By paNOW Staff

An historic win for Kinistino’s senior hockey team

Mar 23, 2014 | 12:44 PM

A team in the Wheatland Senior Hockey League has won the league championship for the first time since they started up over 16 years ago.

The Kinistino Tigers beat the Naicam Vikings 4-3 in the series final on Friday at home.

Team manager Kris Babbings said it was a close game.

“Going into the third period it was 4-2 and with 3:30 left, Naicam brough it to 4-3,” said Babbings. “It was the closest game of the series and in the end we were able to win 4-3 and win the series 3-0.”

To mix into that excitement, the Tigers took a penalty for tripping with only 24 seconds left. Despite the two-man advantage for the Vikings, the Tigers goalie Jess Trach managed to keep them from tying it up. 

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Babbings added that the intense rivalry between the two teams really showed during the final game.

“Naicam had a little bit of a short bench, but there was lots of big hits, some scrums after the whistle, the teams were starting to not like each other,” said Babbings. “Our power play was very effective last night, we had two goals on the power play.”

He added it made for quite a bit of enthusiasm in the stands, which were packed for that last game.

Babbings said altogether it’s been a good season for the Tigers.

“We went 9-0 in the playoffs, we swept all three series,” said Babbings. “This is the first time since this team was organized … that we have won a league championship.”

“We have one guy who’s been here since the start of that[Blair Macgillivray], and this is his first championship, so that’s always special to watch.” 

Babbings said he hopes this season will encourage more people to check out the league during the next season. 

Many of the players have a history in Prince Albert. Ron Meyers, Matt Swaby, and Cody Michelle are former Mintos, while Tyler Paslawski played a few games with the Raiders.

The Tigers went 9-0 in playoffs with 42 goals for.

Trach let in only 15 goals during that run, and is the League MVP.

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