Goal scorers Dennis Lawrence, Mitch Visser, Cole Sutherland and Ryan Klinck and goaltender Thomas Della Siega were the marquee players of the cup-winning night.
But it took the whole team -- playing its best game of the season at the Didsbury Memorial Complex March 23 -- for the Mountainview Colts to beat the Cochrane Generals 4-2 and take the Heritage Junior B championship best-of-seven series by four games to two.
This is the first time in Heritage Junior B history that the Colts have won the championship.
With the championship under their belt, the Colts go to the provincials, a round robin tournament in Red Deer March 31 – April 3. In the first round they will play Wainwright, Calgary Mount Royal and two teams yet to be named.
The Colts bolted into a two-goal lead in the first period. Defenceman Dennis Lawrence opened the scoring with a waist-high shot from the point through traffic to score at the 11:19 mark of the opening frame. Twenty seconds later Mitch Visser stole a loose puck in the slot and fired home an unassisted marker.
Della Siega fended off the Generals in the second period when they played at their strongest, outshooting the Colts 13 to 7 in the 20-minute frame.
The second period was scoreless and the Colts dominated, outshooting the Generals 12-7. Solid forechecking, a stingy defence and impenetrable goaltending kept the Generals off the scoresheet until the third period.
The Generals scored their first goal on a slapshot by Chad Harrison on a pass from Connor Rendell to the top of the slot, after the offence stormed round the Colts net in their strongest offensive display of the night.
But the Colts took the wind out of their sails, when captain Cole “Goal” Sutherland completed a finesse play that started with a pass from Ryan Klinck to Colton Anderson and on to Sutherland to keep the Colts ahead 3-2. This turned out to be the game-winner.
Cochrane, slipping into desperation mode, answered when defenceman Tyler Kinnon connected on a screen shot, assisted by Slater Ransom and Chad Harrision.
Then with seven minutes remaining, Ryan Klinck punctured the Generals' balloon when he intercepted the puck, closed in on the Cochrane net and scored an unassisted goal.
The Generals pulled goalie Ty Robinson for an extra attacker for the last minute and 40 seconds of the game, but got away with that only because the Colts failed to connect with the empty net on four long shots.
The Colts set up the championship game with a victory over the Generals in Cochrane the previous night.
Evan Ingram opened the scoring on a first-period short-handed goal assisted by Ryan Klinck.
The Generals answered back with three goals in the first four minutes of the second period scored by Slater Ransom on a power play, George King and Kurt Thrussell.
The tide turned in the Colts' favour midway through the second period when Tyson Schmidt grabbed a loose puck while Mountainview was again short-handed, and scored an unassisted goal.
In the next six minutes, Austin Pedersen, Keaton Perigny and Colton Anderson each scored, bringing the tally at the end of 40 minutes of play to 5-3 in the Colts' favour. Assists on two of the goals came from Tyson Schmidt. Keaton Perigny also notched two assists. Cole Kapak and Klinck also assisted.
The Generals notched one more goal in the third period, this one scored by Chad Harrison, but it wasn't enough and the Colts won by a final score of 5-4.
