VERNON, B.C. – The Yorkton Terriers have won the 2014 RBC Cup, Canada’s 44th National Junior A Championship, with a 4-3 overtime victory over the Carleton Place Canadians on Sunday night at Kal Tire Place.
The national championship is the first for Yorkton, which was making its fifth all-time appearance at the tournament. The Terriers are the 10th team from the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League to be crowned national champions, and the fourth to do it since the start of the five-team format in 1990. The Humboldt Broncos were the last SJHL team to win the national title, in 2008.
Derek Falloon scored the game-winning goal 15:01 into overtime to give the Terriers the national championship. It was the second extra-time winner for Falloon in the last four days; he also scored in overtime in Yorkton’s 2-1 win Thursday over the Dauphin Kings that clinched a semifinal spot for the Terriers.
Daylan Gatzke, Tanner Lishchynsky and Dylan Johnson scored in regulation time for Yorkton, which trailed 3-1 with less than three minutes to go before Lishchynsky and Johnson scored goals eight seconds apart to force overtime.
The Terriers won four do-or-die games in a span of five days, becoming the second team in the last three years to start 0-2 and win the RBC Cup, joining the Penticton Vees in 2012.
Anthony McVeigh, Stephen Baylis and Andy Sturtz, who was named RBC CJHL Player of the Year at Friday night’s awards banquet, had the goals for Carleton Place, which reached the final in its first-ever appearance at Canada’s National Junior A Championship.
The Canadians came up just one goal short of joining the Rockland Nationals (1976) and Pembroke Lumber Kings (2011) as national champions from the Central Canada Hockey League.
The 2015 RBC Cup will be held in May 2015 in Portage la Prairie, Man., with the Portage Terriers of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League serving as the host team.
For more information on the 2014 RBC Cup, visit www.hockeycanada.ca/rbccup, or follow the tournament via social media at www.facebook.com/rbccup and www.twitter.com/hc_rbccup.