One practice, one scrimmage, one series and one championship.
That is all it took for Powell River Regals to take three straight from Fort St. John Flyers, 4-2, 5-2 and 3-1 to win their 12th Savage Cup.
It really wasn’t that easy but with much of the hard work done in advance of the series the Regals looked liked they had played a 30 -game schedule and peaked just in time for the playoffs.
Fans who remained after Powell River Kings’ win over Coquitlam Express were treated to an exciting opener on Thursday that featured some great scoring plays and solid goaltending from Justin Mulholland.
He made 24 saves for his first win as a Regal while Andy Welsh, Rick McLaren, Scott Kirton and Chris Tarr scored the goals.
Convinced that Fort St. John would come back with a vengeance in game two, Regals seized the opportunity to start David Brumby in goal.
The Flyers poured 30 shots on the Regal net and the former Victoria Salmon King handled all but two of them with ease.
At the other end of the rink Regals took 40 shots and were particularly sharp in the second period when Elias Godoy and Dale Lupul picked up singles and John Coyle sparkled with two goals in 37 seconds.
Regals led 4-1 after two periods but even when the Flyers scored to make it 4-2, Blair Tassone answered immediately to make the final 5-2.
Regals were certainly full credit for the first two wins and game three’s special ceremony to honour Regal legend Andy McCallum presented a great way to wrap up the series.
McCallum was a busy man prior to the game when he visited the Regals’ dressing room and had an informal pep talk with the boys.
Then he was joined on the ice by the two teams, his family, friends and some old teammates who helped him celebrate what was surely a highlight of his storied career.
Following the raising of his banner McCallum gave his fans one more inspirational speech and then dropped the ceremonial puck between Regals’ captain McLaren and Flyers’ Dave Alexander.
Perhaps the McCallum magic motivated the Regals because they played another great game against the defending Savage Cup champions.
Welsh opened the scoring in the first period and his goal stood up until Kirton made it 2-0 at 13:14 of the third.
Fort St. John never quit though and they pulled to within one less than a minute later and poured the pressure on the Regals and starting goalie Mulholland.
Both withstood the fierce attack however and iced the game and the series when Tarr scored into an empty net with six seconds remaining.
A brief ceremony followed where medals were presented to both teams by BC Hockey’s Mike Fraser and then the Savage Cup was hoisted by McLaren and his teammates.
When he was asked if the Regals were that good, without hesitation McLaren said, “I think so. We started the year, Rick Hopper, Tod [English], myself and Andy [Welsh], and put in a lot of time and effort into rounding guys up. It’s just all through the hockey world,” he said, explaining how players were found. “A guy knows this guy, this guy knows that guy and friends knowing friends and we found the best of the best and it turned out great. We got players who can play and you just put them on the ice and it’s natural. Rick kept it quite simple and we stuck to the system, stayed disciplined and were successful.”
Regals now await the winner of the Alberta championship series that is currently tied 3-3 between the Horse Lake Chiefs and Stony Plain Eagles.
Regals will host the best-of-five series for the MacKenzie Cup Thursday, April 5 to Monday, April 9 at Hap Parker Arena.
