The Martensville U15AA Marauders won the North Division Saskatchewan AA Hockey League (SAAHL) title with two successive wins against Humboldt.
But, the team fell just short of claiming the provincial championship last weekend, dropping two straight games to a powerful Regina Pat Blues team.
The Marauders punched their ticket to the championship round with an exciting double overtime win over the Humboldt Broncos in the third and deciding game of the Northern Division final at Martensville Arena on Sunday, March 24.
Humboldt took an early 2-0 lead in that game.
Martensville battled back with goals by Cruz Hamilton and Ramy Borowsky.
Each time Humboldt scored in the third period, Martensville responded, including a season-saving, game-tying goal by Dawson Baht with 1:41 left in the game.
This set up Dade Wotherspoon’s dramatic overtime winner, giving the Marauders the U5AA North Division SAAHL title.
Wotherspoon had also scored the overtime winner in the third and deciding game in the North semi-final series against the Saskatoon Stallions.
The first game of the provincial championship final in Regina saw the Pat Blues emerge with a 5-4 overtime win, setting up a Game Two showdown in the Martensville Arena on Sunday, March 31.
The two evenly-matched teams battled through a scoreless first period in Game Two until, with just 39 seconds left on the clock, Regina’s Josh Skrypnyk potted the visitors’ first goal on a power play. The Pat Blues carried that momentum into the middle frame, adding to their lead on goals by Cole Laidlaw and Chase Surkan.
Martensville finally got on the board at the 13 minute mark of the second period thanks to a power play goal by Jakob Schmidt, followed shortly afterward by another marker by teammate Reid Wotherspoon, narrowing the gap to 3-2.
The teams traded goals to finish out the second period, with Regina’s Surkan collecting his second of the game and Dade Wotherspoon scoring for the home team.
While the shots through the first two periods were pretty even, the wheels fell of the bus for the Marauders in the final frame, as Regina scored four unanswered goals by Skrypnyk, Surkan, Hayden Bird and Logan Dosenberger to clinch the provincial title with an 8-3 win over Martensville.