Winning their first Big Six Hockey League title since 2005 was a thrill for the Wawota Flyers.
The fact they did it at the expense of, arguably, the greatest dynasty in league history was a bonus.
The Flyers defeated the Bienfait Coalers 6-2 on March 28 to win the league’s championship in five games. Not only did the Flyers avenge their loss to the Coalers in last year’s final, but they ended the Coalers unprecedented run of five straight Big Six championships.
“Any time you can win the league with this group of guys, it’s pretty awesome,” said Flyers coach Todd Wilson.
The Coalers sent a message early in the game that they weren’t going to be disposed of easily, as Mason Benning scored less than seven minutes into the game for a 1-0 lead. Riley Riddell tied the game for the Flyers less than five minutes later, and added his second of the frame with three minutes to play in the period.
Dustin Stepp knotted up the game at 2-2 at the 10:39 mark of the second period, and the game remained deadlocked until late in the stanza.
Victor Van Dresar scored with 4:24 to play in the middle frame; it proved to be the championship-winning goal. Kayle Swanson doubled the lead with 2:02 remaining in the period.
Then Brent Struble scored four minutes into the third to extend the lead to three.
“In the first period, I thought Bienfait sat back a little bit, but definitely in the second period, I think they realized that their backs were really against the wall, and they came out pretty hard,” said Wilson.
“But in the third period, it just seemed like they knew they were beat, from what I could tell anyways, based on how they played all year and how they played that night.”
Warren Hunter rounded out the scoring with 1:45 to play in the game.
Wilson noted the league championship provided a lot of excitement in the community – the type of energy that hasn’t been in Wawota for senior hockey in a number of years.
“Everyone you talked to downtown, anywhere, that’s all they can talk about right now,” said Wilson. “It was quite a feeling when there was probably more than 500 people in that rink that night (for Game 5). It was pretty electric.”
Last year’s loss to the Coalers in the final was a learning experience, but Wilson noted they had a deeper team this season, particularly on the blue line. They were also without a top scorer in last year’s final versus the Coalers.
The Flyers had a strong core group throughout the season, he said, and the players came together well on and off the ice.
Wilson believes this Flyers team could be together for a few more years. And after the season they had, he doubts they’ll be losing a lot of players from this year’s team.
