C-Hawks celebrate provincial championship

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This article was published 26/04/2023 (867 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

While the Miniota/Elkhorn C-Hawks have been one of the top senior hockey squads in Westman over recent seasons, a provincial title had proven elusive.

That changed Sunday night at the East End Arena in Winnipeg as the C-Hawks captured the Hockey Manitoba Senior A championship with a 7-3 win over the Ste. Anne Aces in the third and deciding game of the provincial final.

C-Hawks head coach Garth Mitchell said it only took a matter of seconds for the team to realize what they had accomplished.

“We have been in that spot four times in the last six years so the desire and drive was there right from the start of the series with Ste. Anne,” Mitchell added. “I think that made a big difference in the end.”

The 2022-23 season was one of change for the team, as they moved from the North Central Hockey League — which ended up taking a year hiatus due to a lack of teams — to the Tiger Hills Hockey League.

“They had gone down to just four teams last season so we were looking forward to being in a league where there were some different teams to play and there was more variety instead of facing teams up to six times a year,” Mitchell said.

“The travel distance wasn’t a big change for us either as we were already used to the long haul to Swan River from when we were in the North Central league. It actually turned out to be a little more user-friendly, even though we played more games.”

Thanks in large part to a returning core that has played together for several seasons, the C-Hawks finished first in the THHL’s Western Division and had the best overall record in the league at 17-1. Their only loss was a wild 8-7 matchup with the Rivers Jets on Jan. 20.

In the playoffs, the C-Hawks swept aside the Souris Elks, the Jets and the Killarney Shamrocks before beating the Minnedosa Bombers in four games to capture the league title.

Although the team posted a 10-1 post-season record, Mitchell said that each series presented different challenges for the C-Hawks.

“Rivers and Killarney were both pretty physical teams so that was a really good test for us,” Mitchell said.

“You can’t expect to go through the playoffs undefeated and Minnedosa was a real solid opponent for us in the final, especially as they had some great goaltending from Jayson Argue and Devon Fordyce.

“They beat us in Game 2 in overtime and I thought that we rebounded well after that in our next two games. The series could have gone either way at that point.”

With the THHL title in its possession, the C-Hawks turned its attention to the best-of-three series with the Aces, who won the South Eastern Manitoba Hockey League title.

This year’s provincial final was a different format than what the C-Hawks had faced in prior seasons.

Five league champions and a wild card would take part in a tournament in Winnipeg that was held in conjunction with the Manitoba Cup, but with only two Senior A leagues taking place this season, a head-to-head series was implemented.

“I definitely like it better than a one-game showdown for sure,” Mitchell said. “Plus, it allowed us to have a home game, which wasn’t the case when everything was based in Winnipeg.”

After taking a 2-0 lead after three minutes in the series opener on April 8 in Winnipeg, the C-Hawks could only watch on as the Aces scored three unanswered goals on their way to a 3-2 win.

The C-Hawks rebounded on April 16 with a 5-2 win at Tundra Oil & Gas Place in Virden. Curtis Gardham led the way with two goals, while Brad Bowles dished out three assists.

In the series decider last Sunday, Shawn Bowles had a hat trick in the first period and the C-Hawks never looked back.

“We had just come off our best 60-minute effort of the year in Virden and our group just sent the tone in the first period in their rink,” Mitchell said. “We essentially won the game there.”

While the offence garnered most of the attention for the C-Hawks, Mitchell felt that blue-liners Brad Cole, Stacy Lowes, Colin Paull, Devrin Stonehouse and Dillin Stonehouse were the unsung heroes of this year’s team.

“Those guys made a huge difference for us when they went up against some of the top forwards in the province,” Mitchell said.

When it comes to next season, the C-Hawks are back in the THHL, though the makeup of the squad won’t be known for a few more months.

“There’s a lot of veterans on our team so we are hopefully that we’ll get a lot of them back,” Mitchell said. “We won’t know the answer to that though until we get through the summer.”

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