Rocanville wins second straight THL championship

For the second year in a row, the Rocanville Tigers are Emile Balogh Champions of the Triangle Hockey League. Devin LeBlanc scored three goals, capping his incredible run of 17 goals in 11 games during the postseason, leading the Tigers to a 6-2 win over the Theodore Buffalos on Wednesday night and winning the best of five series 3-games-to-2. LeBlanc opened the scoring early in the first when he sprung himself free on a breakaway and went top shelf on Kevin Dziaduck. The Buffs tied it when John Neibrandt fired a point shot off a face off and it looked like it was going to be a defensive struggle from that point as there wasn't another goal until midway through the second. Stephane Fouillard pinched in from the point and blasted a shot over Dziaduck to make it 2-1. Brett Hope finished off a 3-on-1 shortly after that to increase the advantage to 3-1. In the third, LeBlanc ripped a shot from the right of the Buffs net to make it 4-1, taking advantage of a Rocanville powerplay. Then, it was LeBlanc scoring his hat trick goal into an empty net to make it 5-1 late in the third. Garrett Fraser got credit for a goal in the final moments as Dziaduck made a blocker save on the shot, but the puck ended up high in the air and was going to land behind him in the net and on the clearing attempt by the defenseman, it was gloved into the mesh by accident. Cody Zubko capped the scoring with 8-seconds to go as he found the five hole on Scott Shivak, who played a solid game, behind a defense that didn't give the Buffs many opportunities to excite a capacity crowd. While the official attendance wasn't immediately known, the 50/50 draw was over $2700. It's the second straight title for the Tigers, who also beat Theodore last year in the final. The Buffs are still alive in Provincial C playdowns, as they travel to Drake on Friday to face the Canucks, who lead them 1-0 in the best of three final series.