The Kitchener Rangers were able to develop depth behind strong leadership and that led the Ontario Hockey League team to a Memorial Cup victory last night.
The Rangers had nine different goalscorers during the course of the 2003 Canadian Hockey League championship.
In last night's 6-3 win over the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League's Hull Olympiques, it was 17-year-old third-line forward Evan McGrath who led the way with two goals and an assist.
"Everybody is chipping in and that's how we won this tonight," McGrath said.
Rangers captain Derek Roy, the tournament's most valuable player, forward Greg Campbell and defenceman Steve Eminger all played for Canada at the world junior hockey championship and helped in a silver-medal effort.
The experience and talent of those three players rubbed off on the rest of the team.
"Those three guys are the reason we're here," coach Peter DeBoer said. "They took the ball and ran with it from Christmas on.
"There was no pressure on those young guys. Those older guys took all the pressure and allowed them to come along at their own pace."
The Rangers took the most efficient path to the final, winning all three games in the round robin to advance directly to the final and bypass semi-final play.
"It was huge," McGrath said. "We just wanted to go the easiest road and we felt a berth in the final was the easiest way to get this.
"The other teams were tired after playing that extra game, but we felt that three days of rest were huge for us."
Hull edged the Western Hockey League's Kelowna Rockets 2-1 in Saturday's semi-final game.
"For sure we were tired tonight, but that's not an excuse," Hull coach Benoit Groulx said. "We got beat by a better team that us. . . . They play a solid game and they're very tough to play against."
Andre Benoit and Campbell each had a goal and two assists for Kitchener while George Halkidis and David Clarkson also scored.
Overage goaltender Scott Dickie, who has played his entire four-year junior career with Kitchener, was chosen the tournament's top goaltender. He made 22 saves in what was his final game for the Rangers last night.
Mathieu Brunelle, Nick Fugere and Doug O'Brien scored for Hull in front of a pro-Olympiques crowd of 14,366 at the Pepsi Colisée.
DeBoer and assistant Steve Spott came to Kitchener in 2001 after good success with the Plymouth Whalers, but no titles.
After the Rangers were upset in the first round of playoffs last season, all the ingredients came together this season in talent, coaching and above all, confidence.
"Peter DeBoer brought it with him," Roy said. "He and Spott have brought a winning attitude to the team.
"Me and Gregory and Steve went to the world juniors and that helped us a lot. We taught the boys a lot of things coming into this short-term event and all we had to do was win four games.
"If you told me at the start of the year I had to win four games to win the Memorial Cup I'd take it."
The Rangers became battle hardened while their top three players were away for the world junior tournament and Kitchener came back from a game down in the final against Plymouth to win Games 6 and 7.
"I've had just as talented teams," DeBoer said.
"There's a mental toughness about this team that I've never had before."
After taking a 3-0 lead within two minutes of the second period, the Rangers weathered a storm of penalties and power-play goals. Four of the six goals in the period came with a man-advantage and Hull threatened to climb back in the game. But Kitchener answered every time the Olympiques struck.
"I'm sure the semi-final took something out of Hull," DeBoer said. "What an effort by them. They kept coming and they kept coming."
Kitchener last won the Memorial Cup in 1982 in a tournament also staged by the QMJHL. OHL teams have won 11 Memorial Cups in the modern era of the tournament, since the advent of the four-team, round-robin format in 1972.