Saturday the Brock Wild travelled to Fenelon Falls to take
on the Sturgeon Lake Thunder with a chance to clinch the championship.
The first period was played very cautiously by both teams with neither team wanting to make any mistakes. Oke was solid when needed as the teams ended the first period tied at zero.
The 2nd period started to open up a bit with some nice scoring chances by each side but the pucks just were not going in. Late in the period the Thunder got a huge break when one of their players came off the bench and took a pass from outside the blue line in what was clearly an offside and then went in on a breakaway and made a nice deke to beat Oke and take a 1-0 lead. A huge miss by the referees on the play but unfortunately the goal would be allowed.
Despite some nice scoring chances, the Wild were unable to tie it as they would head into the 3rd down by a goal.
In the 3rd period, the Wild stepped it up yet another notch as they started to pound the Sturgeon net. Parry came close to banging in a rebound off a Dewsbury blast but the puck would just not go in. Finally with about 7 minutes left in the game, Wilson in his first game back in 2 games, exploded on a magnificent end to end rush and fired one past the Sturgeon net-minder to tie the game at 1 a-piece.
5 minutes later, Wilson would strike again with another with some great moves to get himself into position to blast one in and give the Wild their first lead of the game with less than 2 minutes to go.
But the Thunder would not go away quietly. With the goalie on the bench and the extra attacker on the Thunder mounted a furious attack and after several nice saves by Oke, the Thunder were able to bang in a loose puck to tie the game at 2 with less than a minute to go.
But our boys would not be denied. With just 3.9 seconds left on the clock Giguere carried the puck into the Sturgeon zone and made a sensational pass out front where Bugg was in perfect position to tap it home for the 3-2 victory!! It was his second straight game winning goal.
With the win the Wild claimed the Championship crown ending the post season with a perfect 5-0-1 record!!
Howell, Giguere and Mitchell all had several chances to score and made some sensational rushes while Dewsbury, Benge, Yerema and Parry provided solid checking all game long. Our defense was rock solid with Dowswell, Haecker, Underwood and Wilson leading the charge and Oke was stellar between the pipes. And of course there was Bugg who did an excellent job of going to the net hard and was finally rewarded with the biggest goal of his young career!
Excellent work boys!! We are very proud of our Champions!! Congratulations on a terrific season. Everyone on the team improved a ton between the 1st half of the season and the 2nd half.
Special thanks to our coaches Mike Underwood, Matt Howell, Julie Down and Corey Mitchell for doing such a great job with the boys all season long!
Also thanks to our Team Manager Leah Mitchell and of course to all of the parents for making the season a roaring success!!