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Regardless of what happens in Sundays Memorial Cup final, the Halifax Mooseheads will have completed their finest season in franchise history. The franchise was formed in the spring of 1994 when league president Gilles Corteau said "It is with pleasure that I welcome the Halifax Mooseheads as the first ever Maritime team in the QMJHL". I covered that announcement for TSN and the start of junior hockey kicked off in Atlantic Canada. The next year, the Moncton Alpines were in the league, then came the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles, Moncton Wildcats, Bathurst Titan, PEI Rocket, the Johns then came in, being the St. Johns Fog Devils in Newfoundland and the Saint John Seadogs from New Brunswick. The Moncton Alpines were awarded a franchise in 1995 but were poorly run and their games drew barely a few hundred fans. The league took over the franchise after the 1995-96 season and handed it over to Robert Irving, who changed the name to Wildcats and that franchise has done very well since. In fact, Moncton held the Memorial Cup in 2006 and the Wildcats made it to the final before losing to the Quebec Remparts, who were coached by Patrick Roy. Looking at the junior hockey map in Atlantic Canada, it resembles the American Hockey League map that existed from 1971 when the Nova Scotia Vees came to Halifax and became the first Canadian team to win the Calder Cup. The Vees left in the summer of 1993. There was no hockey at the Halifax Metro Centre in the fall of 1993. From the first game in October of 199,4 the city fell in love with junior hockey and fell for the Moose. From that time on, "Moose Mania" became part of the Atlantic lexicon. Nineteen years is a long time and the Moose watched several Atlantic teams who came in after them win the Presidents Cup, emblematic of the league championship. They watched Bathurst with Roberto Loungo take the Cup in 1999, Moncton Wildcats in 2006 and recently in back-to-back years watched Jonathan Huberdeau and the Saint John Seadogs win the Memorial Cup and two straight league titles. Prior to this year, the Moose went to the league finals twice. In 2005, they played Sidney Crosby and the Rimouski Oceanic and in 2003, they led the the Hull Olympiques 3-2 before losing Game 6 in Hull and Game 7 on home ice. Theyve been to the Memorial Cup once before in their history. In 2000, they hosted the event at the Metro Centre. They made it as far as the semifinal in a tournament won by Brad Richards and Rimouski and featuring the antics of the Barrie Colts and Mike Jefferson, now known as Mike Danton. The Mooseheads have had good teams but when they were strong, there always seemed to be stronger teams. In their first season, their star was goalie Jean Sebastian Giguere, who was a throw-in in a trade. It was his goaltending that prevented Halifax from finishing in the basement. That was an accomplishment for a first-year team. One year, Alex Tanguay was on the team and Ladislav Nagy scored 71 goals, despite missing a month representing his native country at the World Juniors) but they ran into a very strong Bathurst team. But this year is their most remarkable season ever. They have yet to lose 10 games this season and have advanced to the Memorial Cup final. They started the season on a 16-1 note and finished with six straight wins at the end of the season. In the playoffs, the Mooseheads won 16 out of 17 games, including 14 straight. Those are amazing stats. By now, most have heard of Nathan MacKinnon and Jonathan Drouin but this team has so much depth. MacKinnon and Drouin dont have to score because so many others can. In all, theyve got six players who scored 30 or more goals. Thats offence and thats balance. The unknown star to many Canadians is the goalie, Zach Fucale. He played big minutes last year as a 16-year old and starred this season. He reminds many of the 16-year old Giguere and may be the first goalie taken in this years NHL Draft. "This is the best team in Mooseheads history," said sports columnist Chris Cochrane, who has followed the team since opening day. "This is a once-in-a-lifetime team or once every 25 years. They are special." Drouin became a star during the World Juniors but Mooseheads fans remember him from last seasons playoffs when the favoured Quebec Remparts led 3-1 and Halifax beat them in Game 7 with Drouin scoring a bunch of goals, including the winner in the decisive game. MacKinnon has starred since day one and, in the first game of the Memorial