It was do or die for the Edam 3-Stars Friday night, and the St. Walburg Eagles put the 3-Stars to rest in the North Saskatchewan River Hockey League final.
St. Walburg led the championship series 3-0 and ended the series before Edam could build any momentum, with a four-game sweep.
Two quick first period goals by St. Walburg's Darren Delainey and Mark Persick gave the visiting Eagles the 2-0 lead after one period.
In the second, the 3-Stars lost one of their offensive threats, Brett Jullion, for checking from behind, but before that both teams scored twice. For Edam, Martin Smith scored an unassisted goal and Brennan Weitzel set up Joel Budd.
St. Walburg's second period goals came from Matt Krepps and Shane Williamson and the Eagles led 4-2 with just 20 minutes remaining.
Brody Roach scored from Jordan Blaquiere and Joel Jullion as three minutes remained in the third period, but Williamson's second period goal held up as the game winning goal and the Eagles celebration started.
Bryan Bridges was the winning goalie while Quinton Gauthier suffered the loss.
St. Walburg swept Turtleford 3-0 in round one, beat Meadow Lake 3-1 in the semi final and swept Edam in the final 4-0 to go 10-1 in the playoffs and win the championship.
The Eagles, who were upended by Paradise Hill in last year's league final, have finally won a NSRHL championship, as they become the first team other than Paradise Hill and Edam to win the league title in nearly a dozen years. It has also been over 20 years since St. Walburg has raised a league championship trophy.
Bridges finished the playoffs with 586 minutes played and a 1.84 goals against average and was the backbone for the Eagles throughout the series.
Smith led the playoffs in goals with eight and had the most points with 16 in 10 games, but the credit had to go to the St. Walburg scoring depth. Delainey and Jordan Fuder had 15 points each, Shane Williamson had 13, Taylor Theissen had 12, Kevin Nasby had 11, Sheldon Williamson had 10 and Aaron Goldade, who led the league during the regular season, had just nine points in eight games.
After finishing third in the regular season with a 14-6-0 record, St. Walburg entered the playoffs focused and determined to win the championship and did just that.
