LAKE CITY CUP 2008 FINALS

The best of five 2008 Lake City Cup Finals begin on Tuesday, March 25th with the Moose Light Shamrocks taking on the Dartmouth Alpines.

The regular season champions Dartmouth Alpines are looking to capture a sixth Lake City Cup in their eleven year history. The Alpines have won the cup in 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006 and even more remarkable is this will be their eighth appearance in the cup final, losing in their first season 1997 and in 2000.
The Moose Light Shamrocks will be returning to the final, falling to the Secunda Mariners in four games last year. The Shamrocks will be looking to win just their second Lake City Cup in this their twentythird season. The lone win was back in 1988 and this is the clubs sixth appearance to the final, falling short in 1990, 1999, 2005 and 2007.

This series will mark the first time these two franchises have met in the Lake City Cup Final. In fact the two teams have only met in the playoffs twice before, 2004 semi final with the Alpines winning the series two games to one and again in 2007 semi final, this time the Shamrocks winning two games to none.

In any sporting event, you want to have the top two contenders compete for the championship and thats what will take place in this year's final. Dartmouth finished first overall with a 16 - 2- 1-1 record for 34 points, followed by Moose Light at 15-5-0-0 for 30 points. The two teams were also close in goals for and against, the Alpines scored 119 goals and gave up just 76, while the Shamrocks scored a league high 122 goals and gave up a league low 75.
The two teams met three times in the regular season, with the Alpines winning 3 to 0 on November 27th and 5 to 4 on February 21st, the Shamrocks won 6 to 3 on January 3rd.
Top point getters head to head were Jay Washington with 4 goals and 3 assists and Dwight Lucas with 7 assists for the Alpines. Shamrocks' Paul Wright had 2 goals and 2 assists along with Shane Gibbs and Jason Troini with a goal and 3 assists each.

The Dartmouth Alpines play a great two way game, with their passing second to none. The team throws three solid lines at you, led by Dwight Lucas who scored 17 goals and 21 assists for 38 points during the regular season, he was followed by, game breaker, Todd Parker at 26 goals, 9 assists for 35 points and 7 of those goals were game winners, Jay Washington fired home 16 goals, 18 assists for 34 points. Darren Welsh anchors the defence while popping in 11 goals and adding 7 helpers.  
Dartmouth enters the final on a scoring high, out scoring the Scotian Canadians 17 to 5 in a two game sweep. Jay Washington,  leads the way with 5 goals and an assist for 6 points, followed by Peter Gallant with 2 goals and 4 assists.

The Moose Light Shamrocks have good depth, as six players scored ten or more goals this season. Paul Wright had 21 goals, 20 assists for 41 points, finishing third overall in league scoring this year. Trevor Doyle potted 15 goals, Shane Gibbs had 13, while Jason Troini and Mark Walsh each fired 11 and semi final overtime hero Sebastian Decaens found the net 10 times. Defencemen Craig Whynot with 22 points and Rick Findlay 20 points lead the 'D'. 
The Moose also boast the top goaltender in the regular season in Jason White.
The Shamrocks enter the final at 4 and 0, sweeping both the Rinkrats and the 2007 Lake City Cup Champions Secunda Mariners in two games. Paul Wright currently leads the playoffs in scoring with 7 goals, including 2 game winners, 3 assists for 10 points in 4 games. Gibbs is close by with 3 goals and 5 helpers, Decaens and Whynot are next with 7 points each.

All things considered, it should be a great series, best of luck to both teams.