The Saugeen Shores Winterhawks are the 2009 WOAA Seniors Mens “AA” Champions.
The Winterhawks defeated the Tavistock Royals 6-4 last night to take the finals in 5 games.
Brian Kazarian scored four goals for the Winterhawks — 3 of them in the third period including the eventual game winner.
After a scoreless first period, Wes Kropf put the defending champs ahead 1-0 three minutes into the second period.
Saugeen Shores would answer back with a pair of goals — one from Ryan Dudgeon and another from Ryan Fry off a bad defensive zone giveaway to make it 2-1.
Tyler Roth and Tyler Heimpel would help the Royals regain the lead at 3-2 before Kazarian put in his first goal of the game on the power play to tie it up at 3 after 2 periods.
Kazarian scored a shorthanded goal 6 minutes into the third period to give the Winterhawks a 4-3 lead but that was short-lived as Roth’s second goal of the game — just 10 seconds later — tied things up at 4.
Kazarian then put the Winterhawks ahead for good at the 11-minute mark to make it 5-4 and later added an empty-netter to seal the win and the championship.
Dudgeon finished with a goal and an assist, Bill Monkman had 3 assists including one on Kazarian’s game-winner for the Winterhawks.
Roth had 2 goals and an assist while Kropf finished with a goal and 2 assists in the game for the Royals.
Nick Goetz stopped 31 shots for Saugeen Shores, Mike Gilles made 25 saves for Tavistock.
The Winterhawks win their first championship since returning to the league for the 2007-2008 season.