FROM THE ARCHIVES: MEN'S HOCKEY WINS CHAMPIONSHIP
The Coven, March 23, 1981
By Tony Poland
A high spirited Humber Hawks varsity hockey team advanced to the Canadian Colleges championships after claiming the Ontario and Canadian titles in less than a week.
The Hawks won the Central Canadian crown by embarrassing Manitoba’s Assiniboine Cougars 6-1 and 12-6 in a two game total-goals final at Westwood Arena on the weekend.
Last Monday, Humber defeated the Seneca College Braves 6-5 for the provincial titles on an overtime goal by seldom-used forward Scott Adamson. The Braves were undefeated throughout the regular season and the playoffs before the championship match.
The fast paced game, which saw the lead change hands four times, ended at 6:16 of the first overtimes period when Adamson took a pass from Ken Addis, moved down the left side and put the puck behind the Seneca goalie.
Adamson didn’t think much of the winning goal, which came off a low soft shot. “I fanned on it and it went right between the goalies legs,” he said.
The Humber forward joined the team at Christmas but wasn’t given a regular shift until the playoffs. “I knew I was good enough to play, I just needed to prove it”.
Adamson got his chance after injuries cut into the Hawks line-up.
The Hawks, who were beaten in four meetings against the Braves this year, opened the scoring early in the first period on a Warren Giovannini goal.
Giovannini and line mates Dwayne Rosenberg and Dana Shutt provided Humber with plenty of offensive muscle totaling six points in the game.
The Hawks fell behind 2-1 before taking charge of the game. Goals by Mark Bannerman and Rosenberg gave Humber a second period lead.
Humber went into the dressing room with a 4-3 lead after dominating the second frame when a series of third period penalties gave Seneca the chance to catch and eventually pull ahead.
The Braves had a 5-4 lead with 32 seconds to play when defenceman Conrad Wiggan jammed a loose puck into the Seneca net.
The Braves seemed to be content to just shoot the puck at every chance, in the overtime. Usually the Seneca shots were from outside the blue line and presented little or no problem to goalie Dave Jennings.
The Hawks worked the puck into the Brave zone looking for scoring chances and at 6:16the Humber strategy paid off when Adamson’s shot put the game, and Seneca’s season to an end.
In the Central Canadian championship, the Hawks totaled 18 goals in two games to defeat the Manitoba champions.
Assiniboine College, who sported a record of 31 wins, 12 ties and five losses, wee outclassed by the Ontario champion Hawks in both skating and scoring.
Humber produced the first goal of the series when Darrin Etmanski knocked the puck in after a scramble in front of the Assiniboine net. Etmanski also finished the scoring for the Hawks on a pretty passing play in the third period.
If the Assiniboine Cougars had a friend in the arena on Friday night it was the referee. The calls for the game were seemingly one-sided with Humber getting the short end of the stick.
When the hinges of the penalty box weren’t being well worked, the Hawks were busy putting the puck in the net. Scot Adamson, who claimed the winning goal in overtime, Gord Grant, Jerry Cantarutti and Karl Sobotka each had single markers.
The Cougars switched netminders at the beginning of the third period with hopes of making a comeback but those hopes were dashed by two Hawk goals.
In the final game yesterday, the Hawks relied on two goals that were scored while they were playing two men short.
The game for the most part, was played sloppily by both teams.
Coach Peter Maybury was not proud of his team’s play although they won the championship. “I’m happy but we did not play well. We only played good enough to win”.
The Hawks now advance to the Canadian championships this weekend at Conestoga College in Kitchener. Humber will play in a two-game series against a team from the Maritimes and if they win will play against the winner of Conestoga College and a Western-Canadian team.
