There are a couple of clarifications that need to be made for this article First regarding the reason the host Portland team being advanced to the championship game in the playoff round the reason they advanced had nothing to do with the number of goals scored Portland defeated both Oshawa and Verdun in the round robin meaning that was the tie breaker if they were tied with either team As it was stated in the article the Winterhawks had defeated both teams but the hated Lethbridge club had lost to both making the game between Portland and Lethbridge meaningless Second regarding Mike Vernon Vernon was the goaltender for Calgary during the regular season and playoffs in the 1981 1982 season and was picked up for the 1982 Memorial Cup by the champion Winter Hawks Then for the 1983 postseason Lethbridge claimed that they should get Vernon added to their team because they were the league champions while the Winterhawks claimed that Vernon should choose for which team he wanted to play In the end the Western Hockey League decided in Portland s favor and Vernon chose to play with the Winterhawks for the second straight Memorial Cup Vernon stated not long after the tournament his two reasons for choosing Portland for the 1983 tournament First as a Calgary player Lethbridge was a division enemy and he didn t like them at all Second the Winterhawks teams both years were offensive minded which led to a lot of work for their goaltender While they scored a lot of goals they surrendered almost as many Vernon said that he loved playing behind the Winterhawks because he knew he d get plenty of work facing 30 shots on goal or more per game When he played for Calgary and in division games there weren t a lot of shots on goal 15 20 per game and Vernon said that he got bored from facing so few shots The 1983 Memorial Cup was the first of two hosted by Portland Three years later they hosted the tournament again but didn t even make it to the championship game Portland has not hosted a Cup since The Winterhawks would win the Cup 15 years later in 1998 That tournament was played in Spokane a division rival of Portland Now in 2013 15 years later Portland is on the precipice of winning the WHL title again and going to the Cup which will be held in Saskatoon which is yet another WHL city If Portland defeats Edmonton in the WHL title series and wins the Cup you could say that the Winterhawks scratched their 15 year itch