The Memorial Cup, the 104-year symbol of Major Junior Hockey Supremacy in North America, will make a stop in Prince Edward County later this summer, thanks to an important local connection.

There were some familiar faces at the Dow Center for the championship game on 2 June, when the Saginaw Spirit shocked Ontario Hockey League champions, the London Knights, with a goal inside the final minute to claim the Canadian Hockey League title.

Saginaw skipper Chris Lazary, a rising star in the world’s number one development hockey league, is married to a County girl. Jackie (nee Fox) was at the game, and along with daughters Josie, 6, and Vivian, 4, gave Dad a great big hug  just before the biggest celebration in Saginaw sports history got underway. 

Also present that evening were retired elementary principal and volunteer firefighter Dave Fox and wife Pat, perhaps the biggest Saginaw Spirit supporters this side of the Ambassador Bridge. The couple was bounding with joy as their favourite OHL team vanquished its rivals and laid claim to the historic junior hockey trophy.

“You’re doing it for them because they’ve supported you all the way from when you were coaching minor hockey, trying to start the climb up the ladder,” Mr. Lazary told the Gazette, his voice still glowing 48 hours out from upsetting the Knights in such dramatic fashion. 

“As Jackie reminded me today, and it’s so true, ‘I’m a Memorial Cup champion too’.”

Jackie Lazary certainly put her stamp on the winning game: she recommended her husband start netminder Andrew Oke in the opening game of the tournament.

“The decision on the goalie, to be honest with you, I went to bed last night and I was going to pick (Nolan) Lalonde and my wife said, ‘What has Oke ever done wrong?’” Chris Lazary told the Detroit News following Saginaw’s opening night win. “(Oke) won five in a row and it was a one-goal game at the time of his injury and he was on a nine-game heater. ‘How do you not play him?’ she said. It’s probably the first time she’s given me useful hockey advice. That’s the honest truth. She texted me and said, ‘I saw you picked Oke’. I texted back, ‘You better be right’. So that’s how I ended up on that decision and I’m glad I did it. I thought he was phenomenal.”

Jackie Lazary’s pick wound up going 4-1 in the tournament, providing the Spirit the championship-calibre netminding they needed to fend off the number one ranked Knights, who bested Saginaw in the OHL Western Conference finals in six games.

Prince Edward County’s biggest Saginaw Spirit fans were back home early last week after joining in the post-championship revelry on the ice surface and in the Saginaw dressing room. Mr. Lazary recalled the unwavering support his in-laws have provided, especially during his formative years coaching minor hockey for meagre honorariums.

“They’ve been incredibly supportive the entire way and I’m sure they might have wondered at the start what Jackie was getting into but they’ve never doubted our path and have always been there to support me and our family 100 per cent.”

This reporter cracked that if Chris Lazary was coaching a game played on the moon, Dave and Pat Fox would find a way to be in attendance, cheering his team on. Coach Lazary laughed.

“Every Christmas and every spring since I’ve been in the OHL, we’ve gotten together as a family and watched the World Juniors and the Memorial Cup and imagined what it would be like to be a part of that. I’m so happy Dave and Pat were here in Saginaw all week to experience a Memorial Cup tournament and then to win on our home ice, you really can’t describe how awesome the feeling is.”

As a thank you for the unwavering support, Mr. Lazary is bringing the Memorial Cup to the Fox home on Picton Bay during his 48-hour period with the trophy sometime in July.