LONDON, Canada – Hockey in August might not sound like a winning proposition, but the inaugural Euro-Can Cup (Aug. 25-31) turned out to be a qualified success.

Held at the 9,100-capacity John Labatt Centre in London, Ontario, the four-team tournament pitted (mostly) former members of the Ontario Hockey League's junior London Knights who now play NHL or minor pro hockey versus European pro clubs: EV Zug (Switzerland), Black Wings Linz (Austria), and EHC München (Germany).

The format mirrored that of the Canadian Hockey League's annual junior championship, the Memorial Cup, and the London Pro Knights beat Zug 7-4 in Monday's one-game final to the joy of local fans. Edmonton Oilers forward Sam Gagner, an IIHF World U20 champion (2007) and World Championship silver medalist (2008) led all scorers with 12 points in four games for London.

“I hope it evolves into something like the Spengler Cup,” Gagner told IIHF.com, referring to the world's oldest club tournament held annually in Davos, Switzerland. “This market in London is really starving for hockey all year round. With the fact that there's no NHL team, this is a great compromise. The Knights have done well in the OHL, and this is a chance for fans to watch some great pro hockey.”

Organizer Pat Curcio, a former Knights assistant coach, dreamed up the Euro-Can Cup with 16-year German veteran Kerry Goulet to raise funds for Shoot for a Cure, which supports spinal cord injury research.

“I played in the DEL for several years [with Wedemark and the Hannover Scorpions], and spent most of my hockey career in Europe,” Curcio said. “I always thought that if the fans in Canada could see what European club teams are really like and how great the hockey is worldwide, it would be a tremendous opportunity.”

Ex-London NHL names on the host roster included Edmonton's Rob Schremp, Calgary's Brandon Prust, Philadelphia's Danny Syvret, and Montreal's Alex Henry, among others.

Surprisingly, several notable Pro Knights players actually weren't Knights alumni. For instance, Edmonton's Marc-Antoine Pouliot (ex-Rimouski Oceanic), Calgary's Eric Nystrom (ex-University of Michigan) Colorado's Cody McCormick (ex-Belleville Bulls), and Detroit's Todd Bertuzzi (ex-Guelph Storm) were inserted into the lineup. Bertuzzi had one of his best recent international outings in the final, leading the way with a goal and two assists.

Dave Gagner, Sam's father and the current director of player development for the Vancouver Canucks, made a temporary comeback at age 44, tallying two goals in London's opening-night 7-2 rout of Linz and earning Player of the Game.

For future Euro-Can Cups, London hopes to deploy former Knights stars like Rick Nash, Corey Perry, and Steve Mason, who were unavailable this year due to Team Canada's Olympic orientation camp.

Many of the visiting teams' personnel were also ex-NHLers or Canadian. For instance, Zug brought ex-Finnish national team coach Doug Shedden, veteran forward Paul DiPietro (a 1993 Stanley Cup winner with Montreal who scored both goals in Switzerland's 2-0 win over Canada at the 2006 Turin Olympics), defenseman Micki DuPont (a 23-game NHLer who played for Canada at the 2006 Worlds) and former Toronto Maple Leaf and Vancouver Canuck forward Josh Holden. That's on top of Finnish goalie Jussi Markkanen, who played for Edmonton in Game Seven of the Stanley Cup finals in 2006, but struggled here with a .843 save percentage and 5.67 GAA in three starts.

Perhaps all that Canadian content helped motivate Hockey Night in Canada's Don Cherry to do the ceremonial opening puck drop for the final.

“Ten of our players were born in Canada, and the rest are German-speaking,” said München coach Pat Cortina, who guided Hungary at the 2009 IIHF World Championship. “For the Canadian guys to come home and play in front of their families and friends, that doesn't happen too often.”

While not overly physical, the hockey was good and fast-paced, with more tape-to-tape passes than you'd expect in August. There were plenty of goals, such as in Zug's come-from-behind 6-5 overtime victory over München on August 26.

“It's about getting your skating and timing down,” said Schremp, who finished second in scoring with seven points. “After playing in a tournament like this, when you go to an NHL training camp, you're not still trying to get back in game shape.”

Attendance and media coverage were the only downside for this tournament's maiden voyage.

Working with a budget of $600,000, organizers hoped to attract 30,000-plus spectators, selling eight-game ticket packages at $192 CDN, but settled for an estimated 20,000. Knights games had an average attendance of 4,000, while other games drew about 1,000.

