They have been the heartbreak kids all season long, but this time they almost left it too late.
All but one of the Athabasca Midget B Hawks games this season has been decided by one or two goals, so why should the final game in the best-of-three championship series be any different?
However, the team made it much harder than it had to be, with Joshua Payuk outskating the Edson defence up the left side after taking at pass from Tyrell Parker at his own blueline and squeezing the puck past the goalie and just inside the far post for the game and championship winning goal with 47.7 seconds left on the clock for the 7-6 victory.
“They have been consistent like that all year, coming away with one, two goal games,” said coach Glenn Smith, who was the main man on the bench with head coach Ron Bay away for a family wedding.
One more consistent thing about the Hawks, which also showed up in this game, was their slow start to the contest.
Edson posted a 2-0 by the midway point of the opening period, silencing a huge crowd at the Multiplex.
Jordan Epp cut the lead in half with five and a half minutes left in the frame, tipping in a shot from Conner Nikipelo. The two-goal lead was restored three minutes later, leaving the Hawks reeling a bit as they headed to the dressing room down 3-1.
“It’s been like that. They were playing hard, but when we got in the room I told them this one is about who wants it more,” said Smith.
The speech worked, as just 14 seconds into the second period, the Hawks Joe Lamoureux whipped a pass from Tommy Parker into the back of the net past a stunned Edson goaltender.
In fact, the rest of the Edson team seemed to be in a daze for the entire second period as the Hawks took it to them, doing all of the scoring in the frame.
Less than two minutes after Lamoureux’s marker, Tyrell Parker pulled the Hawks even to cap off a wonderful rush up the ice, with Adam Calliou and Tommy Parker grabbing assists.
Play got rather scrambled for most of the rest of the period, that was until Chandler Andres got the Hawks their first lead of the game with just over a minute remaining after putting home a rebound of a shot by Kristen Malone.
The third saw thing get even crazier, as Edson tied it up 1:40 into the frame.
The Hawks would regain the lead five minutes later with Nikipelo lifting a rebound into the net over a sprawled Edson netminder, who couldn’t recover after one of his defencemen carried Jordan Epp into the goalie instead of clearing the loose puck after Epp’s initial shot was stopped.
Edson replied 40 seconds later, then took the lead with nine minutes left in the third.
The Hawks though, didn’t panic and simply kept up the pressure and maintaining puck possession in the Edson zone for most of the last half of the period.
And they were rewarded for that, as the Hawks tied it up for the last time as Calliou fired a shot by the Edson goaltender with just less than five minutes remaining.
In the last four minutes, both sides had their chances, but the goalies held their ground until Payuk went nearly coast to coast and rushed past the Edson defence to net the winner with under a minute left.
“It was great to see Josh (Payuk) finish off his minor hockey career with that goal and a championship,” Smith said, as he sent a text to Bay to tell him they won.
“It was also good to see Ryan (Plat) play well after a rough start in the first. He has made tremendous improvement this season and made some key saves at key times tonight. He was there when we needed him.
Smith added the team showed just what it was like in the final period and just how much heart and will they put into playing.
“The third was essentially like overtime, we played with more heart, we wanted it more and they went and got it,” Smith concluded.
