The Estevan Tarpon Energy peewee Storm won the South East Minor Hockey League (SEMHL) title with a 3-2 double-overtime victory over the Estevan Tower Wolves at the Civic Auditorium on Sunday.
The Storm’s Curtis Phillipchuk scored the winner 2:22 into the fifth period of the tightly played second game of the SEMHL best-of-three championship final. The Storm won the first game 5-2 on March 15 at the Civic Auditorium.
“Kaden (Chrest) was going onto an odd man rush and then I came down on the side wing,” said Phillipchuk, noting it was probably the biggest goal he's ever scored. “He passed it over with a really nice pass and I shot it in for the winning goal.”
The Storm got on the board first 2:29 into the opening frame when Clay McKersie poked in a rebound low stick side on Wolves goaltender Tyler Saigeon. Kaleb Bechtold, captain of the Wolves, evened up the score a little over a minute later when he fired a shot from the hashmarks low stick side on Storm goalie Joshua Bittman.
The second period was similar to the first as the Wolves mainly controlled the play, with Saigeon standing tall whenever the Storm generated a scoring chance. Trey Wahl put the Wolves up by one about 10 minutes into the second on a shot from the neutral zone that handcuffed Bittman, but also seemed to wake up the Storm attack.
Halfway through the third period, McKersie notched the tying goal on a slapper from the side boards. Both teams engaged in a back-and-forth battle through the remaining 10 minutes of the third and first overtime period with neither able to gain an advantage on their opponent.
“We all worked as a team and we all tried our best out there,” said McKersie. “We came out pretty bad in the first and second, but we all played as hard as we could in the third. We tied it up and then we went to OT, the first OT and we couldn’t bury one, so then we all went to the dressing room. We were all just quiet and prayed and then we went out there, Curtis scored the goal, and that was probably the greatest moment I’ve had in hockey.”
The two-game sweep of the Tower Wolves capped off an undefeated season for the team. The Storm went 16-0 during the SEMHL regular season before sweeping the Estevan Thunder and Milestone Flyers in the first two rounds of the playoffs.
“Really good season,” said Storm coach Blaine Chrest. “That’s pretty special to us and we are pretty happy with that.”
