      Big Six Hockey wrapped up last week with the Wawota Flyers taking the championship series over the Bienfait Coalers with a score of 6-2.
           It’s been 11 years since the Flyers have won the league championship and were able to hoist the Lincoln Trophy above their heads. The Flyers did this by taking down the five-year reigning champions, the Bienfait Coalers who had won since the 2010/11 season to last year where they held off the Flyers in the finals.
           This year, however, the Flyers came back determined. Finishing the regular season in first they held the momentum heading into the semifinal against the Carnduff Red Devils and into the championship series versus the Coalers.
           The first game of the series saw a tight battle with Wawota winning in overtime 3-2. The second game, held in Bienfait, showed strength is sometimes in the home crowd as the Coalers won 4-1 over the Flyers. The rest of the games saw Wawota handle themselves easily taking a 3-1 lead in game three and a 4-2 win in game four.
           Game five was held on Thursday, March 24, rescheduled from March 22nd’s unanticipated blizzard.
           The Flyers were going hard from the start with the encouragement of the home crowd. Although Bienfait earned the first goal at 13:08 by Mason Benning and assisted by Cole Stevenson; the Flyers answered almost immediately with Riley Riddell scoring two points in the first assisted in one by Ryan Taylor and the other by Victor VanDresar and Tyler Matthewson.
           Heading into the second period, Bienfait was able to tie the game up as Dustin Stepp scored a power play goal assisted by Keegan Malaryk. Again the Flyers played hard and earned two more goals in the second period. Victor VanDresar found the back of the net with help from Brent Struble and Ben Johnstone, while Kayle Swanson earned a goal with the help of Brent Struble.
           Heading into the third period, the Flyers controlled the game clinching a three goal lead with an unassisted goal by Brent Struble. As the period continued, the Flyers had a few stick handling mishaps but rushed back on defense helping Adam Jordan between the pipes, who was a wall for the remainder of the game.
           In the final minutes, the Coalers pulled their goalie to lead a six man rush at the Flyers, who were able to clear the puck drawing an icing call both times. Then with under two minutes to go Warren Hunter with the Flyers stripped a puck off of a Bienfait player near the red line, stick handled past the next player, and scored an open net goal. The game was over as the final minute raced by on the clock to whooping and hollering as the Flyers flooded the ice as the buzzer signalled the end of the game and the Flyers’ run at the championship. The home crowd went wild, excited that the team they watched play every week had earned the top honours for the year.
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