Tigers Too Much For Kings

By Kelly Sharp

      Aurora Tigers celebrate Royal Bank Cup win

          defeating the Spruce Kings 3-1

The Cinderella finish ended one victory short for the host Prince George Spruce Kings in a 3-1 loss to the Aurora Tigers in the gold medal game of the RBC Royal Bank before 3330 at CN Centre. Coming off the 3-2 fifth overtime semi-final victory against the Camrose Kodiaks the Prince George Spruce Kings could not handle the number one ranked Aurora Tigers with the National junior A hockey title on the line.

“We definitely knew after last night, them(the Kings) playing until1 in the morning, they were going to be tired,” said Aurora Tigers captain Quinn Waller. Prince George rode the energy from a standing ovation to a quick start in the opening period but the Tigers patiently stuck to their game plan taking advantage of a mental miscue for a 2-on-1 break.

Joey Martin finished off the odd man rush to give Aurora a 1-0 lead after 20 minutes.

The Kings Jason Yuell and Cody Schlamb were denied by Tigers goalie Tyler Gordon in the second period before the biggest momentum shift of the night. The Spruce Kings had successfully killed off a pair of Aurora power plays, one a 5-on-3 man advantage. But with less than 2 minutes left in the second period the Tigers Joey Piccone scored on a shot from just inside the blueline. The puck deflected off a Kings defenseman past Jordan White. The Central region champions led 2-0 after 40 minutes.

Aurora’s power play connected early in the third period as Daniel Michalsky popped in his 9^th goal of the tournament. The Spruce Kings Alain Joanette closed the gap to 3-1, but it was too little too late as the Aurora Tigers captured their second RBC Royal Bank Cup in 4 years.

“Let’s give them credit, they were ranked number one for reason, they are a very solid hockey club, they did a real good job of shutting us down,” said Spruce Kings head coach Ed Dempsey.

“We didn’t bring our A game, it’s tough to watch them celebrate, we worked our butts off but fell short,” said an emotional Kings forward Tyler Helfrich.

The champions of the Ontario Provincial Junior Hockey League finished with a 6-1 record in Prince George.

“I played in the Stanley Cup finals and had some success there, but this ranks right up there,” said Aurora Tigers head coach Jerome Dupont.

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