After a year away, the St. Paul’s Crusaders are once again the city champs in high school hockey.
The Crusaders won the division one high school hockey championship with a thrilling 2-1 shootout victory over the Dakota Lancers in the third and deciding game on Thursday at the Seven Oaks Sportsplex.
Adam Stewart scored the Crusaders only goal and he also notched the shootout winner.
The game was scoreless through the first two periods before Stewart scored in the final frame, giving the Crusaders the lead. But with the goalie pulled, Tyler Rubigny kept the Lancers’ hopes alive. He scored with just 10 seconds remaining in regulation time to force overtime.
Neither team could find the net in the extra frame with both sides killing off penalties in the overtime period.
Stewart scored the only goal of the shootout to give the Crusaders their 16th hockey title in school history.
It’s been a dominant decade for St. Paul’s, who also won their seventh league crown in just the last 10 years.
“It was a great win,” St. Paul’s head coach Andrew Harder said.
“It was such an awesome game from start to finish, an awesome series from start to finish. When they tied it up with 10 seconds left there, I just said to our boys, ‘We’ve been resilient all year and let’s just battle through this.'”
Forward Luc Benedictson was chosen as the series’ most valuable player for the Crusaders.
“We’ve been though a lot of adversity through this,” Benedictson said. “We knew what to do in those situations, and we just did it again today.”
Ryland Nechwediuk was named the series MVP for Dakota. The Lancers were seeking the school’s first ever championship in hockey.
The Lancers will get a chance to avenge the loss at the Provincial AAAA Hockey Championships starting March 13.