It was a seesaw affair last Friday night, but the Cariboo Canucks managed a 12-9 win over the Outlaws in the ‘A’ division final of the Williams Lake Recreational Hockey League.
The ‘B’ division final needed double overtime to be settled, but the Firemen overcame O-Netrix, 6-5, for the championship.
Wilfred Robbins potted a hat trick and both Drew Rose and Duane Alphonse scored twice for the Canucks, while Duncan Peeman got the win between the pipes.
Jason Hufty scored four times and Nathan Zurak tallied a hat trick for the Outlaws in the contest.
In the ‘B’ division final Lee Williston scored twice and added an assist for O-Netrix, while Cliff Chapman lit the lamp three times and contributed a helper for the Firemen.
The playoffs began early February with six teams in each division battling down, via bracket format, to last Friday’s finals.
O-Netrix punched their ticket to the final after beating Sight & Sound, 8-4, while the Firemen landed their spot after an 8-2 win over Pioneer.
On the ‘A’ side the Cariboo Canucks beat Stone, 10-5, while the Outlaws downed PMT, 5-3, in the semis.
Bruce Mack, league organizer, said following Friday’s matchups he thinks the season was a success.
“It was a really good season,” he said, adding the league has around 200 players, annually.
“We play a longer regular season and then kind of a short playoffs. But the emphasis is on fun.”
Mack said the league’s popularity is a double-edged sword — while it’s nice to have a full 12-team league with two divisions, he said it’s hard to tell people there isn’t room to fit them in.
“We always have more guys than we can have play interested,” he said.
“We cap at 12 teams, and we have four teams on the wait list to get in, just because of the ice time we have available.”
Regular season play began early October with a 20-game regular season, prior to playoffs.