Midway through overtime, Rats defenceman Brian Currie pounced on a turnover and stickhandled his way over the Dawson City blueline.

With teammate Darrel Sturko working as a distraction on a two-on-one, Currie elected to shoot, rifling a wrister over Dan Green's glove and into the net.

The goal reversed the Hairball Rats' fortunes in the Whitehorse Oldtimers Tournament, giving them a 1-0 victory over the defending A division champs, the Dawson City Generals.

Last year, the Generals beat the Rats 2-1 in a five-minute four-on-four overtime to win the annual tournament, staged at Takhini Arena.

"We were talking about that going into overtime,” Currie said post-game. "Ronnie Servatius scored on us in overtime and we didn't want that to happen. So it was in our heads, certainly.

"It was a little surreal. They can go any way, those shots. It could go off a goalie's shoulder, go off the crossbar ... This one just happened to go in. It's a good feeling.”

Rats goalie Mike Hawkins made a flurry of saves late in the contest to earn the shutout.

"We played some tough teams in this A division,” Hawkins said. "It wasn't easy getting here, being a goaltender. We were on the ropes a lot.”

Hawkins said regardless of wins or losses, the tournament is an annual highlight – attracting teams from the communities and Dease Lake, B.C.

"It's fun because you get a bunch of guys who play on opposite teams all year,” Hawkins said. "We just have some great laughs and a good time.”

Generals forward John Flynn said the tournament is an annual highlight for teams across the territory.

"We love to play hockey, that's why we come down,” said the Dawson City resident. "We kind of throw a team together at the end. We all want to come down, but ‘Oh well, I don't know if I can get time' ... ‘I might be on holidays' ... or ‘I could always go to the Superstore and buy some TP.'

"It's a lot more fun to win than lose,” Flynn said. "But we lost one game the whole tournament by one goal. We played really well and I think we had more chances than they did, but we just couldn't score.”

The win capped an unbeaten tournament for the Rats. In their round-robin game, the Rats and Generals played to a draw.

The Tuesday Night Thunder claimed the B title, holding off a late charge from Dease Lake to win 5-4.

Blayne Monahan's unassisted goal early in the second period stood up as the winner after Dease Lake's Darren Loveran scored a natural hat trick to make things interesting.

In C-level action, the Conservation Officers edged the Tuesday/Thursday Oldtimers team 6-5 in their championship final.

Despite a man advantage for the last 58 seconds and the goalie pulled for an extra attacker, the Tuesday/Thursday Oldtimers team was unable to score and send the game to overtime.

Mark Brodhagen scored two goals, including the winner, for the Conservation Officers.