It’s a dream result, which caps off a 20-year career.

Stampede ice hockey team head coach Cam Frear last weekend led his charges to their sixth successive New Zealand Ice Hockey League title, clinching the Birgel Cup in the third of three games in Queenstown on Sunday night.

Stampede lost the first game against Dunedin Thunder 6-4, last Friday, then won 6-2 on Saturday and Sunday.

There was plenty of drama on the ice, including an all-in melee after Saturday night’s game, which saw Stampede’s Logan Campbell cop a 20-minute penalty and Thunder’s Max Hurring serve five, and a nasty hit on Thunder’s Cole Beckstead from Stampede’s Connor Harrison near the end of Sunday night’s game.

Harrison was handed a five-minute penalty for roughing, while Beckstead is suspected to have sustained a concussion.

Of the latter incident, Frear says it was “an unfortunate situation”.

“You never like to see anyone get injured.

“Cole’s been a huge part of their team and you want to see everyone finish the season.

“Sometimes you make a decision in a split second and sometimes your timing’s a little bit out.”

Frear says the incident’s going through the judiciary process, but expects Harrison will ultimately receive a suspension for “a few games”.

That aside, the result’s a fitting way to farewell Frear, the architect of Stampede’s dynasty, who first pulled on a jersey for the team in 2006 as a 15-year-old — “I could have worn shoes, I didn’t skate on the ice, [but] I dressed every game” — and then went on to represent the side for 12 seasons, including three championship wins, before taking on the coaching role eight years ago.

Six from six, he says, “is pretty cool”.

“I’m very lucky that I’ve had a lot of the same players stay . . . the foundation of the team has been the same a lot, so to have that kind of consistency and be able to build that team around the likes of Aston Brooks and [Frear’s brothers] Mitch and Lachie and Connor Harrison . . . knowing that you only need to add a few pieces to be competitive every year, it makes my job a lot easier, for sure.”

While he’s stepping out of the Stampede coaching box, planning to take at least a year off, there are still things he’d like to tick off.

Noting he’s “not actually that old” as a coach, he’d love to jump back in and help the New Zealand Ice Blacks in future.

“That’s one thing I haven’t [achieved], is win a gold medal at a world championships, so that’s something that I’d love to try and do at some point.

“But I think going straight from playing 18, 19 seasons and then going straight into coaching, it’s definitely time for a break.

“Like I said to some of the boys, it doesn’t mean it’s forever, but I think it’s a good time for the team to have someone new come in, as well . . . not many people get to go away after winning, so the timing feels right as well.”

Frear says he and the team are indebted to their families, the volunteers, Queenstown Ice Arena staff, their supporters and, particularly, their sponsors.

“With it being an amateur sport, all that sponsorship means that guys in our team can play for longer.

“They have families and jobs and they have to give up a lot but to have sponsorship and make it easier for them to continue to play — without them, we wouldn’t have a team.”

tracey.roxburgh@scene.co.nz