麻豆社区

An epic broomball battle became personal in overtime of the championship final last weekend in Haines Junction.

The final game of the end-of-year Function in the Junction tournament pitted the Spectrum Security Bears up against the Ridge Pub.

The game began as a goaltender's battle, with the Bears' Darryl Cann and the Ridge's Ryan Hannah standing on their heads to keep the game scoreless through regulation.

In overtime however, it became the Saunders show as both goalies were relegated to sit on the bench and watch their teammates play 4-on-4.

A quick breakout play by the Bears led by league's top scorer Justin Saunders was nullified when his father Chris Saunders 鈥� the league's top male defender this year 鈥� took him down with a hard trip that also resulted in a broken stick for the senior Saunders.

The ensuing 4-on-3 powerplay for the Bears lasted only a minute before Justin buried the winner to give his team the tournament victory.

"That was an interesting development in the overtime, for sure,鈥� said Bears' team manager and assistant captain Shayne Fairman. "Justin, I think, had gotten a step on his dad, which is hard to do. Chris was attempting to impede his progress, and in the course of it tripped him and broke his own stick.

"He got called for the tripping penalty, but 鈥� truth be told 鈥� probably saved the game from being over right away. If there's such a thing as a worthwhile penalty, that was it. But 4-on-3 with an empty net 鈥� it only lasted another minute.鈥�

The Ridge had edged the Bears 1-0 in the final round-robin match for the two clubs, so the championship game provided a fitting revenge match for the eventual Kluane Park Inn Cup champions.

Fairman praised Hannah, the Ridge Pub goalie for his outstanding play in the championship game.

"We certainly outshot the Ridge in the final,鈥� he said. "At one point, I thought 鈥榃hat's it going to take to beat this guy?' And as it turns out, we never did beat him. For as well as he played, it's probably better that even though we got the victory, we never did beat him. He played an outstanding game.鈥�

Meanwhile, Bears' goalie Darryl Cann quietly posted another shutout, after opening the tournament with three straight.

"He's no slouch in-between the pipes either,鈥� Fairman admitted.

Rookie of the Year Lars Jessup led the Bears in scoring over the weekend with four goals.

The third-place game was another close-scoring game that saw Chad Bustin net the winner late to give P&M Recycling a 3-2 win over the Ford Mustangs.

In total, six Whitehorse teams competed in the Haines Junction tournament that began Friday and ended Sunday afternoon.

"This time of year in Haines Junction is always beautiful,鈥� Fairman explained of the purpose the teams finish their season in the community each year. "It's nice for us to get out there, and it's a good end-of-season wrap-up. I'm sure Haines Junction is happy to see us come, and the local drinking establishments are probably happy to see us come too.鈥�

The tournament win marks a near-perfect season for the Bears, which saw the club kick off the season by winning the Bob Park Icebreaker Tournament.

The rec league team followed that up with the top regular season record of 18-3-3, and then hoisted the Kopper King Cup as playoff champions in late March.

"It's been quite a year,鈥� Fairman said. "I think the best thing about it is we didn't run away with anything all season. We were in so many close games, which is great. Every game we played was good competition.鈥