Oak Park downs St. Paul’s to capture provincial puck crown

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This article was published 11/03/2024 (872 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

For a second straight season, it was the team that took the scenic route that found its way to the winner’s circle.

The Oak Park Raiders needed to survive a wild-card game just to punch their ticket into the AAAA Manitoba High School Association provincial hockey championships. On Monday night, they completed an improbable run to the top, edging the St. Paul’s Crusaders 2-1 in an entertaining affair at Seven Oaks Arena.

St. Paul’s entered the provincial tournament as the top-ranked club, having finished first in the regular-season with a 20-4 record, en route to defeating the Westwood Warriors to claim the city championship. The Crusaders were perfect in round-robin play over the weekend, with victories over the Neepawa Tigers (6-2) and Vincent Massey Trojans (5-2), before beating Westwood in the semifinal to earn their spot in Monday’s finale.

It looked like the Crusaders would continue their dominance this season when Sam Monnin gave St. Paul’s a 1-0 lead in the first period, with Noah Brigg and Eros Bazan drawing the assists on the goal. The Crusaders had won five of the previous sixth provincial titles, falling in the semifinals last year to another wild-card team in the Steinbach Regional Secondary School Sabres. The Sabres would go on to defeat top-ranked Garden City in the finals.

Like Steinbach, Oak Park took the long way to the final, first having to secure their spot in the provincial tournament with a 5-4 overtime win over the River East Kodiaks in a wild-card game.

Once there, though, the Raiders went undefeated over their next three games, earning a 6-0 win over the Morden Thunder, followed by a 4-4 tie with Westwood. That set up a semifinal matchup with Vincent Massey, which Oak Park captured 4-0 to join St. Paul’s in the final.

After a scoreless second period, the Raiders evened the score minutes into the third frame. Jarno Tuomola was credited with the equalizer, the goal set up by Brendan McDonald and Zach Einarson.

Not done there, Oak Park took the lead with fewer than eight minutes remaining. Wilton Mullally will go down as the game’s hero, his game-winning snipe set up again by Einarson and McDonald.

Oak Park’s Zach Johnson made 35 saves in the win, while Ben Muse stopped 17 pucks for St. Paul’s. Both clubs went one-for-three on the power play.

For Oak Park, it’s their first provincial title since the 2010-11 season and third overall.

Jeff.Hamilton@freepress.mb.ca

X: @jeffkhamilton