Raiders bring home the title

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This article was published 02/03/2016 (3517 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

That was quite the birthday present the Oak Park Raiders boys’ hockey team delivered Wednesday to their head coach Brad Sparrow — the high school’s first ever city championship.

The Raiders edged the Vincent Massey Trojans 3-2 at the MTS Iceplex to win the Winnipeg High School Hockey League’s Platinum Promotions (A) Division title and take the best-of-three series 2-1. Oak Park had to win two straight games in the series to take the championship. 

Just before the Raiders were handed the championship trophy, the players, other coaches and fans all sangHappy Birthday to Sparrow.

“It’s a very nice present! I’m 37 but I feel like a 15-year-old kid right now. When you see kids work this hard, it’s nice to see them rewarded,” said Sparrow, who returned to the team this season after taking a hiatus for the past couple of years. He coached the Raiders for five straight years before that. “This is a huge deal for these kids to be able to win this for their school. Back in ’09 when the Raiders won their first provincial title, I was coaching at that time and I’d stepped away for a few years, so being able to be part of the first city championship for this school means a lot to all of us. For me, I went to Oak Park. It’s a tight community in Charleswood so to see these kids enjoy this, it’s awesome.”

A raucous crowd of about 1,200 packed the Canadian Tire Rink. Duelling chants between Raiders and Trojans fans rang off the walls combining with the pounding of noisemakers like the classic coins-in-milk jugs. 

Sparrow said boys’ hockey teams from Oak Park have won three provincial championships — 2009, 2011 and last year’s. They’ll have a chance to take a run at another one as the 2016 Milk Provincial AAAA High School Hockey Championship is set for March 11, 12 and 14 at the St. James Civic Centre.

“All my years, I’ve never won a city championship and this was my last year I could do it,” said Oak Park captain Marc Legare, one of 14 Raiders players in grade 12. “This is a team like none other I’ve ever played on before. I played Monarchs, I played Rangers growing up, and this team is for sure, by far, the best team I’ve ever played on. It’s a great feeling to win with these guys.”

Legare said dyed-blond hair worn by all the Oak Park players, some bordering on mullets, was done to keep up a winning tradition as three provincial champion Raiders teams had that hair.

Grade 10 player Marcus Sekundiak, Oak Park’s scoring leader, scored twice in the first period to give Oak Park a 2-1 lead after the first frame. Forward Jack Cowell was the Trojans’ goal-scorer.

In the second period, Oak Park’s Charlie Ringland scored what looked like an insurance marker at 4:38. But it ended up standing as the game winning goal after a slapshot by Vincent Massey’s Jared Bucci from the top of the right faceoff circle made it a one-goal game. That single-goal margin remained through the frenzied pace of the late third period with numerous close calls by both sides. 

Vincent Massey had a tremendous playoff run beating the always formidable St. Paul’s Crusaders in the semifinals and taking Game 1 of the final series 4-3 in overtime Monday. Oak Park stormed back in Game 2 on Tuesday with a 3-0 shut out of the Trojans.

“This series was as tight as you can get, overtime and the 3-0 was closer than that score indicates and today, that was a big battle right to the end. These two teams were pretty evenly matched all season,” Sparrow said. “It was tough for Massey, we were pretty equal, so we know it could have gone either way.”

The most outstanding players in the championship series for the two teams were goaltender Ryan Hall for Oak Park and Cowell for Vincent Massey.

“Hall was the difference. He was outstanding. Even in the first game that we lost, he made some saves that were ridiculous that got us to overtime,” Sparrow said. “The kids could really feed off him. It was his first year with us, he tried out with some AAA teams and ended up coming to us so he was a very nice addition.”

ashley.prest@freepress.mb.ca