The Portage Collegiate Trojans finished the season as the Zone 4 High School Hockey League Champions.

It was a very successful year for the league as a whole, especially considering the obstacles they faced. League president Mandy Friesen says it was a battle of the two most experienced teams in the final.

"There was a lot of Grade 12s on both teams and I think both of them had the very distinct goal of capturing the zone banner this year," says Friesen. "Everybody left it all out on the ice that night. It was a good game to be at."

Friesen says she was most impressed with the semi-final matchups, noting it's great to know that there were four teams (PCI Trojans, Carman Cougars, W.C. Miller Aces, and Pembina Tigers) worthy of being crowned champion. She adds there were several overtime games between the two best-of-three series.

The league did have its fair share of challenges, however. Mother nature wasn't too kind this season with a ton of games being rescheduled due to winter storms causing highway closures. Friesen describes what they had to do to accommodate the situation.

"Ultimately we went with an extension of three days to the league because we could postpone when we needed to declare our representative from provincials," Friesen explains. "Those three days ended up being enough to have everybody play their games."

She is beyond satisfied with the way the season went.

"No one knew what to expect when we began the league in mid-October. We couldn't have wished for anything better in terms of completing the 22 game schedule, having very competitive playoffs and having two teams do well at provincials. Carman being finalists in both the league and provincials will create such great memories for them."

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