Sudbury Nickel Capital Wolves TELUS Cup Champions

BY SCOTT HADDOW

All tournament long, the Sudbury Nickel Capital Wolves built momentum through the 2008 TELUS Cup.

It reached its pinnacle on Sunday afternoon when the Nickel Capital Wolves dumped the Winnipeg Thrashers 6-4 to claim the national AAA midget championship in Arnprior.

Sudbury is the first team to win the national crown and the first team from the Central Canadian Region (Ontario) since 1984 to earn a gold medal victory.

"This is the greatest moment of my whole life," captain Mathieu Lecours said. "It's unreal and the best feeling ever. Every game, all week long, we had someone else step up and play their heart out."

Sudbury surprised Winnipeg with two quick goals in the first period.

Steve Taylor pounded on a defensive miscue by the Thrashers and stuffed the first goal into the net. Deven Stillar then raced in from the blueline and fired a backhand shot past Winnipeg goalie Brett Martyniuk to make it 2-0.

Before the period ended, Winnipeg tallied two quick goals to tie the game at 2-2.

In the second period, Sudbury got sloppy with their discipline and it cost them as Winnipeg found the back of the net to make it 3-2.

Sudbury roared to life in the third period when Lecours wired a hard one timer slap shot from the top of the slot to tie the game.

Justin Lockeyer, playing his first game in two days since sustaining a concussion, tallied Sudbury's fourth goal on a wrap around to make it 4-3.

Sudbury's Denis Restoule then jammed the puck into the net to make it 5-3.

Winnipeg scored a late goal on the power play in the third period to make things tense for Sudbury.

Stefan Herrington then ended Winnipeg's comeback hopes with an empty net goal to seal the TELUS Cup for Sudbury.

"These were a bunch of kids, who battled adversity all week long and came through in the end," head coach Peter Michelutti Jr. said. "They're the comeback kids. They never stopped skating, working or believing…this game or any game this week. It showed today and we won a national championship. We're proud of them and they've done Sudbury proud."

Stillar was named the Player of the Game for Sudbury.

"We're on top of the world," Stillar said. "I know what that feels like now. We kept our heads up all game and never gave up and just kept gaining momentum. It was an emotional roller coaster ride for sure. We laid it all on the line and it paid off. (Winning the award) is an accomplishment, but it could have gone to anyone on this team. It took a total team effort to win this."

Sudbury again had to kill off numerous penalties, something the penalty killing units have become accustomed to.

"We're good at it because we take so many penalties and have a lot of practice at it," joked P.J. Taus. "Every last guy on this team worked his butt off to realize this…it's just awesome we won."

The veteran players on the team had a hard time containing their emotions. Defenceman Lenny Talarico, a three-year defender, was overwhelmed and had tears of ultimate joy running down his face.

"I am so happy," Talarico said. "It's hard to imagine right now. We put up a real battle and we won…we're the national champions."

(Full statistics of the game from Hockey Canada were unavailable at press time.)