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Adam Coates (right) hugsSt. Joiufs-Ravcoscourt teammate RyanReaves after winning championship last night.Big line leads Eagles to 2nd straight titleBy Chris DariduAFTER 20 years, Fred Stevenson coached his final high school hockey game last night. And he says his top unit of Andreas Schaub, Michssl Seaman and Ryan Reaves might be the be st he ^ever seen play in St. John's-Ravenscourt Eagles uniforms.Reaves scored two goals and two assists, Seaman added a goal and three assi as and Schaub chipped in with a goal andanassistastheEagtesbrokeopena eta m game to beat the Silver Heights Hu skies 14 and retain their McDonald's Provincial High School Hockey Cham pionship.It wasn't ju st that top line, it was everybody, Stevenom said after his team chanted“Freddte! Freddie! a s the clock counted down the final seconds to what turned into an ea sy victory thanks to his top line's 10-point night. '-But that line ha s scored three goals every league game all year long.“And then to get four in a championship game and really dominate when they were on there, it was something el x, Stevenson added. They're the test line in high school hockey this year and msyte forquite a fewyears. It couM bs one of the very top lines I've ever coached at SJR.Reaves, the Kin of former WmnipegBlue Bomber s running-back Willard Reaves, is only in Grade 11. He was the most dominating playsr on tie ice la stnight — a big winger v?ho era ste s and bangs and likes to score.Defeno-cman Adam Coate s had a goal and two assists for the Eagles while Shalen Kouk and Jeff Bigelow al» scored for the champions. Colin Rout-ledge, Cody Briggs, TVevor Lines and James McKee replied for the Huskies, white Sean Skene added three as sist s.Reave strtedtodeftectcreditfrom his lineatane.“Our line did a lot but if you taok at the gan2, they didn't sod re onanyof our other lines, said Reaves, whose two goals in the first three minutes of the third period broke a Z-Z tie and xnt the Eagles to victory. TteycouMn't get anything out of our other lines.Seaman, named the tournament'smo a valuabte player, saidit's hard to stop the line when it's in gear.“I think they felt a bit overwhelmed, he said “We were dating hard, flierc was no tet-up or time s where we took it easy, we were playing pro-active, ratreactive.Silver Heights cocoach Patrick tenner said the Eagtes were simply more motivated to win.That line wa s ju st a lot hungrier than our line,he said. 'T think emotionally, our chamrcnnshin was (Tue sdsv niirht.semifinal). We worked » hard and our guys didn't quite have their step today.Bert Frtexn, the other Huskies' co coach, said the Eagles' top line was the difference.“Vfe ,iu st couldn't handte them today, he said. Today's the first time weVe played them that we cou ldn't handle them. But the guys had a great cason, they lost only 11 gam-cs all :a»n.The heartbreaker is not winning the Winnipeg championship or the provincial championship.The city title went to the Crusaders and the provincial title went, again, to the Eagles. And that suits Stevenson, caltedthe father of high school hoctey in Winnipeg, .iustfme.“Our goal at the beginning of the year ws s to be the best team in the province, he said. “We didn't win the city champion ship but we did win the provincial championship. And I like it when we xt a goal — we set this after the very first game of the sea sm when we beat River East. We said we can be the be st team in the province. And we did.Schaub won tit players' choios award. The tournament all-stars were goal-tender TVistan Kouk, defenceman Connor Me Carry and Reaves, all of SJR, white the Hu skies haddefenceman Wade Poplawski and Routledge named to the all- star s^uad. Foma id Marc End) of tie Cru ader s rounded out the li st.
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