Last weekend, Chicago Blackhawks prospect Mackenzie Entwistle and the Guelph Storm won the OHL Championship, topping the Ottawa 67’s in six games to win the J. Ross Robertson Cup. In doing so, Entwistle became a back-to-back OHL champion and helped the Storm qualify for the 2019 Memorial Cup in Halifax, Nova Scotia, beginning on Friday. Prior to departing for Halifax, Entwistle spoke with The-Rink about his season, winning a second OHL championship and his preparation for the Memorial Cup.
One-on-one with Mackenzie Entwistle
The 2018–19 OHL season for Mackenzie Entwistle was quite eventful after being named captain of the Hamilton Bulldogs to begin the season, then being traded to the Guelph Storm in January and finishing with an OHL championship on home ice. Entwistle, along with his Hamilton teammate Jack Hanley, who also was traded to Guelph, now lead a resilient Storm team into the 2019 Memorial Cup with a chance to win the first ever Cup in team history.
Here is The-Rink’s one-on-one with Mackenzie Entwistle.
On becoming a two-time OHL champion
It’s special. For me, having won it last year with Hamilton and then going through a whirlwind time around Christmas time when I got traded, I didn’t really know what to expect. But when I came over, I had a good buddy, Jack Hanley, on the team and I got welcomed by a nice billet family and I knew right away we had a special team. We came together really quickly and it’s something I’ll never forget.
Chicago Blackhawks prospect Mackenzie Entwistle (center, 10) celebrates a goal with his Guelph Storm teammates against the Ottawa 67’s. (Photograph courtesy of Luke Durda/OHL Images)
On being traded from Hamilton to Guelph
It was tough, especially when you’re in a spot for three and a half or four years, it was home. I developed friendships with the coaching staff and all my teammates and the fans, for me it was easy. But it was like switching jobs where I had to meet a whole new group of people, new fans, new coaches, but I played with (Isaac) Ratcliffe and Nick Suzuki before at the World Juniors, and obviously Jack Hanley, so I was fortunate enough to know a couple guys on the team.
Entwistle skates with the Hamilton Bulldogs earlier this season. (Photograph courtesy of Brandon Taylor via hamiltonbulldogs.com)
On Guelph’s run to the OHL championship
It was pretty crazy. For us to go down in almost all four series, I mean Kitchner wasn’t a breeze for us, it was a tough grind of a playoff. When I say the resiliency of the group was something special, I don’t really know how to put it into words. When you’re down 3–1 in a series or down 3–0 in a series to the teams that were ranked ahead of us, you know London was first and were supposed to make it to the Memorial Cup, so for us to do what we did just shows the group of guys we have in the locker room and the coaching staff how well we were prepared and how bad we wanted to win. It’s a special group and I think that is why we did it how we did.
On defeating the 67’s in four straight games, after Ottawa had won 14 straight prior to Game 3
We played them well during the year, especially in Guelph we played them really well, so we had confidence. We dropped the first two games of the series, but I think we could have won one but we played 40 minutes instead of 60 and that’s what cost us then. They’re a good team, they had three really strong lines and a good defense core and they were coached well. That’s why they were such a strong team. For us, our mentality was that you have to win your home games and then try to steal one on the road, in Ottawa, and that’s what we did. They hadn’t been through any adversity, the way we looked at it, and for us, having been in all those elimination games and adversity we went through, we knew how to respond. They didn’t respond too well and we kept taking advantage and ultimately that’s how we took the series lead and then won it.
On playing in back-to-back Memorial Cup tournaments
It’s definitely special and, as a player, that is all you can ask for. We didn’t get a chance to win it last year (with Hamilton) but now here I am again having the chance to win it again and that’s really special. For me and Hanley coming over from Hamilton, the biggest thing that we are going to help our team with is knowing we have to start on time. It’s a short tournament and every game matters, every shift matters and for us starting every playoff series slow and going down 0–2 or 0–3, you can’t do that in the Memorial Cup. We learned that last year with Hamilton; we were in a situation where we had to rely on other teams to win or lose. You have to win all your games in order to get through and that’s the mindset we have: trying to win our first game and then take it one game at a time.
Chicago Blackhawks prospect Mackenzie Entwistle lifts the J. Ross Robertson Cup. (Photograph courtesy of Terry Wilson/OHL Images)
On playing against teams he has not played this year
That’s where our coaching staff goes into play. As a player, I like not having to go up against the same guys all the time. It’s nice to see the talent pool in the other leagues. It should be fun, but I think we’ll watch some video and our coaches have been working hard to show us as much as they can about our opponents. I have no worries that we’ll be well prepared and we’re excited to get down there.
Mackenzie Entwistle handles the puck at the Chicago Blackhawks prospect camp in 2018. (Photograph courtesy of the Chicago Blackhawks)
On playing against fellow Chicago Blackhawks prospects Alexis Gravel and Jake Ryczek (Halifax Mooseheads)
Yeah, I got to know those guys a bit over the summer and I went out to a couple of dinners with them and got to know them. Obviously they are great hockey players, they got a good team in Halifax and it’ll be exciting to see how we match up against them and it’ll be good to see them.
The 2019 Memorial Cup begins on Friday in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The opening game is the WHL Champions Prince Albert Raiders taking on Gravel, Ryczek and host-city Halifax Mooseheads. Entwistle and the Storm begin the tournament Saturday against the QMJHL champions, Rouyn-Noranda Huskies.