The Memorial Cup was won for the 65th time in 1983.
For the first time, it was decided on American soil (Portland’s Veterans Memorial Coliseum), was won by an American team (the Portland Winter Hawks), had four teams involved, and was won by a host team (Portland). It also was first time an American player (Portland’s Alfie Turcotte of Holt, Mich.) was the MVP.
For economic reasons, officials had decided to allow a host team automatic entry. Also, the format was again single round-robin with a semifinal game.
The Winter Hawks, who had relocated from Edmonton prior to 1976-77, had lost the WHL final to the John Chapman-coached Lethbridge Broncos.
They would be joined by the Oshawa Generals, under coach Paul Theriault, and Pierre Creamer’s Verdun Juniors.
There was pre-tournament controversy, too. The Broncos had lost goaltender Ken Wregget to injury, so had wanted to add Mike Vernon of the Calgary Wranglers. But he already had joined the Winter Hawks and coach Ken Hodge would start him.
One of the problems with a four-team tournament was that it had to start on Saturday and one team could be done by Monday.
The tournament opened on May 7 with a doubleheader - Oshawa beat Lethbridge, 8-2, behind two goals from each of Norm Schmidt and Dave Gans, and Portland, with Vernon in goal, edged Verdun, 7-6. The Winterhawks got two goals from each of Grant Sasser and Cam Neely.
On May 8, Verdun beat Lethbridge, 4-3, and Portland doubled up on Oshawa, 10-5. Ken Yaremchuk and Turcotte each had three goals and two assists for Portland.
Just like that, Portland had a spot in the final, and Lethbridge’s hopes were done like dinner.
“We’ve known for some time that we’d get a bye into this series,” Hodge said, “so the loss to Lethbridge in the league final wasn’t as bad as it seemed. We knew we’d have another chance to prove we’re the best junior team in Canada . . . and the United States.”
On May 9, Lethbridge hammered the Winter Hawks, 9-3, with Ron Sutter scoring three times. Rich, Ron’s twin, had scored twice in each of the first two games.
All of this meant that Oshawa and Verdun would play the final round-robin game and then the semifinal.
The Generals won both, 5-1 on May 10 and 7-5 on May 12. They overcame a 4-1 first-period deficit to win the semifinal.
The final, on May 14, belonged to the Winter Hawks. Paced by Neely’s three goals, they thrilled 9,527 fans with an 8-3 victory over Oshawa.
“I felt today, with the fans chanting ‘U.S.A., U.S.A.’, just like it was 1980 again,” said Turcotte, who had a goal and an assist, in reference to the U.S. winning the gold medal at the 1980 Olympic Winter Games.
In the end, the eight games drew 54,090 fans, second only to the attendance in Vancouver in 1977.
1983 Portland Winter Hawks:
Curt Brandolini, Bruno Campese, Brian Curran, Brad Duggan, Ray Ferraro, Terry Jones, Randy Heath, Greg Holomay, Kelly Hubbard, John Kordic, Derek Laxdal, Tim Lorenz, Cam Neely, Rich Kromm, Jim Playfair, Ray Podloski, Grant Sasser, Alfie Turcotte, Mike Vernon, Bryan Walker, Gord Walker, Ken Yaremchuk, Brian Shaw (general manager), Ken Hodge (coach)