Persistence paid off for Cinderwood in the Whitehorse Minor Hockey Association's gold medal game for the Atom division.

The team played three superb periods, highlighted by two goals in the second frame to get the 3-2 win over Jen-tech on Sunday at the Takhini Arena.

"It feels fantastic," said team coach Rob Johnson.

"We were far from the best team to start the year, but we came together at the right time.

Our goaltender was like a brick house and our defense was so solid.

(We had) big goals from people who hadn't scored all year long."

The game consisted of three 20-minute periods with a running clock and a brief break for players in between periods.

End-to-end action to begin the game forced both goalies to be sharp and equally impressive early on in the first period of play.

Both goalies made a number of saves to keep the score even at 0-0.

It was Cinderwood who would get the first scoring chance.

The players on the ice didn't waste any time getting the puck deep into their opponents zone, firing a couple shots in the first few minutes of the contest to force Jen-tech's goalie to make two difficult saves.

It didn't take long for Jen-tech to generate a few scoring chances of their own.

The first coming at 16:15 when a great play by one of their forwards resulted in a breakaway. Cinderwood goalie, Devon Proke stayed with him the whole time to make the pad save.

Not even a couple of minutes later, Jen-tech had another great opportunity when a player attempted to score on a low shot, but Proke once again showed he came to play, shutting the five-hole to make the pad save.

The save created a scoring chance for Cinderwood, who after gaining control of the puck, rushed down the ice and fired a high wrist shot, which was gloved and held by Jen-tech's net minder.

Cinderwood didn't get discouraged and took advantage of its first power play opportunity to score the game's first goal at 12:22.

Tynon Hope put his team ahead 1-0 after he snapped a wrist shot over the glove hand of Jen-tech's goalie, which found the top corner of the net.

Trenton Dupont was credited with the only assist on the play.

Jen-tech responded less than two minutes later when a smart play behind the goal evened up the contest at one goal apiece.

Cory Roberts managed to bank the puck in from behind the net off Proke for the unassisted goal.

Cinderwood had several opportunities to pull ahead before the end of the first frame, but Jen-tech's goalie showed a tremendous amount of poise and focus, making a number of saves look easier and controlling the rebounds to make sure no other chances were created.

Cinderwood's strong play and increased puck possession would result in Jen-tech taking its second penalty to put them down a player for the first minute and a half of the second frame.

Starting the second period a player down didn't intimidate Jen-tech, who got off to a great start on the penalty kill.

The team limited Cinderwood to just one shot and did a first-rate job of breaking up passes and getting the puck out of their zone.

Once again, both teams had plenty of opportunities to go ahead in the first half of the second frame, but the two goalies kept the score at 1-1, until Cinderwood would capitalize on another opportunity to restore its one goal advantage.

The goal was scored at 9:46 when a cross ice pass was deflected in front of Jen-tech's goalie, who attempted to cover the puck, but was unsuccessful.

Hope scored his second of the game, sliding the puck past the down and out Jen-tech net minder.

Cinderwood didn't let up and not even one minute later scored its third goal of the game to increase its lead to 3-1.

The goal was notched by Zerek Jones during a scramble in front of the net.

Jones was able to slide a perfect shot between the legs of Jen-tech's goalie for the final goal of the contest.

Although Jen-tech never gave up, the two goal deficit proved to be too much for its players to overcome.

The group did have a number of opportunities to end the second period and throughout the third frame, but Poke stood his ground to help Cinderwood get the win.

Johnson credits the team's determination to the victory.

"We never gave up," he said.

"This whole tournament our team never gave up even once.

We had three come-from-behind victories and usually we would get behind and we would sell the farm, but they kept fighting.

They believed in themselves, nobody got down on one another, they cheered each other on.

Three come-from-behind victories in the playoffs, you can't beat that."

He said this win was special because he has been coaching a number of the players on the team for the last four seasons.

"I have been coaching these kids for so long now," Johnson said.

"The one kid I have coached every year that he has played. It is kind of a cool feeling to have these guys win.

This is the first time we have ever won the gold medal, so it is really special."

This was Poke's second year playing as a goalie.

He said winning the tournament felt really good and that the best part was making all the saves.

"It was a great tournament," he said. "We played good."

Matthew Butler is a defenseman on Cinderwood.

He was pleased about winning the gold medal.

Butler, 10, said the team didn't have any expectations coming into the tournament, but they had a lot of confidence.

He has been playing hockey since he was four years old and this was his second tournament victory of the year.

His first victory was with the Yukon Selects, but Butler said winning with Cinderwood meant more because the team has been together all season and he has had a lot of fun with this group.