Cup against the Portland Winterhawks, may have played one of the best games ever at the tournament. He scored three goals, showed some nifty passing skills and played defence in a showcase way. He has been compared to Sidney Crosby. Like Sid, he is from Cole Harbour, a standout at an early age but the more we see him, its the lower body strength he has that resembles Crosby. Haligonians have watched him and scored five goals in a game against the powerful Quebec Remparts. There is no guarantee that they will win on Sunday, after all this is a one-game showdown and anything can and may happen. But its been a tremendous year and regardless of the Sunday outcome, its been the best Mooseheads year ever. For TSN.ca Im Alex J. Walling Alex J. can be reached via email at: ajw@eastlink.caStitched Indians Jerseys . Reigning world champion Eve Muirhead of Scotland opened with a 12-2 rout of Winnipegs Jennifer Jones in a battle of teams bound for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi. Wholesale Indians Jerseys . -- Whether Jeremy Hill deserves a prominent role in LSUs offence this early in the season is a matter for debate. https://www.cheapindiansonline.com/ . 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Cleveland Indians Shirts .J. -- Marty Brodeur beat the Pittsburgh Penguins yet again.PHOENIX -- The Diamondbacks understand what they are up against entering the second half of the season, and their comeback victory against San Francisco on Saturday was a step in the right direction.Welington Castillos three-run homer in the eighth inning put the finishing touches on a four-run comeback for an exhilarating 6-5 victory, snapping a six-game losing streak.As for something to build on as the teams prepare for the final game of a three-game homestand, time will tell.I hope so, said Arizona first baseman Paul Goldschmidt, who made a lunging stop with a runner on first base to preserve reliever Jake Barretts first major league victory and Brad Zieglers 17th save for the final out Saturday.Youd like to say yes, but who knows if you can. You show up tomorrow and it is zero-zero and it doesnt really matter that much. We need the win, just because we know how far back we are from San Fran and even in the wild card, so any win is going to be big. Hopefully the momentum carries over, but I know they are not going to be fazed by it.They are fine coming off losses, and it is not like if we would have lost we would have showed up and been hanging our heads tomorrow. Hopefully we can win the series.The D-backs (37-46) will send left-hander Robbie Ray against Giants right-hander Albert Suarez in the finale of the three-game series at Chase Field on Sunday.Arizonas victory Saturday was the first by the home team in the first 10 games of the season series. The Diamondbacks swept a four-game series at AT&T Park on April 18-21 before the Giants swept a four-gamer series at Chase Field on May 12-15. The Giants won the opener of this series Friday, coming back from two three-run deficits in a 5-4 victory.ddddddddddddThat is one we let get away, San Francisco manager Bruce Bochy said Saturday.Castillo has homered in two consecutive games and has hit four of his 10 homers against the Giants this season. He had seven in his first 21 games before going 28 games without one, connecting again June 17.Asked if his homers come in bunches, Castillo drew chuckles when he said, Thats what it looks like. Ive been feeling good lately. I know I went through a tough moment. I dont worry about my hitting. I know I can hit a little bit. Just time, and its going to come.Arizona third baseman Jake Lamb had two hits and a walk Saturday and is close to becoming the fourth player (five occurrences) in franchise history to have 20 doubles and 20 homers before the All-Star break. Lamb hit his 19th double Saturday and has 18 homers after hitting one in each of the three previous games. Only Paul Goldschmidt (twice), Matt Williams and Jay Bell have done it.Ray (4-7) threw six shutout innings for his first victory of the season at San Francisco on April 19, and he is 1-0 with a 1.64 ERA in two career starts against the Giants. He averages 10.42 strikeouts per nine innings, seventh highest among NL starters and third highest among left-handers.Suarez (3-1) will make his sixth start Sunday and also has made six relief appearances. He took Matt Cains spot in the starting rotation when Cain went out with a right hamstring strain. He has a 4.39 ERA in five starts and will gave the Diamondbacks for the first time. ' ' '