The OHL was to play host to the 1993 Memorial Cup, so the league had its division winners — the Peterborough Petes and Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds — meet in a best-of seven series.
The Petes were favoured, having finished with 16 more points than Ted Nolan’s Greyhounds. But the team from the Soo swept the series, thus becoming the host team.
The Petes and Greyhounds met again in the OHL’s championship series with Peterborough, under Dick Todd, winning in five games.
So the Petes were in, too, along with the Laval Titan and Swift Current Broncos.
But only the Greyhounds were making a third straight appearance. They went 0-3 in 1991, then lost to the Kamloops Blazers in the 1992 final.
Eight Greyhounds were back for a third time — goaltender Kevin Hodson and skaters Ralph Intranuovo, Drew Bannister, Rick Kowalsky, Jarret Reid, Tom MacDonald, Mark Matier and David Matsos.
On May 23, the Greyhounds erased those bitter memories, getting 45 saves from Hodson in a 4-2 championship-game victory over the Petes.
Intranuova, who spent the previous night in hospital passing a kidney stone, set up the game’s first goal and scored the second.
“I was really scared,” said Intranuova, the tournament’s MVP. “I was crying in the hospital, thinking I might not be able to play. The pain was so bad.
“I said, ‘Please, make the pain go away.’ If it was going to come back, I hoped it would be another day. I wanted to play in the Memorial Cup final.”
Things had gotten started on May 15 as the Greyhounds beat the Titan, 3-2, behind two goals from Chad Penney.
The following afternoon, Swift Current opened with a 5-3 victory over the Greyhounds. Andy Schneider drew three assists for the Broncos and Jason Krywulak scored twice as they broke a 2-2 tie with three straight goals.
Later that day, Peterborough got out to an early 4-0 lead and went on to beat Laval, 6-4.
On May 18, the Petes got two early goals from Dale McTavish as they routed the Broncos, 7-3, to earn a playoff berth.
The next night, Laval’s Yannick Dube scored two third-period goals 24 seconds apart to break a 2-2 tie and stun the Broncos, 4-3,
The round-robin concluded on May 20 with the Soo beating the Petes, 7-3.
The result left both teams with 2-1 records, but the Greyhounds moved to the final because of the victory.
On May 21, Laval beat the Broncos, 4-3, in a tiebreaker, when Patrick Cassin scored with 34.1 seconds left in the third period.
One night later, the Petes beat the Titan, 3-1, in the semifinal. The Petes were into their record fifth final, one more than the New Westminster Bruins.
Attendance for nine games was 37,675, an average of 4,186 in a facility with 3,603 seats.
1993 Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds:
Drew Bannister, Brad Baber, Dan Cloutier, Sean Gagnon, Aaron Gavey, Wade Gibson, Kiley Hill, Kevin Hodson, Ralph Intranuovo, Rick Kowalsky, Tom MacDonald, Neal Martin, Mark Matier, David Matsos, Jodi Murphy, Perry Pappas, Oliver Pastinsky, Chad Penney, Jarret Reid, Gary Roach, Steve Sullivan, Jeff Toms, Dan Tanevski, Briane Thompson, Joe Van Volsen, Sherwood Bassin (director of operations), Ted Nolan (coach).
