JETS MEN FINISH SECOND AT NATIONAL FINALS

The Golden Jets Senior Men's team won the regular season of the MLWP Eastern Conference for a third consecutive year but fell just short of a three-peat as National Champions.

Being the #1 seed, the Jets drew a bye into the semi-final which saw Saskatchewan emerge as the opponent from the quarter finals. The Jets jumped out in front quickly and built a 10-2 lead before closing out the victory 13-9.

Last year's championship finals MVP, Tuna Tali, led the way with a hat trick. Rudy Despaignes, Milos Radojcic, Alan Chung and Euan Scoffield each scored twice while Daniel Ugray and Matt Hart added singles.

In the final, the Jets faced off against the second place CAMO Roadrunners. Each team had won once during their regular season meetings.

The opening quarter was tightly contested and the Roadrunners led 3-2. The second quarter was even more tightly contested as the teams traded goals throughout leaving the Jets still trailing by a goal at 6-7.

With the score 9-8 for the Roadrunners mid-way through the third quarter, one of the referees fingered Jets star Despaignes for an apparent egregious violent act. This resulted in CAMO getting a penalty shot as well as the Jets having to play a man short for the remaining four minutes of the quarter. The Jets fought bravely and played the Roadrunners almost even despite being a man down to trail by three goals entering the final frame.

When CAMO scored early in the fourth to go up by four goals, everyone but the Jets thought the game was out of reach. But the Jets struck quickly for two goals in under a minute and pulled to within two goals.

However, the physical strain of playing a man short for more than half a quarter took its toll and the team ran out of gas and fell 17-12.

Radojcic had a monster game putting the team on his back by scoring five goals. Ugray netted a hat trick. Despaigne scored twice before his game ejection and Sukhmun Hare and Chung added solo goals.