After a thrilling game in the final, the Canoe Lake Young Guns are 2024 Senators Cup champions.
The Young Guns defeated the Sandy Lake Chiefs 4-2 in the final after losing to the Chiefs earlier in the day and had to go through the ‘B’ side draw to make it back to the championship game.
Canoe Lake netminder Roddy Ross says it was a great feeling to lift the trophy after a hard fought weekend.
“It’s unreal. It’s been a while when we have almost a full lineup. When you have all the guys together, we just have a game that’s unbeatable sometimes. When all the boys just buy in, everything seems to go our way.”
Ross was also named the Most Valuable Player for the tournament, making several key saves in the final to protect the Young Guns lead.
“It’s always huge to get those awards, it always feels good.” Ross explains. “(You) feel like you really accomplished something when you did your job so that’s just something that I’m proud of. The main thing is we got that big trophy and that’s something we always wanted.”
Other award winners from the tournament include Most Sportsmanlike Player (Ryan Corrigal, Canoe Lake), Top Goaltender (Rylan Parenteau, Sandy Lake), Top Forward (Jeremy Boyer, Sandy Lake) and Top Defenceman (Hunter Mayo, Canoe Lake).
Ross just completed his third season at the University of Saskatchewan where he posted an 11-3-1 record, a 1.96 Goals Against Average and a .922 save percentage in 15 games for the Huskies during the regular season.
He also played in parts of three WHL seasons for the Seattle Thunderbirds and Regina Pats.
Despite having played on several big stages throughout his hockey career, Ross says he always enjoys getting the chance to play for his home nation.
“When I get the chance to play for my community and do something like this and win for them it’s a huge accomplishment. It’s something I’m always proud of and in the end, we always do it for our home community and all the fans.”
It was the second meeting of the day between the two sides as Sandy Lake defeated Canoe Lake on the ‘A’ side final causing the Young Guns to fall to the ‘B’ side where they had to defeat the Red Pheasant Rebels to play Sandy Lake again in the final.
Ross says he was glad that the Young Guns were able to get the win in the game that mattered the most.
“Sometimes we like to do the B-side climb instead, we like to do it to ourselves, but it didn’t matter, we dug deep, we found a way and we got the job done tonight.”
With the win, Canoe Lake takes home the first place prize of $30,000. Sandy Lake takes home $15,000 as the runner-up. The Red Pheasant Rebels took home a prize of $10,000 with the Pahasna Selects taking home the fourth place pot of $7,500.
sports@paherald.sk.ca
