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The Southern Stampede, are back in Queenstown after narrowly losing out to the Botany Swarm 3-5 at Saturday night's final in Auckland. Photo by Joe Dodgshun. |
Southern Stampede coach Stephen Reid is still a proud and
pleased man.
He saw no reason to be too despondent after seeing his side
beaten by the Botany Swarm in the national ice hockey league
final in Auckland on Saturday night.
The Swarm dominated the final period to claim the title with
a 5-3 win at the Paradice Arena.
For Reid and the Queenstown-based Stampede, it was a
disappointing end to a Cinderella season but the loss could
not detract from the satisfaction gained from going from the
wooden spoon to the final.
"Human nature, you want to win of course," Reid told the
Otago Daily Times yesterday.
"But we've had time for a little bit of reflection and we're
ecstatic we've come as far as we have.
"We just need to turn around next year and prove we're a
play-off team again."
In a physical and tight first period, Stampede stars Simon
Glass and Brett Speirs both spent time in the penalty bin.
The Swam scored on the power play but otherwise found it
extremely difficult to get past classy Southern goaltender
Aston Brookes.
Adnan Mlivic levelled the scores for the Stampede with a goal
2min before the end of the first period.
Estonian import Alex Polozov missed an open goal for the
Swarm in a scoreless second period, with Brookes again in
superb form.
Glass struck the first blow in a wild final period when his
early goal gave the Stampede a 2-1 lead.
But the Swarm fired back with two quick goals, to Polozov and
KC Ball, and then jumped out to 4-2 with a Brian Mosely goal.
Speirs cut the lead to make it 4-3 with 6min left, before
Polozov found the net to give the Swarm the title.
"It was anyone's game going into the third period, so it was
nice and intense," Reid said.
"We broke the deadlock first but unfortunately, they got a
couple of lucky bounces and capitalised on them.
"They made the most of their opportunities. We had a couple
that went begging. But that's just hockey."
Glass was named Stampede MVP, while the team's internal award
was presented to Speirs.
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