Rink Rats Sweep Up The Cup

The Lake City Cup Finals began March 24th with the Rink Rats returning to the Final, after falling to the Shamrocks in 2010, this time taking on the Secunda Mariners.
The Rink Rats sweept through the Round Robin with 3 straight wins, including a 6 to 3 win over the Mariners. They then defeated the Dartmouth Alpines 2 games to none, in the Best of 3 Semi Final.
Secunda Mariners took the hard way to reach the Final. Finishing with 1 win and 2 losses in the Round Robin, advanced to the Semi Final on a tie breaker with last years champions Moose Light Shamrocks. They need all 3 games to defeat Your Fathers Moustache in the Semi Final. 
The Mariners having won the Lake City Cup in 2005, 2007 and 2009, hoped the trend of winning the Cup every 2 years continued. The Rink Rats were looking for their first Lake City Cup title in their 18 year history.

Game 1 saw the Rink Rats bounce the Mariners 5 to 2, to take the series lead. Steve Knowles led the way with his 7th and 8th goal of the playoffs. Mark Tanner's shorthanded goal, Scott Leverman's power play goal and Justin Dowding rounded out the scoring for the 'Rats. Jeff Crowell and Derek Taylor replied for the Mariners. Secunda was missing Bruno Carpentier, Graeme Power and Keifer House, while the Rink Rats' Richard Barry and Dave Roode were absent.

The Rink Rats went into Game 2 on March 29th looking for a series sweep, while the Mariners looked to force a 3rd and final game.
Secunda found themselves in penalty trouble in the 1st period, as the Rink Rats went 3 for 3 on the power play, on goals by Justin Dowding  and 2 by Chris MacNeil. Despite that the Mariners and Rats came out of the first period tied at 3. Chris O'Donnell fired 2 past Rats' Tyler Raulo and Dean Tucker popped the other.
Both teams traded goals in the 2nd period, Graeme Power for the Mariners and Kevin Hurley for the Rink Rats.
With the game tied at 4, the Rink Rats won their first ever Lake City Cup, when Steve Knowles scored his playoff leading 9th goal, just 2:05 into overtime.
Steve Knowles was named Playoff MVP.

The Rink Rats ended a 11 year run of either the Mariners, Shamrocks or Alpines winning the Lake City Cup.

Congratulations to the 2011 Lake City Cup Champions Rink Rats - Mike Anderson, Richard Barry, Logan Delaney, Justin Dowding, Kevin Hurley, Shawn Hurley, Matt Kerr, Steve Knowles, Scott Leverman, Chris MacNeil, Tyler Raulo (g), Rob Ritchie, Dave Roode, Jeff Sanford, Craig Stevens and Mark Tanner.