The Ridge Meadows Flames lost the Mowat Cup championship to the Grand Forks Border Bruins by a 9-6 score on Sunday, April 27.
For the second straight year, the Flames finish the season as the second best Junior A team in BC Hockey.
General manager Derek Bedard said it was a tough loss for his team.
"Crushing. Devastating," he said. "There were a lot of emotions."
He said the pain was amplified because it also marked the end of the year for a tight-knit group of players.
The Flames had a long break after they won their second straight Pacific Junior Hockey League championship, the Stonehouse Cup on March 30. Their head coach Brent Hughes said they were rusty, and the Bruins took the first two games of the series in Maple Ridge.
"A three-week layover here was a lot worse than we anticipated," said Hughes. "Our guys didn't get off to a good start, and we never got to play Flames hockey."
He said his team needed to get back its good habits, work ethic, and attention to systems play. The rust also showed in a lot of shots that missed the net, he said.
Hughes also gave credit to the Bruins, who won the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League championship.
"Grand Forks has got a great hockey club too, and obviously they're champions," said the coach. "And they come down here serious to win this series too."
The Flames took game three on Saturday night in Grand Forks by a 5-4 score. Captain Lukas Ravenstein, the PJHL's top defenceman this year, scored twice in that game, including the game winner with two minutes left to play. Cohen Muc had a goal and an assist, and other scorers were Jacob Roche and Zack Lagrange.
But in the fateful fourth game, the Bruins jumped out to a 3-0 lead after 15 minutes of play. The Flames tied it up early in the second period, as PJHL scoring champ Lagrange got his third and fourth goals of the series on the power play. But then the Bruins scored five straight goals, and put a comeback out of reach.
Lagrange finished with two goals and three points in the game, and led his team in playoff scoring with four goals and seven points in the series. Nolan Bowsher and Jakob Loewen each had five points through the four games.
Last season, the Flames lost in the Mowat Cup championship game, in overtime, to the Revelstoke Grizzlies.
In time, the team will look back with pride on what Bedard said were "without question" two great seasons, where they have two silver medals from the Mowat Cup, back-to-back Stonehouse Cup championships, and a combined record of 110-18-2-3 over those two regular seasons and playoff runs.
