TIGNISH, P.E.I. — The Tignish Perry’s Construction Aces are the Razzy’s Island Junior C Hockey League champions.
The Aces shut-out the regular season champions and defending league champions, Sherwood Metros, 6-0 at the Cody-Banks Arena Monday night to take the best-of-seven championship series in five games.
Defenceman Drake Smallman, playing his first game with the Aces in three months, showed no signs of rust, collecting the hattrick, while goaltender Colin Gaudette turned aside all 25 shots directed his way.
The Metros won the regular season championship by four points over the Aces, and the two teams split their regular season head-to-head match-ups.
“We just had a hard time winning in that rink and the boys just put it in their heads to battle it down and win,” Coach Dwayne Handrahan described the Aces’ determination heading into Game 5.
Coach Handrahan had praise for his fourth line of Brady Albert, Morgan Grigg and Kane Arsenault. While they didn’t register many points, they were assigned with shutting down the Metros top line and Handrahan felt they responded well to that challenge.
Regular season scoring champion and league MVP Dawson Sellick continued that leadership in the play-offs, putting up eight goals and 10 assists in 10 post-season games.
The Aces downed the North River Crunch four-games-to-one in the semifinals.
The Aces already had two goaltenders when Colin Gaudette joined the squad at Christmas. Handrahan said they decided to alternate the three goaltenders and he felt that worked to their advantage, especially after Koby Bridges, a first-team league all-star, was sidelined for the rest of the year with an injury in the semifinals. Gaudette and McGuire Gallant shared net-minding duties the rest of the way.
In winning the Island Championship, the Aces get to represent P.E.I. at the Maritime-Hockey North Junior C championship for the first time in five years. They will be competing the five-team tournament March 27 to 31 in Woodstock, NB.
Last year they were one win away from accomplishing that, but they lost the best of seven Island championship to the Metros in seven games. The Metros went on to win the Maritime-Hockey North for the first time in the championship’s 16-year history.
The Aces will be without goaltender Bridges and defenceman Brayden Handrahan in Woodstock. Handrahan, who filled in on defence during the provincial semi-finals and returned to the forward line for the finals, was sidelined during Monday’s game by a stick to the mouth.
Coach Handrahan said his team is getting busy with fundraising immediately to prepare for the popular tournament, and he expects they will be on the ice three to four times before heading across the bridge.
With Sherwood being the first Island team to win the Maritime-Hockey North championship last year, Handrahan said the Aces are hungry to follow suit and will be preparing well for that opportunity.
“We had good goaltending. The boys just came together and played well,” he assessed their run to the Island title.
And now they want to keep that momentum going.
