No trickery from Trojans

The Vincent Massey Trojans left no doubt that they are still the program to beat.

After snapping a 15-year drought last season, the Trojans remained on top of Manitoba’s high school hockey mountain with a 4-1 victory over the Oak Park Raiders to capture their second straight boys’ AAAA provincial championship, at Seven Oaks Arena on Monday.

It’s Massey’s third provincial banner, and this one came with a side of revenge after falling to the Raiders in the city championship series.

“Winning two of them (city’s and provincials) last year, I didn’t know if anything could feel better than that, but honestly, that revenge on Oak Park — I mean, they played a hell of a game but we came out stronger and I feel like we fought for that one,” said captain Trevor Johnstone, who received the Player’s Choice award and was named the finals’ most valuable player.

“I know I said this last year, but there’s nothing better than winning it again, with this new group of guys. We had a great year. We knew we could do it. We knew we had it in us, and we just got it done.”

The Trojans were powered by a structured defence that yielded the fewest goals against during the regular season and was cracked just once in the provincial championship tournament.

Goaltenders Nathan Dyck and Noah Barnes stopped a combined 89 of 90 shots against in five provincial contests.

“Both of our goalies, Noah Barnes and Nathan Dyck, it’s never a good thing on a coach when you have two really good goalies. It’s really hard on you,” said Trojans’ head coach Ben Kirton. “Those two are phenomenal. Dyck played great at the beginning of the tournament, and Noah was just absolutely ferocious in net, especially today. He really helped us out there, and if he’s not playing the way he does, it’s probably a lot closer game than it is.”

The Trojans defeated Steinbach 4-0 and Jeanne-Sauvé 3-0 in the round-robin, then ousted Sturgeon Heights 4-0 in the semifinals.

The lone goal against belonged to Raiders forward Karsten Ross, who ended Massey’s shutout streak at 8:43 in the third period, after having faced 85 shots for the tournament.

“At city’s I was trying to get more dialed in before games, but I think here I was just calming myself down and kind of not thinking as much and not getting into my head,” said Barnes, who stopped 27 of the 28 shots in the championship final. “But I have a great team in front of me.”

Aiden Dilay scored twice for the Trojans, the game’s opening goal in the first period and the empty-netter. Forty-one seconds after Dilay’s first marker, Johnstone stickhandled around a couple of Oak Park defenders, then slid a cross-crease pass to Will Bader, who made no mistake burying the puck into an empty net. Adam Blair was credited with a secondary assist on the play.

Carter Kaczmarz provided an insurance goal at the 4:22 mark in the second frame on a turnaround wrister. Blair and Garnett Vande Graaf recorded the assists.

It was a busy day for Raiders netminder Mitch Fiebelkorn, who stopped 27 shots.

“Before the game, you could tell there was some energy in the room that’s one of those things that are hard to describe, but it’s a feeling,” said Kirton. “Right from the first shift, we came at them hard, and that was one of the main points, just a relentless attack. Let’s focus on the d-zone, but once we get a chance to enter the o-zone, we’re in attack mode.”

Barnes, Bader, Blair and Dilay were named to the provincial all-star team from the Trojans, while Ross and fellow forward David Sudoski made up the Raiders’ representation.

“Super happy for the kids,” said Kirton.

“They deserved it, they earned it. What a way to go out for all those Grade 12s there, too. Incredible.”

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