The Sherwood Park Knights have captured their second consecutive CJHL championship.
After a hard-fought playoff run, the Knights capped it off with a dominant 5-2 Game 5 win over the St. Albert Merchants on Tuesday (Mar. 28) night to take the final series 4-1.
"It feels great," said head coach Rick Rishaug. "This team has worked extremely hard, and we battled through a bunch of adversity, injuries, and sickness."
It's been a final series to remember. The Knights opened it up with a 3-1 victory in Game 1 to kick things off and then proceeded to play in three consecutive overtime games, winning two of them to set up Tuesday's championship win.
"St. Albert is a great team and we appreciate them as well," said Rishaug.
With the team on the edge of glory, the Knights didn't allow the Merchants any room for hope in the deciding game.
Team captain Bryce Bader opened up the scoring for the Knights during the first minute of the game to start things off. Bader added another in the second along with Justin Beaudoin to give Sherwood Park a 3-0 lead going into the final frame.
"[Bader] scored on the first shot of the game to make it 1-0 very very early," said Rishaug. "The boys just kept on it, stuck to the plan that the coaches had for them, and smelled the blood in the water."
Owen Bourque of the Merchants attempted a comeback for St. Albert in the third. He scored two quick goals to cut the lead to 3-2.
It wouldn't be enough to stave off the Knights, as Quintin Dunham scored an insurance marker and Dylan Powell sealed it off with an empty netter.
The championship means that the Knights will now head to Okotoks to challenge for the provincial crown.
"We have a week off, which is nice," said Rishaug. "We'll have a couple of practices this week and start planning to leave early Wednesday morning."
Their first game at provincials will be on April 5 against the CBHA Rangers.
This is the 11th championship for the Sherwood Park Knights since the league's creation in 1972/73.