The 21st edition of the FHL Lumber Cup had many of the same themes as years past except that the dominating team all season continued to dominate in the playoffs as BCS was full value for its second consecutive Lumber Cup victory.
However, the only sure bet entering Saturday morning’s final round robin games was that BCS would be in the final but because of the hijinks that had occurred in the first three nights of action every other team still had a chance.
When the dust settled it was the season long cellar dwellers Serenity Phoenix Builders who parlayed their 2-2 record into the final.
Serenity had started slowly with a 7-1 crushing from BCS before upsetting Fraser River 6-5 thanks to four goals from Billy Joel Marsh.
Faced with a win and you’re in scenario versus Bear, they lost 3-2 to set up a possible and complicated tie breaker scenario.
Serenity then did the unexpected as they defeated BCS 5-2 on Saturday morning and had to nervously wait for the result of the Bear versus Fraser River tilt.
Bear had somehow thrashed its way to control its own destiny with a 3-3 tie with the Chevy Crew a 6-1 loss to BCS (which featured six assists from Rob Gretzky Weremy) and its win over the Builders.
Fraser River was actually on its way to the junk yard thanks to its tie with Bear, loss to Serenity and penalty filled 7-3 loss to BCS before a chance at redemption presented itself.
That chance was short lived as the Serenity victory over BCS erased any hope except for the coveted spoiler role.
They finally excelled when it didn’t matter with a 4-1 victory over Bear which set up the BCS vs. Serenity final.
You couldn’t have picked more unlikely dance partner’s for the final as BCS had almost three times as many points in the regular season (36-13) as Serenity but when the puck dropped it was anybody’s game to win.
Despite having the only power-play opportunity in the first half, Serenity gave up the first goal seven minutes in as Ian Heartbreaker Hannah was up to his old tricks.
The tight checking affair stayed a one goal game at Zamboni time thanks to some stellar play from Serenity’s Mike Sean Burke and BCS’s Mike Hammer Smith.
Not surprisingly, entering the contest the combatants featured the top tow tournament scorers as BCS’s Justin Time Rasmussen had waltzed his way to seven goals and five assists with Serenity’s “Billy” Joel Marsh close behind with eight goals and two assists.
The stalwart D on both sides focused on these offensive threats which gave the role players a chance to be Picasso’s when the short strokes became necessary.
Grabbing the paint brush first was BCS’s Wade The Blade Price who scored his fourth of the week thanks to a great assist by Darcy Doctor McGillivray who went onto score the clincher on a unassisted masterpiece to make the final 3-0.
Steve Dodge is a defensive winger with Bear Communications and an Observer contributor.