Clansmen repeat as Price Division champs

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This article was published 09/03/2018 (3072 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

They had one goal all season, and on March 7, they achieved it. The Murdoch MacKay Clansmen boys hockey team repeated as the Winnipeg High School Hockey League’s Price Division champions.

“It’s the best way to go out,” said Kelton Schultz, a Grade 12 defenseman and team captain. “We realized, this is the end. No more ‘We’ll get ’em next time.’ There is no next time. There is no tomorrow if we don’t win it today.”

“It was a full team effort, top to bottom,” said Daniel McDonald, Murdoch MacKay head coach and a math teacher at the school. “We did a good job of persevering and bouncing back when things didn’t go our way, making up for it the next shift.”

Murdoch, which finished second in the regular season, dispatched the first0place Leo Remillard Renards in two straight games in the division final. Murdoch won the first game on March 6 by a score of 3-1, then beat the Renards 3-2 on March 7 to take home the banner for the second time in as many seasons.

“They’re offensively gifted with some strong players up front,” McDonald said of the Leo Remillard squad.

“But we had a good game plan, played strong team defence. Playing strong right from the start to the end was our priority, making sure our foot was on the gas the whole time.”

In regular season play, Remillard had the advantage over Murdoch by two points at the season. The Renards had also beaten the Clansmen in their last two regular season tilts, winning 6-2 on Feb. 5 and 8-5 on Dec. 1.

“They were our biggest rivals all season,” admitted Schultz, who had three goals and nine assists in 24 regular season games this year.

“We just kept telling ourselves, this is it. They surpassed us during the season but we were gunning for them. We all went in knowing we had to really show up.”

In the semifinal, Murdoch got the best of neighbourhood rivals Collège Pierre-Elliott-Trudeau in two games, winning 3-2 on Feb. 26 and 5-2 on Feb. 28. In the quarter-final, they beat Sisler in two straight games, 6-0 and 5-1.

The Clansmen achieved a sweep in last year’s playoffs as well, defeating Linden Christian School in the final. A repeat as champs was always the goal in the locker room, going back to October.

“For our seniors, it’s our last year with the team,” Schultz said. “If we didn’t do it now, we wouldn’t get to try again. The rookies and younger guys knew that.”

In the regular season, Murdoch won 21 of its 24 games. The key to the team’s undefeated playoff run, McDonald believes, was each player buying in completely to the team-first mentality.

“They were blocking shots, taking hits, doing whatever necessary to win games,” he said. “Both Grade 10 goalies (Jonah Wilson and Austin Lafave) played strong hockey for us. On defence, our veteran group played fantastic. All our forwards chipped in really well.”

McDonald added that Grade 11 forward Marcus Young, who had six goals and 11 assists in the regular season, scored some key goals in the final, including both game winners. Justin Wiersema, another Grade 11 forward, was named championship series MVP.

While three out of the team’s four graduating players form the Clansmen’s defensive core, McDonald is confident next year’s squad will be up to the task of defending the title, should the team find itself in the Price Division again.

“It’s a good group,” he said. “As coaching staff and school reps, we’re so proud of how the boys have conducted themselves this season. They’re great representatives for our school.”