The Battleford Beaver Blues punched their ticket to the Saskatchewan Prairie Hockey League final nearly 10 days ago and were waiting to see who their opponent would be.
The Spiritwood Timberwolves and Cut Knife Colts went toe-to-toe and forced a decisive fifth game in their semifinal series.
Game three was played Thursday in Cut Knife with the Colts earning the 5-4 win. Asthon Hewson had two goals and three assists to lead the Colts to a 2-1 series lead.
Saturday, back in Spiritwood, the Timberwolves tied the series after a convincing 6-2 win. Kyle Brataschuk had two goals and an assist while Tyler Gamble, Lane Trowell and Ryan Turgeon had a goal and an assist each for Spiritwood.
Game five was played Sunday in Cut Knife and to this point it was the home team winning every game in the series. That changed in the deciding game, as the Timberwolves skated to a 3-1 win. Turgeon, Steven Jim and Brataschuk scored for Spiritwood while it was Bye Braun notching the Colts' lone goal.
Cut Knife's Dallas Sperle, played just 20 minutes of the game. Josh Alook was in net for 39 minutes and was pulled late for the extra attacker.
Marty Lehouillier was the Timberwolves' goalie earning the win.
The SPHL championship series will get started Friday in Spiritwood. The third overall Timberwolves earned home ice advantage in the series, as they will face the fifth-place Battleford Beaver Blues.
Game two will be played in Battleford Saturday and at that game the league's regular season award winners will be presented with their well-deserved hardware.
The Timberwolves beat the Beaver Blues twice in three regular season games and outscored them 12-8.
To get to the final, Spiritwood beat Radisson three games straight and went the distance against Cut Knife. They have scored 49 goals in the playoffs and surrendered 20 goals. The Beaver Blues, the defending league champions, swept both their series and scored 72 goals and allowed 19.
