The Altona Maroons are the South Eastern Manitoba Hockey League Champions for the first time since 2001-2002. The Maroons defeated the Plum Coulee Xpress 6-1 in game five of the series to win the best-of-seven final four games to one. Altona's win ends their decade long championship drought and is their 10th league title in the hockey club's 61-year history in the SEMHL.
After taking a three games to one lead in the series with a 4-3 overtime victory in game four on Saturday, the Maroons traveled to Winkler looking to finish off the defending champions. After winning two of the last three league titles, Plum Coulee needed a win to force a game six back in Altona. The Xpress were also forced to play the game without their two leading playoff scorers as Anders Strome and Dale Harder were both out of the line-up.
Altona captain Jon Froese started things off by giving the Maroons the early 1-0 lead just four minutes into the game. Brother Josh Froese increased Altona's lead to 2-0 nearly 10 minutes later. Outshooting the Xpress 14-7 through 20 minutes, the Maroons took their 2-0 lead into the second.
The Maroons were able to build on that lead in the second period. Dale Butland fired a one-timer into the net on the power-play at the 4:38 mark giving Altona a 3-0 lead. Jon Froese then scored his second of the game on the man-advantage five minutes later. Devon Leblanc sniped a shot from the left corner not even 40 seconds after that to give the Maroons a 5-0 lead after 40 minutes. Altona was out-shooting the Xpress 31-21 through the first two periods.
Being only 20 minutes away from lifting the Elmer Hildebrand trophy, the Maroons kept the peddle down. Nick Fuher's point shot flew by the Matt Dyck screen and past Plum Coulee netminder Jayme Janzen to push the Maroons ahead 6-0 with just over eight minutes to play.
Carey Dyck's shutout bid was stopped with 3:30 to go when Brett Harder snuck the puck between his legs, cutting the lead to 6-1.
However, the Maroons were not to be denied as they began celebrating as the seconds ticked down.
Plum Coulee goaltender Jayme Janzen made 34 saves and Altona netminder Carey Dyck kicked aside 29 shots as Altona outshot Plum Coulee 40-30. The Maroons outshot the Xpress overall in the series by a count of 231-189.
Matt Dyck and Dale Butland were named Co-Playoff MVP's.
-still photo's courtesy Merle Peters-
-action shots courtesy Ray Peters-
Thu, Apr 25, 7:30 PM
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