The Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team are provincial champions for the fourth year in a row after coming back to defeat the Hudson Bay Hunters 4-3 March 30 at the Davidson Rink to take the best-of-three provincial “C” finals series 2-0.
“We weren’t worried,” said Cyclones defenceman Chad Allan about Davidson going down 3-0 to Hudson Bay at the four-minute mark of the second period. “We felt if we could just get a couple goals we would be alright. Once we got those two quick goals (by forward Pat Cey with 11:25 remaining in the second and forward Steve DaSilva 14 seconds later) we had a pretty good feeling.”
Through the first 28 minutes of the game it appeared to the 300 fans that packed the Davidson Rink the Cyclones were going to be heading back to Hudson Bay the next night for a game three. Nothing seemed to be clicking for the home team as everything they threw at the Hunters net either went far wide or hit Hudson Bay goalie Derek Leidl.
But after the two quick goals, it was all Cyclones. The shots up to that point were 17-13 in favour of Hudson Bay. By the end of the game Davidson would get another 27 shots and third period goals by forward Carter Smith and the winner, for the second year in a row in the provincial “C” deciding game, by Colton Allan, with four minutes remaining in the third frame. The Hunters, on the other hand, seemed to lose all forward momentum by continually getting pressed into their own zone and only managed eight more shots through the final 32 minutes of the game with none being counted as a goal.
“You never like to go down 3-0, but we knew with past provincials when you get to the final both teams are going to be good and it’s going to be a tough game,” said Cyclones head coach Jason Shaw. “You have got to play 60 minutes and that is what we talked about after the first period. We were down 2-0, but if we kept on working we thought we could wear them down a bit and get some goals and turn things around.”
To read more please see the April 8 print edition of The Davidson Leader.