MONCTON, N.B. – The Kensington Monaghan Farms Wild are Monctonian champs.
The Wild defeated the defending champion Dartmouth Steele Subaru from Nova Scotia 4-1 in Sunday’s championship game of the major midget final.
“We (came) over here with a mindset that . . . we want to be a top team in Atlantic Canada,” head coach Kyle Dunn said. “Our guys had the mindset that they’re going to prove it here.”
They didn’t do it the easy way.
Kensington went 2-0-1 in the preliminary round, played three games on Saturday and two more on Sunday. They defeated the Ajax Pickering Raiders 5-0 in the wildcard game, the Moncton Flyers 4-3 in the quarter-final and the Markham Majors 3-1 in the Sunday morning’s semifinal.
“They were tired come the end of it, but just (gave) a great effort, all 20 guys, I just can’t say enough about them,” Dunn said. “It’s good for our guys to get a championship.”
Landon Clow opened the scoring in the second period while defenceman Zac Arsenault added an insurance marker on the power play before the end of the period. Zach Biggar had two assists while Colby MacArthur had one.
Bennett MacArthur added a goal in the third period with Clow and Wilson recording the assists. Dartmouth got on the board when Ethan Wheeler scored with about a minute remaining. Dixon MacLeod iced it with an unassisted empty net goal with less than five seconds to play.
Chad Arsenault earned the victory and was rock-solid all weekend.
“We knew what we were getting when we had Chad Arsenault coming back this year,” Dunn said. “He’s just calm, cool and collected back there.”
Jonathan Pickrem took the loss.
A key to this weekend’s success may have happened earlier this month when Kensington went to Moncton and beat the league-leading Flyers 7-2.
“That was probably one of the big confidence boosters we had,” Dunn acknowledged.
The Wild’s win capped a remarkable day for P.E.I. hockey as the Central Attack defeated the Rangers from East Hants, N.S., 2-1 in triple overtime to earn the bantam AAA title in Moncton.
“It’s great for Hockey P.E.I.,” Dunn said. “There’s definitely great talent in the Island right now.”
RELATED: Attack defeat Rangers for bantam title.
The Charlottetown Mark's Work Wearhouse Islanders were the last Island team to win the Monctonian midget AAA crown when they were victorious in 2010. The Wild made it to the final in 2014 before losing to the Okanagan Hockey Academy.
The Wild get Monday off before getting back to work in preparation to host the Charlottetown Bulk Carriers Pride Friday night.
