Posted By: uuhadood

Sunday, April 2, 2023

TORONTO - The Hack dispatched the Humiliation 3-0. Then the Wheatfield Souldiers vanquished the Jokers by a score of 5-0.

 

Those were the surprisingly lopsided results of this past Saturday night's UUHA Semifinals at Upper Canada College. 

 

The Hack and the Souldiers will now meet in the Championship Final at 9:00 pm on Saturday, April 15. The two teams have never faced each other in a Championship Final in the UUHA's 14-year history.

 

After a scoreless 1st period, Blake McDonald converted a Kevin Fraser feed early in the 2nd to put the Hack up a goal on the President's Cup-winning Humiliation. Louis Durand would find Aaron Foster near the end of the frame to make it 2-0 Hack. A 3rd period marker by Kerry Towndrow (assisted by Tim Bolen) would seal the deal with just over three minutes to play. Goaltender Joseph Steinman earned the shutout on behalf of the Hack.

Like the first, the evening's second Semifinal started out as a tight affair, with the Wheatfield Souldiers ahead by a single goal (scored by Eric Toth, with assists from Kyle Welton and Herbie Barnes) at the end of the 1st period. The floodgates opened in the 2nd frame, though, with a goal from Souldiers sophomore Jon Dahl, then another off Dahl's backside from a point shot by defenceman Chuck Molgat, then one more directly off Molgat's stick - a hard wrister that climbed up into the top corner of the net over goaltender Burke Lawrence's left shoulder. That would put the Souldiers up 4-0. However, the team had enjoyed an identical lead over the Funniest Team on Ice several weeks prior, which ended in a 4-4 tie. That wouldn't be the case tonight, though, as veteran Souldiers forward Scott Pettus would bulge the twine one more time in the 3rd to seal the deal.

 

The win was the first ever Playoff shutout for Souldiers goaltender Tim Walker, who turned aside 20 attempts en route to the doughnut.

 

Now bound for the Final, the Hack have two UUHA Championships to their credit: the team won back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2016. The Wheatfield Souldiers, meanwhile, have enjoyed the same honour on five previous occasions, winning the inaugural title in 2010, then again in 2012, 2014, 2017 and 2018. Both teams have only lost in a UUHA Final on one occasion - the Hack, to the Brockton Rockets, in 2019 (3-1), and the Souldiers, to the Jokers, in 2011 (6-4). So historically, at least, this year's Championship Final promises to be one for the ages.

 

The Bronze Medal game, which will be played at 8:00 pm on Saturday, April 15, will see the Humiliation taking on the Jokers. Both squads have claimed the Bronze twice: the Jokers in 2014 and 2018, and the Humiliation in 2016 and 2019. Sure, it's not the Championship Final, but it's come to be respected as a typically hard-fought contest with a measure of pride on the line. The winningest UUHA team in Bronze Medal terms is the Gas Station Islanders, who have garnered the award on four separate occasions: 2011, 2012, 2013 and most recently in 2021.

 

The Brockton Rockets will take on the Gas Station Islanders in the Consolation Final at 7:00 pm the same night, April 15, at UCC.