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April 11, 2003
Bears pull off upset win
Goaltenders and clutch goals highlight final game.
KYLE BERGER REPORTER
When White Rhino captain David Bakonyi slid the puck between the
legs of Lou Sunshine with 4.8 seconds left in the third period,
tying the game with the Golden Bears 2-2, his celebration on the
ice acknowledged the unlikeness of the situation.
However, unlikely as it was that he forced the final game of the
final series of the Vancouver Jewish Hockey League playoffs into
its final destination, overtime, the final outcome was even more
unlikely.
Just a couple of minutes into the extra period, amid a mad scramble
in front of White goalie Paul Pulver, who stood in for a missing
Yale Winestock, the puck found its way to the stick of Gold captain
Jack Serlin who popped in the series-winning goal.
Gold, with a 7-9-2 regular season, had defeated the powerhouse Rhinos,
who had finished the regular season in first place with a 13-2-3
record.
After the game and a short pause for a team picture, Serlin reflected
on the winning goal and his team's championship season.
"We were going to the front of the net hard all game, Jon Bell
kind of knocked it towards the front and I just got half a stick
on it and it trickled over the goal line," he said, still catching
his breath. "We were a bit of an underdog coming in as a fifth-place
team but I'm proud of all the guys because they worked their butts
off in the playoffs. White put up a great struggle, we had a great
time and it was a great run."
The game, which was chippier than a Doritos factory, was dominated
by the Golden Bears in the first period – when they weren't
short-handed with a player in the penalty box. However, White showed
their true colors in the second when defenceman Darren Trester rifled
a slap shot above Sunshine for the 1-0 lead.
Though the Rhinos kept pouring on the pressure, the never-say-never
Bears managed to tie the game with 14 seconds remaining in the second.
With both teams playing tight defensive systems and both netminders
playing at the top of their games, it looked like regulation time
might end in a 1-1 deadlock.
However, another mad scramble resulted in a Gold goal with less
than half of the final period remaining. With Pulver out of his
net for the extra attacker, Bakonyi pulled off a little playoff
magic of his own with his game-tying goal.
The three stars for the game were: 3. Doug Pulver, 2. Lou Sunshine,
1. Jack Serlin.
^TOP
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