They had to hang on for their lives at the end, but hang on they did, and the Hafford Hawks are the Saskatchewan Prairie Hockey League Champions.
The Hawks outlasted a final power play opportunity for the Meota Combines in the final two minutes of game five, and held on to a 2-1 win for a 3-2 series triumph.
The game capped a hectic couple of days of hockey in the Battlefords, with the deciding game played at Battleford Arena in front of a near sellout.
The night before, another large crowd had showed up at the North Battleford Civic Centre, home of the Meota Combines, for the fourth game with the Radisson and District Co-op Cup in the house.
The home team's fans were hoping their team could do what the Battlefords AAA Stars had done in Tisdale just a night earlier - come back from a 2-1 series deficit in order to win.
The Combines scored first just 1:51 into game four as Aaron Cadrin scored his second of the playoffs from Kyle Gregoire and O'Neil Baillargeon, beating Kristian Sawyshyn in net to make it 1-0.
Hafford tied it up with 8:06 left in the first as Kyle Rivett scored unassisted, prompting a loud cheer from the fans who brought noisemakers to the game.
But the Combines regained the lead just 57 seconds later as Baillargeon scored his third of the playoffs from Gregoire and Cadrin to make it 2-1.
A penalty to Meota's Dalin Iverson for cross checking at 13:51 put the Hawks on the power play but the Combines were able to kill it off. The period ended with the Combines in the lead 2-1.
In the second, Hafford took advantage of a golden opportunity to score. Scott Thompson broke free on a two-on-nobody opportunity on 35. He scored, with Scott Linnell assisting, and the game was tied at 2-2.
At the 6:04 mark Rivett got two minutes for roughing, while Cadrin received a double minor for roughing, putting Hafford on the power play. But Meota was able to kill it off.
With Cody Ryan of Hafford in the box for holding, the Combines had a power play chance midway through the period, and at one point they thought they scored. But the referees had waived the play off, in part because they had called a penalty to Dallas Simmonds for roughing.
That briefly put Meota on a two-man advantage. Hafford was able to reduce that advantage down to one before the Combines' Tyson Knight scored with Taylor Tatchell assisting, at 10:44.
The Hawks had another power play chance with the Combines' Devan Oborowsky in the box, but that was wiped out by a too-many-men penalty against Hafford, and with 3:36 remaining the Combines scored on the power play as Brody Tatchell scored, his second of the playoffs, Michael Pylypow and Tyson Knight assisting.
The period ended with Meota seemingly in control 4-2, but the Hawks had other ideas.
Early in the third, Hafford capitalized when the Combines' Taylor Tatchell took a boarding penalty just 40 seconds into the period.
At the 1:29 mark, Thompson scored his second of the game from Ryan Schafer and Darren Delainey, prompting an exuberant reaction from the Hawks' bench.
At the 8:24 mark Kyle Rivett scored from Scheafer to tie the game at 4-4.
With 9:28 left Simmonds took a hooking penalty, putting Meota back on the power play, but the Combines could not get much going against the Hawks penalty-kill and Sawyshyn made a key save to keep the game tied.
The Combines seemed to be hanging on for dear life as the period ticked down, but mercifully for them the third period ended and SPHL finals game four moved immediately to a sudden-death overtime.
It did not last long. Just 1:37 in, Baillargeon scored to give Meota a 5-4 overtime win, forcing game five Saturday night.
And so it all came down to the deciding game at Battleford Arena, Hafford's temporary home- away-from-home, for the cup.
Just six minutes into the game, Tyson Knight scored to give Meota the early advantage 1-0, Michael Pylypow and Tatchell assisting.
Late in the period a pair of Meota penalties had the Hawks on a brief two-man advantage.
But nothing came of it, thanks in part to Meota's Taylor Tatchell who broke free with the puck to the other end of the ice, colliding right into the net.
The second period moved swiftly with Hafford controlling play early on in the period while Meota picked it up midway through the period. After Hafford's Ryan Schafer went off for tripping midway through the second, the Combines had some chances to score but couldn't capitalize.
With 7:35 left and after a couple of stops by the Meota netminder, the Hawks finally tied it scored as Kyle Rivett beat Quintin Gaulthier. Lance Lamontagne and Ryan Scheafer got the assists.
A tripping call to Gregoire put the Hawks on the power play again late in the period. Despite opportunities including a shot that just missed wide of the net, the score remained 1-1 at the end of two periods.
In the third Gaulthier kept the game tied with some timely saves early in the third with Hafford pressuring.
Finally, at the 8:56 mark, Hafford took the lead as Linnell fed Rivett who found the back of the net for his second of the game and 12th of the playoffs. Scheafer also got an assist.
With 6:40 left, Simmonds of the Hawks went off for hooking. With a power play and with the cup on the line, Meota called an immediate time out. But Hafford's penalty killing frustrated the Combines and their lead held.
With their fans chanting, “Go, Hawks! Go!” Hafford seemed poised to win the cup, but with 2:05 left the Hawks' Cody Ryan took a tripping penalty to give the Combines one last chance to tie the game.
That set up a desperate final two minutes as Meota pulled their netminder for the extra attacker. Hafford finally forced a faceoff in the Meota zone with 23 seconds left, and the Hawks were able to kill the remaining time to touch off a wild celebration at the final buzzer as the netminder was mobbed by his teammates.
League president Wayne Schmidt presented the playoff MVP award to Scott Linnell, and then presented Captain Ryan Scheafer with the Cup.
And that wraps up another exciting Sask. Prairie League season in 2014-15.
