Lincs win conference title; down 2-0 in Sutherland Cup Final
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By Spencer Seymour
On April 21, well into the third period of Game Seven, the St. Marys Lincolns were down 2-0, with little going their way.
Lincolns’ fans hoped for a miracle, but the feeling of its likelihood started to dwindle.
They had gone 48 minutes without a goal, and they needed at least three to win. How could anyone actually think they would be able to pull this off?
Magic isn’t real, until it is.
On a comeback for the ages, in one of the most incredible moments ever to take place at the Pyramid Recreation Centre, the St. Marys Lincolns won their second conference championship in three years with a comeback for the ages.
Head coach Jeff Bradley, like the rest of St. Marys, was thrilled with the team’s gutsy ability to fight back and eventually take control of the game.
“That was pretty special,” Bradley told the Independent. “I’m pretty proud of the resiliency of this group and how we turned it up like that for the last 12 minutes or so of the third period. It’s really hard to describe the feelings of that experience, but it’s incredibly impressive, and winning at home is certainly special.”
Bradley noted they began putting more pressure on the Warriors leading up to their offensive explosion.
“We had our defencemen just thinking offence and had F3 low, just to try to add as much pressure as we could on them,” explained Bradley. “But not until we started scoring did you start having the feeling of it changing. It happened so quickly that you couldn’t feel that it had changed, but you knew something special was happening. It was a really funny feeling.”
Bradley described the coaching staff’s mentality on the bench as the comeback began.
“You’re trying to change your game plan as it happens because we’re in attack mode, and then it gets to 2-2, and you’re thinking, ‘Okay, we’ve got to get back to playing normally.’ And then we’re up, and suddenly we’re going into contain mode. It’s exciting, obviously, but you’re trying to stay in the moment and direct as much as you can, but we didn’t need to say much. I think the players understood what they needed to do, and they did a great job of it.”
It started with Lincoln Moore, who made it five straight games with a goal with 11 minutes and 44 seconds left on the clock, who ripped a shot from the slot area that beat goaltender Noah Bender.
The Lincolns had one. The Lincolns had a pulse.
“This game is ours,” Moore said, detailing his thought process when he scored. “We knew if we got the fans into it and we got one, you know, they can just start flowing from there. We got the first one, and I was fired up, and I don’t even know what I did. I blacked out when I celebrated, but I was fired up and was just glad to get the first one to get the boys going.”
Lincs’ captain Chase MacQueen-Spence called Moore’s goal a massive turning point.
“All game, we were fighting for that one,” said MacQueen-Spence. “We knew that once we got one, I knew that was going to come, and for it to come from (Lincoln Moore) with 12 minutes left, that’s the guy we needed to step up, and the floodgates opened from there. Getting three goals in two minutes like that, it’s something they write about, but you never think it’s going to happen to your team, but tonight was a story-tale finish, and I’m speechless.”
Over the next two minutes and six seconds, goals by James MacGregor and Ethan Weir would not only tie and then put the Lincolns in the lead, they would evoke an eruption from the PRC crowd unlike anything that has ever preceded it.
“It’s something we’ve never heard before like that,” Bradley noted. “We know our fans are loud, but that was like a completely different level. It’s really hard to explain. The third one was insane. Even the second one was unbelievable. The first one, you’re still a little bit hesitant because we’re still losing, but once we tied it and went ahead, it just was insane.”
Lincolns’ defenceman Jacob Montesi detailed the importance of bringing the crowd back into the game.
“The fans were something we talked about during the second intermission,” said Montesi. “We needed to get the crowd on our side. We know how much of a boost that can be for our group, and as soon as we got one and got that reaction from the crowd, I think I just blacked out from there.”
Moore, along with goaltender Colby Booth-Housego, who made 21 saves in the 4-2 win, both described the victory as “amazing.”
“We got our hearts broken last year,” admitted Moore. “I know a lot of guys in that room really wanted it this year. I couldn’t be more proud of how we came together in that third. I’m just so happy for us, and we really deserve that.”
“There’s nobody I’d rather do it with than these boys,” added Booth-Housego. “These are my brothers. These are my best friends, and I love these guys so much. I couldn’t be happier to do it with anybody else. Anything I can do for these boys, I will do.”
Montesi and MacQueen-Spence, meanwhile, both called the comeback to win the conference final “unbelievable.”
“Honestly, it was unbelievable, especially after last year, to get redemption in our own barn,” Montesi noted. “I’ve been here four years, and it’s been a dream to lift a trophy in front of our fans, so to do it like that, it’s unbelievable. I’m so proud of our group. We’ve focused on being resilient all year, and to do it like that in a Game Seven for a championship in front of our home crowd, I couldn’t be more proud of the boys.”
“We’ve been hunting for the past couple of years ever since we did it in London, so to be able to do it at home here in front of all the same fans, it’s a feeling I don’t think I’ll ever be able to feel again,” MacQueen-Spence stated. “The entire town’s been around us these past eight months, and to see them show out today and how excited they were for us was unbelievable. For them to experience that with us was unbelievable. I’m so happy for this town. I’m so happy and proud to be part of this town these past four years. And we’re not done yet.”
