The Wilkie Outlaws left no doubt Friday about who was the champion of the North Saskatchewan River Hockey League in 2013.
Wilkie, the second-overall team, earned the win over the first-overall St. Walburg Eagles 8-2 to complete a four-game sweep of the NSRHL championship series. The Outlaws netted four goals in the first, three in the second and added one more in the third to win game four on home ice in front of a large and energetic crowd.
Not since the mid-1980s has Wilkie celebrated a senior hockey championship, but the drought is over. Wilkie's rookie forward Andrew Herle was perhaps the good luck charm, as he won a Canalta Championship and played in the RBC Cup last season with the Humboldt Broncos.
In game four, Trevor Bailey scored the first goal for St. Walburg early in the first, as Jared Herle looked a bit shaky to start in the net for Wilkie. He played great after settling in. Wilkie answered with a goal from Rick Cey, as he went hard to the net for the first Wilkie goal. Lorne Griffiths, Will Rathje and Cey made it 3-1.
Ten seconds later Cey made it 4-1, St. Walburg tried to change the momentum by running Herle, as he attempted to play the puck. That sparked a line brawl that saw five players ejected, three from the Eagles and two from Wilkie, including Rathje and Robert Keller, their top defence pair.
A five-minute power play carried over in the second period for Wilkie and Mitch Suchan extended the lead to 5-1. St. Walburg's Trent Campbell scored making it 5-2, but that was as close as they would get. Brett Gerein scored an even-strength goal for Wilkie and Andrew Herle extended Wilkie's lead to 7-2 with a power play marker.
In the third, Wilkie limited the Eagles' chances and Doug O'Hara scored once more for the Outlaws to make it an 8-2 victory.
In game one of the series Wilkie trailed 6-1 and went on to win 7-6 in overtime. From that point on they never really looked back, as they won 2-0 on home ice, 3-2 on the road and finally 8-2 to claim the title.
Penner led the team and league in playoff points with eight goals and 13 assists in 10 games. Wilkie went 9-1 in the payoffs with their lone loss coming in the first round against the Paradise Hill Hawks. Wilkie went on to win that series in three games, swept Turtleford in the best-of-five series and St. Walburg in the best-of-seven series.
St. Walburg had the first round bye and beat Maidstone in three straight games to advance to the championship series.
Herle had a 2.48 goals-against average in the playoffs and led the league with two shutouts in 10 games.