The only European-based media outlets represented were Germany's Eishockey News and Neue Kronen Zeitung, Austria's largest daily paper. “We are a skiing nation first, followed by soccer, Formula 1, and ice hockey,” said Austrian reporter Barbara Kneidinger.

Still, it was fun to see the European “hockey party” culture being brought to Canada, similar to the 2008 IIHF World Championship in Quebec City and Halifax. For instance, on a hot evening on Day One, more than 50 Linz fans marched down King Street to the arena. They chanted and sang at the top of their lungs, waved Austrian flags and club banners, and drew astonished stares from Londoners.

To really understand how the Euro-Can Cup came to be, you have to understand London.

First off, Canadians in general have an amazing ability to shoehorn hockey into any context. It could be street performers playing hockey on stilts during Canada Day celebrations at Vancouver's Granville Island. Or a video about the pivotal 1759 Battle of the Plains of Abraham at Ottawa's monumental Canadian War Museum that's presented as a humorous discussion between an Anglo-Canadian in a Maple Leafs jersey, a Quebecker in a Canadiens jersey, and an aboriginal person in a Canucks jersey.

Well, London is no exception to this pattern.

It says something about civic confidence that the “Forest City” was willing to back a tournament like the Euro-Can Cup during the worst recession since the 1930's. Amid the neat, tree-lined streets and century-old brick houses in this community of 350,000 lurks a huge passion for hockey.

The biggest construction coup in recent history was the October 2002 downtown opening of the swanky new arena (known to locals as “the Jay El Cee”). “And winning the Memorial Cup there in 2005 was the biggest thing that ever happened in London sports history,” said Bruce Huff, former sports editor of the London Free Press. The Knights blanked Sidney Crosby's Rimouski Oceanic 4-0 in the final during the NHL lockout. That powerhouse squad under coach Dale Hunter amassed 79 wins, nine losses, and two ties through the regular season and playoffs.

Londoners hold their hockey heroes close, but aren't afraid to poke fun either. Pop into sports bar Joe Kool's on the Richmond Row, and you might spot an autographed photo of ex-Knights star and current Chicago ace Patrick Kane, with a photocopy of a one-dollar coin and two dimes attached and the slogan: “Joe Kool's: always ready to help!” (No editorial comment necessary.) In a neighbouring room hangs a Knights T-shirt autographed by legendary team trainer Don Brankley, who retired in 2008: “I'm glad I'm leaving London so I don't have to eat at this [cruddy] restaurant ever again. Thanks, Branks!”

The list of big-name London-born NHLers, past and present, is extensive and star-studded: Joe Thornton, Jeff Carter, Craig MacTavish, Craig Simpson, Eric Lindros and current NHL justice minister Colin Campbell are just some examples.

Small wonder that London continues to turn out talent. Rink construction in Canada's tenth-largest city took a big upswing circa 1999 when the city council allotted about $50 million toward building six new rinks. London now has 23 ice sheets--more than in such top-level hockey nations as Belarus or Latvia.

According to Joe O'Neil, who heads up the London minor hockey association, there are currently 7,000 registered minor hockey players in London, with an additional 1,200 in the Red Circle Hockey Club, which promotes equal opportunity for kids regardless of ability. Most teams strive for the 1:1 ratio of practices to games that Hockey Canada recommends. The results? In 2008-09, 32 players from within a 50-km radius of London played in the OHL, including seven on the Knights.

Londoners believe hockey is for everyone. There are some 200 members in the George Bray Sports Association, which offers hockey for disabled individuals. London also boasts one of the world's largest municipal hockey associations for girls in the 850-strong London Devilettes.

It just never stops. The Vaughan Hockey factory, which makes customized goalie equipment for stars like Russia's Evgeni Nabokov and Canada's Cam Ward, is another London institution. London is known as a centre of learning and medicine, and the famous Fowler Kennedy Sports Medicine Clinic got a $5 million donation from Eric Lindros in 2007. Even at the museum-home of Sir Frederick Banting, the 1920 inventor of insulin, you'll find a big photo of Bobby Clarke, the first high-profile NHLer to overcome diabetes thanks to Banting's brainchild. It's right next door to 430 Adelaide Street, the onetime O-Pee-Chee hockey card factory.

So in this hockey-crazed environment, will the Euro-Can Cup survive and thrive as Canada's summertime answer to the Spengler Cup? That'll depend on how organizers develop the tournament. Jokerit Helsinki, CSKA St. Petersburg, and Hannover Scorpions are among the top European clubs that have been invited to participate in future editions.

LUCAS AYKROYD