While coach Bradley relished watching every member of his squad lift the Joe Thornton Trophy, he couldn’t help but feel an even more special reaction when
“When Colby (Booth-Housego) and Blake (Elzinga) lifted it for sure,” said Bradley. “Colby came back here for a reason. He was part of our championship in London two years ago, but his year was the following year, and he got to Game Seven, but we didn’t win. He came back with this in mind, wanting to be the guy, and he got that done, so we’re really happy that he got it done.
“Just having seen Blake’s progression on this team made it really special to see him lift the trophy. He is probably the most unselfish kid I’ve ever coached. He really just wants what’s best for the team. When we won it in London, he didn’t play. And then last year, in Game Seven, he had limited minutes, and then this year, he was one of our best players. He’s been a top-three player on our team this playoff run. He’s been so important to our playoff run this year, and to see that progression as a member of this team, something about (seeing him lift the trophy) just meant a lot to me.”
Bradley also described a special feeling watching Chase McDougall, an unsung hero of Game Seven, enjoy his moment during the championship celebration.
“I’m really happy for Chase (McDougall) as well. He works his guts out all the time. He is always asking what to do to get better. The forechecking he did on the game-winning goal was outstanding. If he’s not out there, then maybe we don’t win that game.”
McDougall was also one of many players who embodied a major piece of what Bradley said the Lincolns need in order to take down the Cambridge Redhawks in the Sutherland Cup Final.
“We need to keep that hunger, and I’m sure we still have it, so I’m not worried about that. We’ve got to stick to our game. We’re stingy defensively, and that’s going to be the test against Cambridge. They score a ton. They are very offensive and very, very skilled, so for us, it’s about defending them the way we need to.”
Lincs stumble in Game 1 against Cambridge
Unfortunately for the Lincolns, a strong defensive effort and a good third period in terms of offensive zone time yielded no fruits in the opening game of the league final, with the regular-season champion Cambridge Redhawks continuing to go unbeaten in the playoffs, winning 2-0.
Bradley explained how they simply didn’t do enough in the offensive zone to get a win in Game One.
“I thought without the puck we were excellent, but with the puck we were subpar. I thought we lacked some urgency and some hunger that we need to score some goals. I don’t think we saw much of that hunger in the first game, other than a little bit in the third period, but even then, we had a lot of possession but didn’t really have many great scoring chances. Certainly not enough.”
Parker Smith pounced on a bobbled puck in centre ice in the second period and was able to beat Booth-Housego in the second period for the only non-empty net goal of the contest. Callan Newton iced the game in the third with an empty-netter.
The Lincolns came close to tying the game in the third before Newton’s goal, with a chaotic net-front scramble resulting in the puck getting within millimetres of crossing the goal line, but the officials determined the puck just barely was kept from crossing the goal line.
More complete showing goes unrewarded in Game 2
Despite having much more sustained pressure in the offensive zone and a greater bevy of quality scoring chances, the Redhawks were opportunistic in creating chances in transition off of turnovers in the neutral zone or in their own end, absconding with a 4-2 win and a 2-0 series lead April 27.
Despite the loss, Bradley had a glowing review for the way his team performed.
“I thought we were excellent,” Bradley said. “Our players played really, really well. I thought we carried over the way we defended from game one into tonight, and then we improved on our offensive zone play. It was really a complete game by us, and it’s unfortunate we didn’t get the result.”
Luke Saramak opened the scoring with a perfectly placed shot just two minutes and 21 seconds into the first period. After Smith missed a penalty shot, Saramak set up Smith on a two-on-one and Smith tucked the puck by Booth-Housego to give Cambridge a 2-0 lead heading into the first intermission.
After a scoreless second frame, Weir once again came up big for the Lincolns, firing a shot from along the boards that deflected up and over goaltender Aidan Hill. Entering the game, Hill had recorded three shutouts in his previous five outings.
Weir’s goal snapped the Lincolns’ shutout streak in the Sutherland Cup Final at 106 minutes and two seconds.
However, approximately two-and-a-half minutes after Weir’s goal, Reid Gammage buried on a controversial two-on-one that appeared to be offside that went undetected to put the Redhawks back ahead by two goals.
A shot off the rush by Moore once again cut the deficit to just one, but this time, a monumental comeback was not to be, with Smith scoring his second of the game into an empty net during the final minute to secure a 4-2 win for the Redhawks.
Bradley noted the plays that led to Cambridge’s goals were not ones that can be cleaned up, but rather, routine plays that the Redhawks were incredibly opportunistic in capitalizing on.
“If you look at the goals against, we had two turnovers in the neutral zone,” Bradley explained. “Things like that happen 50 times in a game for each team, so it’s not like we turned pucks over in the defensive zone. It was just some costly turnovers that they were really opportunistic on.”
Crucially, the bench boss saw that desire that was lacking in Game One.
“I thought we were really hungry,” noted Bradley. “I thought we supported the puck well. I thought we got a lot of good looks, but just didn’t capitalize. If, in Game Three, we can replicate our effort and execution that we had in Game Two, I think that gives us the best chance to win.”
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