The Inlet Raiders captured the men's A-division title with a 4-1 win over the Suncoast Flyers last Friday night.
After dropping the first game of the series, the Raiders stormed back to win the next three, capturing the series 3-1.
Friday's game was a tense, hard-hitting affair with some great goaltending by Dan Hemstalk and Flyers tender James Hamilton.
After a tentative opening few minutes, the Raiders got on the board with two minutes to go in the opening frame.
Dave McClennan converted a beautiful three-way passing play on the power play. Darren Kohuch and Ian Ross fed a great pass to a wide-open McClennan who slipped one into the open side for a 1-0 lead.
The Raiders scored two more goals in the second period.
The first, scored at 9:04, was another great passing play. Tom Poulton fed Bill Stockwell who busted down the ice on a two on one. Stockwell fed Cam Yarrow wide open in front, and Hamilton had no chance.
With the score 2-0, the Flyers had a two-man advantage with four minutes to go, but the Raiders killed the penalty and as a bonus, scored their third goal short-handed.
Captain Jarred Ruttley scored with 1:09 to play in the second, with assists to Ross and Dan Scoular.
Trailing 3-0, the Flyers came out flying in the third. The Raiders had a tough time clearing their zone and the Flyers peppered Hemstalk with shots and crowded the crease looking for rebounds.
With 10 minutes to go, a nice tic-tac-toe passing play between Danny Baker, Kyle Vaughn and Taylor Waters resulted in Waters' power play goal to cut the lead to 3-1.
The Flyers went a man up with 3:29 to play and called a timeout to strategize. They pulled Hamilton to go two men up and got another man advantage, setting the stage for a wild finish.
Just wanting to clear the puck and relive some pressure, Bryan Poulsen sent a seemingly harmless shot down the ice, which found the empty net, and the Raiders took the 4-1 win.
"I wanted to win the title one more time and then call it quits. It feels awesome that we won," said Raiders' assistant captain Tom Poulton. "Hammer [Hemstalk] played an awesome third period. It was his best period of the whole series - and what a time to have it."
Hemstalk said he was a little tired in the third, but the team played well in front of him.
"For a bunch of us who are getting ready for retirement, it's a nice way to finish it off," Hemstalk said.
Besides the playoff trophy, the Raiders also won the regular season trophy for finishing in first place. Ruttley was the scoring leader for the regular season, best goalie was Hemstalk for the regular season and playoffs, MVP of the playoffs was Mike Cote from the Raiders and leading playoff scorer was Baker.
