The Razors held off a pesky Hitmen squad to capture the men's A-division hockey championship Saturday night in Gibsons.
After the Razors won the first two games of the best-of-five series with relative ease, the Hitmen battled back, winning game three 5-2 last Wednesday and game four Friday night 2-1 to set up the game five winner-take-all final.
Both teams came out tentatively in the first with the Hitmen gaining a slight advantage in play about five minutes into the contest. The Hitmen had a few quality scoring chances, but Razors goalie Sean Blake was up to the task. His saves allowed the Razors to regroup a bit and put together a few solid shifts, and they were rewarded for their efforts with two goals.
Drew Johnson scored the first, converting a great passing play from Aaron Hamilton and Mike Cote. A few minutes later, Mike Lewis scored unassisted, and the Razors led 2-0 after the first period.
Penalty problems got the Razors into trouble in the middle stanza as the Hitmen benefited from a pair of two-man advantages - the first one resulting in a power play goal from Brandon Waters assisted by Adam Nanson to cut the lead to 2-1.
The game remained 2-1 throughout most of the third period and it looked like the Razors would hang on, but Scott MacLeod scored the tying goal with an assist from Taylor Fancher with three minutes left to send the teams to overtime.
The 10-minute extra session decided nothing, although there were several close calls, including a Hitmen shot that eluded Blake and bounced off the inside of the post, keeping the score deadlocked.
The shootout was next, with Randy Younghusband playing the hero, scoring the only goal and giving the Razors the title.
Following the game, assistant captain and team spokesman Hamilton was certainly pleased with his team's effort.
"The guys all played great," said Hamilton. "After we lost the two games and the series was tied, none of us were really concerned. We felt we were the better team and if we could just stick with our game plan, we'd win it in the end."
Hamilton said the play of Blake was a huge key to the series.
"Sean stood on his head all series long and all season long," he said. "For Randy to score the big goal for us was huge. This used to be the Rangers squad and for a lot of years that team didn't win that much. There are still some of the old Rangers on this team, so it's great for us to win the league and put something together in the playoffs and finally win this."
