It was an exclamation point at the end of a historic season for the Prince Albert Predators.
The Predators captured their second consecutive Prairie Gold Lacrosse League (PGLL) title with a 16-5 win over the Swift Current Wolverines in front of a boisterous crowd at the Kinsmen Arena on Saturday night.
Head coach Lucas Wells says he believes this year’s edition of the Predators will be remembered as one of the best to ever play in the league.
“I think this is the best PGLL team we’ve ever had, to be honest with you. I think it’s the best PGLL team the province has ever had. I think that this is a top notch team and I would put them up against any team in the province. We did go against any team in the province and I could be happier for the guys. It’s incredible, especially to win at home.”
Prince Albert went a perfect 12-0 in the regular season and defeated Swift Current in two games to win the best-of-three PGLL final. The Predators finished the season scoring 227 goals while allowing only 52, good enough for a +175 goal differential on the campaign.
Coming into the PGLL final undefeated, Wells says the team knew their accomplishment didn’t mean anything if they didn’t take home the league title.
“I kept telling the guys that it doesn’t matter what we did in the regular season. It doesn’t matter if you go undefeated and lose the final game of the year. For them to win it at home and to have the older guys that are graduating on the floor for the last 20 seconds and it was just awesome”
Three power play goals from Braden Shewchuck, Matthew Cudmore and Talon Sandry got the tone set early for the Predators as they outshot the Wolverines 28-13 in the opening period to take an early 6-2 advantage.
A pair of goals from Cudmore, along with single tallies from Luke Eggerman and Koltin Fyrk extended the Predators lead in the second.
In the third period, Prince Albert would pull away with six goals in the final frame.
Brayden Rieger (1G, 7A) led Prince Albert offensively with eight points. Matthew Cudmore (3G, 2A) and Ryley Prediger (3G, 1A) were also among the Preds top scorers.
Isaac Froese (1G, 1A) led all Wolverines in scoring. Shane Cornelson, Ryder Turko, Paul Piche and Liam Rayner all had single points in the losing effort for Swift Current.
Wells says he was happy with the effort he got out of his team.
“I’m very happy with how we played. I thought we kind of got sucked into the garbage that Swift wanted to play, and that’s fine. I understand Swift’s frustration. Our guys did a great job maintaining themselves. We had one fight. I don’t mind them standing up for themselves. Overall, I’m very happy. I couldn’t be more happy.”
The game didn’t finish without its fair share of penalties. In the third period alone, 14 penalties were called on the two teams. Swift Current’s Brock Smith was assigned a game misconduct at the 3:29 mark of the final frame.
Wells says he was proud of the fact that Prince Albert focused on their games, despite the best efforts of their opponent.
“We knew we were the better team, we proved we were the better team. And quite frankly, I would say it’s a little classless when you’re down 11 to be swinging sticks and taking cheap shots. If that’s all they want to play, that’s all they’re gonna play.”
The Predators will wrap up their season when they attend the Macdonald Cup in Brooks, Alberta next month.
-with files from Michael Oleksyn/Daily Herald
