The perennial powerhouse St. Paul’s Crusaders are just one win away from the three-peat.
The Crusaders struck first in the Winnipeg High School Hockey League’s division one championship series with a lopsided 6-1 game 1 win over the Garden City Gophers on Monday at the Seven Oaks Sportsplex.
The Crusaders scored three times in the opening period and led 3-1 after the first. They extended the lead in the middle frame before striking again just 13 seconds into the third period, and cruised to the five-goal victory.
It was the first time all season Garden City suffered a regulation loss.
They were 27-0-2 in their first 29 games, regular season and playoffs included, heading into the championship series. And they won both regular season meetings against St. Paul’s, outscoring them 9-3.
Dario Macchia scored twice and added an assist for St. Paul’s in the victory to lead the best-of-three series one game to none.
Samuel Monnin, Jonah Crossland and Riley Patterson also notched goals for the Crusaders. Lucas Desousa scored the lone goal in the loss for Garden City.
St. Paul’s goalie Marc Samyn only needed to make 16 saves for the victory, while Evan Banera made 27 stops in a losing cause.
The Crusaders have won four of the last five titles, and have captured the city championship in 14 of the last 19 seasons overall.
Game 3 is set for Wednesday at 4:30 p.m., again at the Seven Oaks Sportsplex. A third game of the series, if necessary, is scheduled for Thursday.
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