1983 Memorial Cup
| Portland, Oregon | |
| Host team | Portland Winter Hawks |
|---|---|
| Champions | Portland Winter Hawks |
| Duration | May 7–14, 1983 |
| Number of games | 8 |
| Number of teams | 4 |
| Memorial Cup Tournaments | |
|
← 1982
1984 →
|
|
The 1983 Memorial Cup was held May 7–14 at the Memorial Coliseum in Portland, Oregon. It was the 65th annual Memorial Cup competition and determined the major junior ice hockey champion of the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). Participating teams were the host team Portland Winter Hawks along with the Oshawa Generals, Verdun Juniors and Lethbridge Broncos who had won the Ontario Hockey League (OHL), Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL) and Western Hockey League (WHL) championships respectively. Portland won their first Memorial Cup, defeating Oshawa in the final game.
1983 was the first time the Memorial Cup tournament featured four teams; it had previously involved three teams playing in a neutral host city since the round robin tournament format was adopted in 1972. The Winter Hawks were the first team to host the tournament, and the first to both participate and win the title despite failing to capture their league championship; they were eliminated by Lethbridge in the WHL finals. The Winter Hawks were also the first American team to win the Memorial Cup.
Since the adoption of the round robin tournament format in 1972, the Memorial Cup tournament had been held in a pre-selected, and often neutral, host city. Beginning in 1983, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association chose to make the tournament a four team affair with a host team guaranteed to participate. The Portland Winter Hawks, who won the WHL championship in 1981–82, were chosen before the season to host the 1983 tournament. It was the first time Memorial Cup games were held outside of Canada, though Winter Hawks General Manager Brian Shaw had proposed the tournament return to its original east vs. west format.
...
Wikipedia