The Central Alberta Tier 3 U15 Hockey League champion Fort Macleod Mavericks.
Fort Macleod Mavericks added another title Sunday to their haul in the 2023-’24 Central Alberta Tier 3 U15 Hockey League season.
The Mavericks beat the Lethbridge Hurricanes 5-3 at the Fort Macleod and District Sports Centre to win their two-game, total-goal playoff series 6-4.
The Mavericks added the playoff banner to their regular season championship.
Fort Macleod will now compete in a playoff tournament with other Tier 3 division champions for the right to go to provincials.
This series looked like a mismatch on paper, as the Mavericks placed first in regular season with a 13-1-2 record, while the Hurricanes (1-11-4) were last.
Lethbridge got hot at the right time, beating Redcliff Grizzlies in the first round and Medicine Hat in the semifinals.
Fort Macleod had a first-round bye and knocked off Magrath in the semis.
Hurricanes 1 Mavericks 1
The teams opened the championship series Saturday with a 1-1 tie at the Labour Club Ice Centre.
Lethbridge got the game’s first goal 6 1/2 minutes into the second period.
The 1-0 lead stood up for 11 minutes until Nate Mandel scored for Fort Macleod, assisted by Wyatt Bartek and Cooper Heather.
There was no scoring the rest of the way as Mavericks goalie Nash Potts and his Lethbridge counterpart Andrew Goughnour held the shooters at bay.
Potts finished the game with 24 saves while Goughnour blocked 35 shots.
Mavericks 5 Hurricanes 3
For a while Sunday at the Fort Macleod and District Sports Centre it looked like Lethbridge was going to write a final chapter in their underdog story.
In the end though, it was the Mavericks who skated a victory lap with the championship banner to the sounds of Queen’s iconic song We Are the Champions.
Riley Maljaars staked Fort Macleod to a 1-0 lead with a powerplay goal just 2:15 into the game, assisted by Wyatt Bartek.
The Mavericks nursed that 1-0 lead until four minutes into the second period when Lethbridge tied the game.
Five minutes later the Hurricanes took the lead, and eight minutes after that found themselves leading 3-1.
The third Hurricanes goal brought the Mavericks back to life and the Mavericks quickly tied it up.
Hunter Crosschild scored his first of the game on a powerplay with 2:24 to play in the second, assisted by Riley Maljaars and Adrian Creighton.
Just 31 seconds later Crosschild scored again, this time assisted by Johnny Fletcher and Maljaars.
Riley Maljaars scored what proved to be the winning goal five minutes into the third period, assisted by Lochlan Vandervalk.
With just over two minutes to play Maljaars completed his hat trick, assisted by Hunter Crosschild, as Fort Macleod skated to a 5-3 win to claim the series by an aggregate score of 6-4.
Nash Potts faced just 12 shots Sunday as his teammates poured 39 on Lethbridge goalie Nate Nelson.
