Season 9 Finals

Season 9 has come to a close with the crowning of a Creighton Cup champion. Here's how it went down!

After such a high-scoring opening round, I was shocked that the Thistles and Victorias were scoreless through two periods in Game 1. The visiting Thistles were struggling to generate quality chances, while the Victorias were utterly discombobulated after losing key defenseman Gordon "Phat" Wilson to injury. The clock continued to tick toward the end of regulation when Billy McGimsie scored on the power play to give the Victorias a 1-0 lead. A crushing blow for the Thistles? Hardly. After the ensuing faceoff, rookie winger Didier Pitre skated in and scored a highlight-reel goal to tie things up mere seconds later. Then, moments into overtime, Tommy Smith tallied to give the Thistles a stunning victory. Chuffed from this win, the Thistles returned home with the hope of taking a commanding lead in the series. Dan Bain scored twice early in the first period, but the Vics found their footing and fought back to earn a nail-biter 4-3 win. Wilson returned to the Vics' lineup for the third game, another back-and-forth contest that was knotted at three going into the third. The Thistles' Alf Smith scored his second goal of the night midway through the frame, and it held up to give his team a 2-1 series lead. Now the Victorias would need to win on the road again in order to keep their championship hopes alive. In Game 4, they scored early and often, with two goals from Marty Walsh pacing the team to a 5-1 triumph. 

So we were all tied up at two games apiece! The decisive fifth game would be on the Vics' home ice, but thus far the visiting team had won every game in the series. At first, it seemed the trend would continue, as brothers Tommy and Alf Smith staked the Thistles to a 2-0 lead early in the first period. Cyclone Taylor and Newsy Lalonde, however, answered back before the end of the frame, and the game remained 2-2 heading into the third period. Taylor scored again to give the Vics their first lead of the night. As the desperate Thistles pressed, Vics' winger Marty Walsh scored a backbreaker of a goal that made it 4-2 for the home team. Time was slipping away for the Thistles, but as it turned out, these two teams weren't nearly finished lighting the lamp! Around the halfway point of the period, Thistles captain Tommy Phillips scored a power-play goal to draw his team within one, but Walsh notched his second goal of the game a minute later to restore the Vics' two-goal edge. Taylor tacked on a late marker to complete a playoff hat trick and run the score up to 6-3. When the final buzzer sounded, the Victorias had completed their series comeback and earned their fifth Creighton Cup in nine seasons of play. As for the Thistles, this snake-bitten franchise has experienced yet another heartbreak. Maybe next year, boys, maybe next year!