Pembroke defangs Vipers
By Con Griwkowsky,Edmonton Sun
First posted: Sunday, May 8, 2011
EDMONTON - CON GRIWKOWSKY
Edmonton Sun
CAMROSE — Good golly, Mr. Milley.
Jonathan Milley scored an unassisted goal on a breakaway with 6:24 left in regulation time, then added an empty-net insurance marker as the Pembroke Lumber Kings stung the Vernon Vipers 2-0 in Sunday’s final of the RBC Cup national Junior A championship.
“This is a great accomplishment,” said Milley. “I tried to get in the lane, the puck hit my stick. I kinda broke for the net and once that happened, I knew I had to bury it.
“I lost the puck for a second, dragged it back and put it five-hole. When I saw it go in, it was such a big excitement.
“When I put it in the empty net and put the game away, there’s no bigger deal.
“We’re five-year champs in our league. I felt coming in here we didn’t get the respect we deserved. We knew we had this. We’ve been through way too much to not bear down and get this. I’m so glad for the boys now.”
It’s the first Canadian title in six national appearances for Pembroke, located close to CFB Petawawa in eastern Ontario.
It also marks the first time in 35 years a team from the Central Canadian Hockey League has won a national title.
Pembroke goaltender Francois Dupuis was sensational as he turned aside a barrage of excellent scoring chances.
In all, Dupuis made 40 stops to earn the shutout.
“I only had one other shutout this year, so it’s a very good time to get my second one,” said Dupuis.
“It’s unbelievable. I don’t even know what to think. It’s been a great ride all around for the boys tonight.
“It was definitely nerve-wracking. After we scored that goal, you realize you’re six minutes away from a national championship as long as you hold the shutout.
“You get nervous. I started bobbling a couple of pucks at the end. My nerves were kind of out there a bit, but I’m happy we could pull through.”
After a shaky start to the week, Pembroke could only muster a 1-3 record heading into the playoff weekend.
With a steady rope-a-dope style, they frustrated the hometown Camrose Kodiaks in Saturday’s semifinal, then beat Vernon, who had qualified for this tournament by beating the No. 1 and No. 2 teams in the country.
It was beyond satisfying for head coach Sheldon Keefe, holding his son Landon, who was born on the first day of Pembroke’s training camp.
“I can’t even put it into words,” said Keefe. “Satisfying is not the correct word. I was proud of our guys no matter what happened. We’ve been a resilient group all season.
“Today, you could tell it was a bit of destiny. We had a little bit of destiny against Camrose. You could tell.
“We just got things going our way. We knew the longer we hung around, the better it would be for us. We weren’t going to be denied today.”
It was a huge turnaround from the team that dropped a 5-2 decision to the Vipers on Thursday.
“Vernon is a team that takes you out of the game early,” said Keefe. “We were happy with 0-0 at the end of two.”
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