Wednesday, April 20, 2011 /
By Derrick Newman /
The Trojans rule is over as the Mount Royal Cougars ended SAIT’s reign atop Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC) Men’s hockey with a five-game series win this past March.
In one of the most emotionally charged championship finals in recent history, the Cougars pulled out a 1-0 win in the fifth and deciding game for their first championship in five seasons.
“We were pretty excited,” Cougars Captain Darnell Glass said. “We tried to close it out on Saturday at home but we lost in double overtime, so we didn’t want to miss our chance on Sunday.”
The three final games of the series were all decided by a single goal, and as Glass specified, game four was a double overtime affair, while game three ended in the first overtime period when the Cougars scored on a fluke shot from their own end.
The Cougars and Trojans are the class of the ACAC, having won every championship in the last seven seasons – five by the Trojans, and two now by the Cougars.
Jean LaForest, head coach of the Cougars for the past three seasons, was exuberant about finally knocking the Trojans off their perch.
“I thought we had a very good season. We were in a situation where we were in second place all year,” he said. “We were challenged a lot through SAIT and Augustana did a great job this year too.”
The Cougars beat the Augustana Vikings in the semi-finals in a hard fought four game series.
“I think, from a pure coaching perspective, that was the toughest series I’ve had to coach in the past three years I’ve been in the ACAC,” he said. “Blaine Gusdal (Head Coach of Augustana) did a fabulous job with his team this year.”
SAIT battled Concordia University in their semi-final and despite sweeping the series, Shane Lust, the team’s all-time leading scorer, said it was anything but a cake walk.
“Concordia really came on in the second half -- it was a pretty tough series,” he said.
Lust, who is finished playing for SAIT after four years with the team couldn’t hold back his frustration following the disappointing finish to the season and his ACAC career.
“It just sucks. It was tough being on the other side of the blueline for the first time in four years.”
The Concordia Thunder beat the NAIT Ooks in the quarter finals, while Augustana took out the Portage Voyageurs in the other first round series. This was only the third season in the ACAC for the Voyaguers. Missing the playoffs this season were the Briercrest Clippers and Grant MacEwen Griffins who finished seventh and eighth respectively in the regular season. |
Cougars Defeat Trojans For ACAC Championship
