TRURO – The Cumberland County Amherst Toyota Ramblers are provincial champions.
The Ramblers scored a thrilling 5-4 overtime win over the Halifax Hawks to capture the provincial peewee AA championship at the Rath Eastlink Community Centre on Saturday.
After letting a 4-2 lead slip away late in the third period, the Ramblers picked up the win midway through the first overtime when Reece MacDonald carried the puck up the ice, entered the Hawks’ zone on the right side and tried to pass the puck out front to forward Burke Beed.
The puck went off a Halifax defenceman’s skate and trickled by the goaltender as the Ramblers bench emptied and the players mobbed MacDonald and goalie Phoenix Remington.
It’s the first peewee provincial championship for Cumberland County since 2002 when the Ramblers upset Sydney Mines to win the title.
Alex Herrett, Burke Beed, Ben MacDonald and Ethan Rose also scored for the Ramblers, who scored a pair of third period goals to jump out to a two-goal lead and seemed set to win the championship.
The Ramblers had some penalty problems late and the Hawks scored to pull within one on the power play with the extra attacker on the ice and then scored with less than 15 seconds to go to force overtime.
Cumberland County weathered the storm as the Hawks came close to ending it in the dying seconds of regulation time.
The Ramblers, who won the SEDMHA tournament last weekend, won the conference championship two weeks ago in Amherst in similar style, building up a big lead on the West Hants Warriors only to see the visiting team rally to tie the score late with Aidan McBurnie sealing the win in the final moments of the game.
