It was a bittersweet victory for the Williams Lake Rope Rippers when they captured the Williams Lake Minor Hockey Association midget house division championship Sunday.
On one hand the team was crowned league champions while, at the same time, players were also bidding farewell to their minor hockey careers as they skated in their final game alongside friends, peers, coaches and mentors they’d been playing with since they were young children.
In the championship taking on the Yellow Goon Squad, the Rope Rippers fell behind early 2-0 following goals from the Goon Squad’s Owen Kielpinski and Landon Kielpinski, however, the Rope Rippers notched a late first period goal off the stick of Adam Systma to narrow the gap to 2-1.
Seconds later, however, the Goon Squad extended its lead to 3-1 as Owen tallied his second of the game to send his team up 3-1 heading into the second.
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From there, it was all Rope Rippers, as the team rattled off four unanswered goals to extend its lead to 5-3, which held up as the final score through a scoreless third period.
Lighting the lamp in the second for the Rope Rippers was Ethan Smid, with a hat trick, with Ruan Koster adding a single in the win.
Third place in the midget house division went to the Grey Grizzlies, who defeated the 100 Mile Midget Wranglers in a spirited, physical affair between the two sides.
Also playing in their final games of the season, players from the Williams Lake Wheat Kings and 100 Mile House Bantam Wranglers in the WLMHA’s bantam house division squared off in their respective final.
In what turned out to be a one-sided victory, the Wheat Kings cruised to a 9-0 win and the championship.
Kai Hilton found the twine five times, while Ethan Prest scored twice for the Wheat Kings. Adding singles were Hayden French and Michael Harvey.
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WLMHA house divisions are now in the midst of hosting their year-end banquets this week at Lake City Secondary School Williams Lake campus where divisional awards, along with WLMHA division-wide awards, will be presented.
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