The St. Lawrence College Cornwall men’s hockey team won the first tournament of the season at Canadore - and wrapped up the year with a triumphant 3-2 overtime victory over No. 1 Seneca to capture the gold medal at the 2011 Challenge Cup on Friday, Mar. 25 at Durham College in Oshawa.
The overtime victory is the third-consecutive year the Challenge Cup has been decided in extra time - and the second year in a row Seneca has lost the final.
"To complete the season as we did with a 19-6 record in itself would define a successful season for our team,” co-head coach Mike Pettinella said. “To qualify for this tournament, compete the way we did then win the final game against the top seeded team in the province - it's a storybook ending. We're so proud of this group, never in 11 years of coaching have we been able to experience something like this.”
The Sharks, who earned the No. 7 seed heading into the tournament, drew No. 6 George Brown and No. 10 Fleming in pool play to start. A 5-2 win over George Brown saw the Sharks battle for Fleming for 2nd spot in pool play. Fleming handed the Sharks a 1-0 setback in the second game, even though SLC Cornwall outplayed the Knights in all other areas except the scoresheet. The 1-1 record in the preliminaries earned the Sharks the No. 3 spot in Pool B, earning a quarterfinal matchup with No. 4 Trent, the second seed out of Pool A.
Trent grabbed a 1-0 lead in the first, but SLC Cornwall’s Thomas Lang and Brock Bissonette scored the next two goals to put the Sharks up 2-1 heading in the third period. Trent tied the game at 2-2 with 9:25 left in the frame, but Shawn Ladouceur teamed up with Fournier and Lang to push the Sharks back in front less than a minute later. Lariviere gave SLC Cornwall some much needed breathing room burying his third goal of the tournament with 5:05 left to play. The Excalibur snuck in a late goal, but the Sharks held strong for a 4-3 win to advance to the semi-final against No. 8 Georgian-Barrie, who had upset No. 2 Durham in the quarter-finals.
After a scoreless first period with Georgian-Barrie, McCourt broke the tie converting a pass from Ladouceur to go ahead 1-0. With 22 seconds left on the clock in the second period, Lariviere found the back of the net to increase the lead to 2-0. The Sharks poured on the offence in the final frame and Coyle tallied the two final goals for a dominating 4-0 victory to soar to the championship final.
In the final, SLC Cornwall met Seneca, the tournament’s overall No. 1 seed. Seneca started the tourney with a win over #12 Canadore, then defeated #6 George Brown in the quarter-finals and #5 Humber-Lakeshore in the semi-finals to earn their second consecutive trip to the Challenge Cup finals.
SLC fell behind 1-0 just before time expired in the first period. Another hard fought period ensued, but with less than two minutes remaining in the frame, Villaneuve and Kevin Veilleux netted back-to-back goals for the 2-1 lead heading into the final period. Seneca found a way past the Sharks’ strong defence to even the game at 2-2 in the last three minutes to send the game to overtime.
In the extra time, the Sharks pulled off the upset with 1:59 left when Troy Sinfield buried home the game-winner, propelling the Sharks to their first-ever Challenge Cup title. Goaltender Riley Bond played all five games for the Sharks between the pipes.
“This championship has been our focus since we qualified back in November,” co-head coach Sean Boulerice commented. “We tried to be a better team with each and every event. It’s not like we didn’t face any adversity throughout the season, but every time there was a bump in the road, we tried to overcome it and learn from it. This group of guys bought in to our plan and became a team in the true sense of the word.”
"These guys wore the SLC jersey with pride and I am especially thrilled for our graduating players who will never have the opportunity to put that jersey on their back again. Our theme all year has been 'Making Memories' and this is a memory that is not going to fade away anytime too soon.”
St. Lawrence Cornwall joins College Boreal and Sheridan as winners of Ontario extramural college hockey's biggest prize and will commence defense of their title at the Canadore Invitational in November - the tourney that set them on the road to a glorious 2009-2010 season.
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