scored from Wayne Folster Jr. at 10:20 and then Skylar Tait-Reaume, a former KJHL scoring champion, made it 5-2 from Ballard and Sam Mackay Jr. at 15:23 to send it to the second intermission with Killarney in front 5-2. However, the Shamrocks came out aggressively in the third. Friesen, a former Neepawa Natives leftwinger who led Killarney in scoring during the regular season, tallied at 1:26 to make it 6-2 as Cuthbert and Bryce Lamb, a former Prince Albert Raiders star, drew the assists. Then, at 2:08, Howatt scored his second of the game, unassisted, to make it 7-2 and just 50 seconds later, Cuthbert scored from Friesen and Howatt to make it 8-2. At 7:05, Andrew Lochhead went in alone on Albert and made it 9-2 as Gow drew the only assist and at 15:02 Cody Einarson tallied the final goal of the game for Norway House as Ballard drew another assist.
Killarney outshot Norway House 43-37 as the Shamrocks’ Brian Archibald, a former Kings, Blizzard and Blues goalie, outdueled Albert between the pipes. Gow had a goal and four assists for Killarney while Howatt had two goals and two assists and Cuthbert had a goal and two assists. Ballard had a goal and two assists to lead the North Stars.“ We were healthy, we’ ve been here before and we knew what to expect,” said Skeoch.“ They stepped their game up when they had to.” For captain Jamie Schultz, this was the third time he’ d played on a Killarney Shamrocks championship team. Originally a Winnipegger, he’ s now a schoolteacher on a Hutterite Colony just outside Killarney, and there is nothing better than winning a championship with a group of friends.“ This was a blast,” said Schultz, 30, who played three seasons with MMJHL’ s Pembina Valley Twisters.“ It’ s been three years that we’ ve had the core group of this team. We picked up a couple of guys last year and a couple more this year and we just added to it. It’ s just a
really good group of guys and it’ s fun when you can go to the rink and know you’ re pretty much going to win every game.“ I’ ve never played on a team like this. It’ s a real special team. I’ ve been in Killarney for six years. My first year in Killarney, we won and then we had a few lean years and now we’ ve won two in a row. This is as good a team as I’ ve ever played on. I played three years in the MM with Pembina Valley and a couple of years in the States( with Dakota College at Bottineau), but those teams weren’ t anything like this team. Nothing against those teams, we had good teams in Bottineau, but this team is really special.” For Cuthbert, a former member of the Moose Jaw Warriors who lives in Brandon and plays for the Shamrocks with old friends Gow and Chapman, this might not be the best team he’ s ever played on, but it’ s probably the most fun.“ I joined the team last year, but the year before, I played in Dauphin( with the MJHL’ s Kings) with Chapman,( Colton) Magwood and( Jesse) Bernard,” he said.“ We went to the RBC Cup in Dauphin and didn’ t get the job done so we wanted to come to Senior together and see if we could get it done here and we’ ve won it two years in a row now. This is a pretty great group of guys.” For a veteran like Gow, who went on to play in the Allan Cup with Southeast Prairie Thunder nothing beats winning.“ Just wanted to win the final game of the year,” said Gow with a wide smile.“ Winning that last game hasn’ t happened often in my career. It’ s pretty cool to be with these guys and win the last game of the year. I haven’ t done it since Bantam. I only win a Killarney jersey.“ My parents still live in Killarney. All our guys were local guys so it’ s pretty awesome. We all love each other and we play great together. I go home on the weekends to play with this team and it’ s great. We have three guys on this team who aren’ t from Killarney and the all grew up playing hockey with us anyway. This is an awesome group.” n
2017 CHAMPIONS EDITION GAME ON 89