Not many players can win one Memorial Cup. Sam O’Reilly is one of the few who can lay claim to two.
O’Reilly had a goal and three assists for a game high four points as the Kitchener Rangers defeated the Everett Silvertips 6-2 in Sunday’s Memorial Cup Final. It was the third ever Memorial Cup championship for the OHL champion Rangers, and the second in a row for O’Reilly, who was on the London Knights team that defeated the Medicine Hat Tigers in 2025.
“It’s a pretty crazy junior career,” said O’Reilly, who also received the Stafford Smythe Memorial Trophy as tournament MVP. “If you had told me before coming to junior I wouldn’t have believed it. I’m just lucky to be a part of the great teams I’ve been on.”
O’Reilly wasn’t the only Kitchener player celebrating back-to-back Memorial Cups. Jared Woolley also played for the 2025 London team. The Los Angeles Kings prospect scored the game winner in Sunday’s final, and said it was “surreal” to win twice in a row.
“It’s a feeling that doesn’t get old, winning this trophy,” Woolley told the CHL’s Matthew Tidcombe during a post-game interview. “To do it again is unreal.”
The Rangers dominated the 2026 Memorial Cup from start to finish, outscoring their opponents 20-6 in the preliminary round before cruising to victory in the final.
On Sunday, Kitchener broke open a 1-1 tie with four straight goals, with the last two coming on third period power plays. They are now the 10th team since 2000 to go undefeated in the Memorial Cup.
“We’re really tight and we stuck together,” O’Reilly told Tidcombe during an interview after the Rangers’ win.
“A lot of hard work throughout the year, so to be here now, it’s awesome.”
The Rangers entered Sunday’s final having had four days off, while the WHL champion Silvertips needed to beat the QMJHL champs from Chicoutimi in the semi-final two days earlier.
Kitchener took an early first period lead when Luke Ellinas tipped a point shot past Everett netminder Anders Miller, but Silvertips winger Matias Vanhanen tied the game less than 30 seconds later.
Although Everett outshot the OHL champs 15-7 in the first period, it Kitchener who took the lead. Dylan Edwards got his second of the tournament with assists to O’Reilly and Jack Pridham 13:15 into the first, and the Rangers never looked back.
“I think we wanted to play our game right from the start,” Pridham told Tidcombe during the post-game celebration. “We had the four days of rest, so I think we used that to our advantage. Coming out, we wanted to use our speed and put pucks on net.”
Kitchener outshot Everett 16-9 in the second period and extended their lead when Woolley took a pass off his skate and fired a wrist shot over Miller’s glove with 4:34 to go.
Chances of an Everett comeback faded when Kayd Ruedig was sent off for holding with 55 seconds to play in the second period. Zackary Shantz added to the difficulty when he was penalized for cross-checking with two seconds to go in the frame.
The Rangers made the WHL champions pay. Pridham scored 26 seconds into the third period, and O’Reilly added another 1:03 into the third—both on the power play—sending fans at a watch party in Kitchener into a frenzy.
Carter Bear clawed one back for Everett not long after to make it 5-2, but the Silvertips never got closer. Winger Christian Humphreys iced the game for Kitchener with a short-handed empty net goal in the last two minutes, and the celebration was on.
“It means everything,” Pridham said. “(When you’re a) champion, it’s something no one can take away from you.
