The St. Mary's Knights had their hearts broken for the second time in four days.
After the Knights rallied from a two-goal deficit in the third period, the St. Joseph/Scollard Hall Bears from North Bay scored the winner 10:25 into overtime to claim a 3-2 victory and the Northern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (NOSSA) AAA hockey championship at Memorial Gardens on Wednesday night.
The loss comes just four days after the Knights fell 3-2 to the St. Basil Saints in the fifth and deciding game of the city championship. St. Mary's played well and would have been a deserved winner in either game.
The regular season champion Knights went undefeated in local play in dominating fashion until the championship series against St. Basil.
Scollard Hall will now advance to the Ontario Federation of Schools Athletic Association (OFSAA) playdowns March 24-27 in London.
"I thought we out chanced them but we just could capitalize on those opportunities and it cost us," said Knights head coach Dave Barton.
With each team playing their fourth game in two days, both teams appeared to be searching for their energy levels in the first two periods.
Scollard Hall started the game with some jump but both teams fell into a lull although the Bears managed to put two pucks into the St. Mary's net.
Brayden McLachlan opened the scoring 10:51 into the opening period when he skated out from the corner and fired a shot up high on Knights goaltender Justin Soltys.
Adam Cook put the Bears up 2-0 in the second period on the power play after sneaking behind the Knights defense and sliding the puck under a sprawling Soltys.
St. Mary's turned up the emotional intensity of the contest in the third period. Down a pair of goals, the Knights came out flying and created all kinds of offensive opportunities in the final 15 minutes.
"I told the guys before the third period that it could be the last 15 minutes of their career for the graduating players and you can either play like you're going to continue or play like your going home," said Barton.
"We came out flying and showed good character coming back. We had all sort of chances to win the game late but we also couldn't bury our chances in the first period and that's what cost us."
Vinnie Scornaienchi started the rally 4:50 into the third period when Bears goaltender Jeff Derosiers gave up a big rebound on a weak shot to a waiting Scornaienchi.
The Knights then took advantage of some Scollard Hall penalty trouble. After the Bears were nailed for having too many men on the ice, Brad Keown took a tripping penalty to give the Knights a two-man advantage.
Eric Diboll, who put forth a gutsy performance on defense while battling injuries, tied the game with a shot from the top right circle just five seconds into the two-man advantage.
With the game tied at 2-2, both teams created several opportunities through regulation time and into overtime.
Soltys robbed the Bears' Nick Rivet with a huge glove save 2:14 into overtime before the Knights' Jacob D'Agostini beat Derosiers which a shot only to see the puck ring off the side of the net.
Tom Wagner scored the overtime winner after tipping a cross ice feed from McLachlan into the net.
"When that goal went in I was thinking about everybody on this bench," said Bears head coach John Wilson. "The goal goes in and you see the guy that scores it but it's such a team effort and you're just happy for every player that has worked so hard all season."
Despite dropping their opening contest to the Knights 7-3, Wilson said his team was confident heading into the final feeling that they had more offer.
"We were flat in that first game. I don't know if it put a fear in us but we quickly came to the realization that at this time of year you can't have a flat effort. When then put out a solid effort against St. Basil and then again against Lasalle this morning.
"We knew we would have to come out hard and match their intensity. They had the big crowd behind them and I thought that getting through the first five minutes would really be important."
The win gives the Bears their first NOSSA AAA crown since 1993. The team captured the AA title in 2001.
"Playing four games in two days is tough and it wears you down physically," said Barton. "We were pretty banged up and battled through a lot of injuries we didn't disclose. Fatigue is a factor here but three other teams were going through the same thing."
In the final round robin games on Wednesday morning, the Knights completed a perfect 3-0 round robin record and knocked the St. Basil Saints out of the competition with a 5-1 win.
Scollard Hall advanced to the final with a 6-3 win over Sudbury Lasalle in Wednesday morning's other contest to give the team a 2-1 record.
St. Basil finished the tournament with a 1-2 record and Lasalle finished at 0-3.
Anthony Amadio, who also added two assists, Jacob D'Agostini, Joey Thorburn, Kyle Drewitt and Adam Zalewski scored for the Knights in the win over St. Basil. Matt Kudyba recorded two assists.
Mike Oliveira replied with the lone goal for the Saints. Adam Cook with two, McLachlan, Nick Gordon, Kweon and Dustin Cook scored for the Bears in their win over Lasalle.
Gary Bayrack led Lasalle with two goals while Derek Killah added one.
*** NOSSA AA:
The White Pines Wolverines were eliminated from the NOSSA AA championships in Lively on Wednesday morning after a 5-3 loss to Sudbury's Lockerby Vikings.
Ryan Maunu with two and Matt Premo with a single scored for the Wolverines.
White Pines finished the tournament with a 0-2-1 record.