They’re fast, they’re skilled. This is almost like a Game 7. Everything’s on the line, so we’ve got to come ready and play a full 60.”
Puck drop on the Memorial Cup final is at 4 p.m. at Prospera Place in Kelowna.