St. Charles Wins Sixth Consecutive Title

For the sixth time in as many years St. Charles Community College found themselves in the National Championship Game seeking to defend their National Championship for the fifth time and extend their record streak of five consecutive National Championships in Division III.  However, looking to prevent the Cougars from that goal was Riverside Community College, a first-year program out of California who had opened a lot of eyes en route to the Championship Game. 

 

Early Saturday morning during round-robin play, Riverside CC presented St. Charles CC with a challenge after coming back from a 2-1 deficit at the beginning of the third period to tie the game to take the lead at 3-2 early in the third before the Cougars scored three consecutive goals to secure the win by a final score of 5-3. 

 

Sunday morning Riverside CC presented even more problems for St. Charles CC as the teams exchanged goals back and forth through the first two periods with Riverside CC taking a 4-3 lead into the third period, but the lead did not last long as St. Charles scored their first of three consecutive goals in the third period just 1:22 into the period when Jay Gregory scored his first of two goals in the period.

 

Gregory tied the game at 4-4 when he took a pass from Brandon Marchand (3 assists) and skated in along the right boards before cutting to the middle of the rink and firing a slap shot over the glove of Tigers goalie Ryan McNichols (23 saves) with 10:38 remaining.

 

St. Charles took their first lead of the game under two minutes later when Gregory received a cross-ice pass from Kevin Bagin (2 goals, 1 assist) at the right post, hesitating just long enough to get McNichols down before he roofed a wrist shot into the upper corner of the net over McNichols glove hand to take a 5-4 lead with 8:47 remaining.  

 

The Cougars extended their lead to 6-4 just 2:31 later when Bagin took a pass from Marchand and broke in on McNichols with a step on his defender before deking to his backhand and slipping the puck into the net to put St. Charles up by two goals with 6:06 remaining. 

 

The Tigers were not ready to concede the game just yet, applying pressure on the Cougars net and drawing a penalty with 3:37 remaining when Mike Haas was whistled for interference giving Riverside a man-advantage opportunity.  Shane Mohr (3 goals, 1 assist) took advantage of the opportunity to bring the Tigers within a goal when Stephen Campbell (0 goals, 2 assists) won an offensive zone face-off back to Mohr at the right point where Mohr fired a slap shot over a sliding defenseman and past St. Charles goaltender Jake Routzahn (17 saves) to make the score 6-5 with just 2:35 remaining. 

 

Riverside CC picked up their pressure on the Cougars defense within a goal and earned themselves multiple scoring opportunities however were unable to beat Routzahn. 

The Tigers best scoring opportunity came with under one minute remaining in the game when the Tigers were awarded a penalty shot after a Cougar defenseman threw his stick at the puck as the Tigers controlled the puck in front of the St. Charles net.  Brandon Barnette (1 goal, 2 assists) was selected to take the penalty shot by his teammates.  Barnette skated in from center ice on Routzahn before firing a wrist shot at the goalie?s five-hole, but Routzahn was up to the task dropping to his knees and closing his pads just in time to stop the puck. 

 

Withstanding the late pressure of the Tigers, the Cougars held on for a 6-5 victory to secure their record sixth consecutive Division III National Championship, in the process also picking up the second title for the Great Plains region (Lindenwood B picked up the first title of the tournament). 

 

St. Charles Community College finishes their championship season with a record of 20-5-0 overall, the Division III National Championship, and the Great Plains Division III Championship. 

 

Riverside Community College finishes their inaugural season having made quite an impression with a 22-7-1 overall record to go along with finishing the season as the Division III National Runner-Up and the WCRHL Division I Championship.