On Friday night the Ramblers and the Tigers played two overtime periods in what fans describe as an exciting and entertaining hockey game, with Jeff Farber scoring a hat trick, the third of which was the winning goal. This made it two straight in the best of seven series for the league championship and the large crowd on hand Sunday night expected the same kind of back and forth play off hockey, but the game was over in the first seven
minutes
of play, as the Ramblers took the Kinistino Tigers to the cleaners in the first few minutes of the first period. Before the second period started it was a four nothing hockey game and the second period was an almost man to man play, as the Ramblers played conservatively protecting their lead and the Tigers tried to get something going.
Jon Hamlin was hot, playing outstanding hockey even though he was injured in the third, he shock off the pain and made some of his best saves afterward with the Tigers out shooting the Ramblers 38 to 20.
Shane Magnus scored two goals and had one assist, Scott Homstol put in two goals, Chad Olson had two assists, Brad Kirkland two assists and Pete McAvoy. and Ryan Turcotte each were able to make an assist. But in general it was a team effort with each line working hard, especially Neil Elmslie, who seemed to be the team's go getter from beginning to end. Scott Kearns re-injured a foot in the second period and for the third period Luc Simoneau was a powerful forward.
The Tigers only goal was scored about half way through the third period by Carter McLeod from Mike Skene and team captain, Blair MacGillivray. But the Tigers were being overwhelmed by the pace set by the Ramblers and as the game wore on, their frustration and impotence took its toll. Stefan Cortmat had been suspended for checking from behind in Friday night's game and claimed that he served that suspension by missing a game with another team he plays with. But through the third period, he simply kept raising the level of unprovoked violence and the referee did a good job of controlling things, but when a team decides the game is over and its time to fight, there is little that can be done. From the two minute mark left in the third period, it was as if Vince McMann was in charge of things, as it was one fight per face off.
Randy Hanson
of the Tigers decided there was something objectionable about Luc Simoneau and that
began the foolishness. Hanson is a small man compared to Luc and that was soon over.
The next bout came with a tangle between Lanny Deobald and Jim Fonfonoff. After
things were cleaned up and the combatants off the ice, a face off was attempted and
with in moments the diminutive Evan McLeod started a scrap with Jordan Spagrud.(Spagrud
and McLeod are on the extreme right above out of sequence) The next face off was
attempted but Cortmat was on the ice for one thing and he was across from Lee Bowerman
who had seen limited service in the game and was on the ice for his first play.
The puck was dropped and Cortmat started swinging. It is clear that Cortmat was
definitely not thinking, Lee Bowerman was certainly not offensive to he or anyone
and standing nearly a head taller, Cortmat's after fight dance seemed pretty damn
silly. 
The crowd became pretty excited with the on ice conflicts, but no other altercations took place because the RCMP performed what would have to be described as outstanding crowd control. They were visible and alert, they did not let anything get started and were on the spot to cool things down. Their work was impressive and prevented any of the ugliness on the ice to spread beyond. In the picture below this officer takes the appropriate step to send the banished players off the gateways to the dressing room. This provided excellent control for the referee who had plenty to contend with and by sorting out the doorways the officer definitely cooled off the
atmosphere.This season of the Pasquia League has been the best ever and scenes like these have been extremely rare. Game after game we have seen fast paced high energy hockey and it is unfortunate to see the season end on this low note. Kinistino has earned for themselves a very negative reputation with the lack of on ice discipline and what essentially amounts to sore losers They were plainly outplayed in the Sunday night game and could not accept their defeat. It is to be hoped that the series will end Wednesday night with a four straight by the Ramblers merely to avoid further unseemly conduct here at another game.
Though the violence gets the fans on their feet, everyone is disappointed that the players are involved in a sport that can sink to this mindless level. After the game a mother of one of the players drawn into one of the stupid fights was not pleased with the events she had witness as she clearly was not proud of such a situation that so distracts from the outstanding play of her son and mars the beauty of the game played well.