By his own admittance, John Kleinhans had a lousy Dudley Hewitt Cup.
But the Soo Thunderbirds goalie saved his best for last, stopping 44 shots Saturday night to backstop his team to a 5-3 win over the Stouffville Spirit in the Dudley Hewitt Cup final, the first Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League team to deliver a provincial Junior A hockey championship in 10 years.
“I haven’t played my best the last four games. I knew I was due and I just had to do it for these guys. They had a hell of a week, so I just needed to come through one game for them. I did, and we ended up winning,” said Kleinhans, the back-up a year ago with the Soo Eagles at the DHC.
It was a remarkable turnaround for the product of Sterling Heights, Mich., whose surrendered six goals on 15 shots, lasting just 16 minutes on Thursday when the two teams met at Fort William Gardens to close out their respective round robin portion of the four-team tournament.
“It was just focus. We knew we could beat them. We just came out flat (on Thursday). I came out flat. We just had to play our game like we did, and ended up winning.”
Coach Preston Mizzi didn’t disagree with his goaltender about his play early in the week, but was still confident enough to put him back between the pipes for the most important game of the season.
“For him to put up a game like this when we really needed him just shows the character he has. He’s been our leader back there all season and we knew coming up here he was going to be our leader. Unfortunately for him it took four games for him to find his game,” Mizzi said.
“But he found it at the right time and he completely dominated the hockey game tonight.”
Mizzi, aware of his league’s title drought, said the Thunderbirds weren’t too concerned about who’s won what recently – though the win did snap a five-year run by the Ontario Junior Hockey League, home of the Spirit.
But, he admitted hoisting the trophy might bring the NOJHL a little much-deserved respect.
“There are a lot of people out there who don’t think our league is up to par with the other leagues in Ontario or the other leagues in Canada. But we knew coming in we had a good hockey team, especially after getting our feet wet an winning that game in dramatic fashion,” Mizzi said.
“We recognized we had a chance and our guys took the ball and ran with it the rest of the way.”
They did have to play catch up in this one, twice falling behind a goal in the first period.
Paul Geiger, named the best defenceman in the tournament, scored first, firing a power play goal from the point that just squeezed past Kleinhans in the Thunderbirds net less than two minutes in.
Nick Romano tied it up from Jonathan Hall’s doorstep at the nine-minute mark, but Drake Caggiula restored the one-goal lead at 15:44 pounding home a rebound off a Geiger shot to make it 2-1 for Stouffville.
The Thunderbirds, however, made a quick statement when Greg Sartoretto waited all of 11 seconds to notch the equalizer, knotting the game at two.
It was a defensive miscue by Christian Powers that cost the Spirit the lead for good in the second.
Attempting to clear the puck from his own zone, Powers pass caught Jake Wright in the legs, bounced forward and left the Soo forward alone with no one but Hall to stop him.
Wright made the right move on Hall and Thunderbirds went up by two, though this one would go down to the wire. Romano appeared to ice it at 17:32 of the third, but a late power play led to an Alex Botten goal with 69 seconds left in regulation.
But Micky Sartoretto iced it into the empty net with 17 seconds left, earning the Thunderbirds a berth at next month’s Royal Bank Cup in Humbolt, Sask.
“I had to make sure,” Sartoretto said. “I didn’t want anything else coming back our way.”
