Persistence didn't pay off for Kilrich on Wednesday night, as the team dropped a one-goal decision to the AON Flames in an entertaining game played in the Whitehorse Oldtimers Hockey League.

The 5-4 loss came despite a strong first period, in which Kilrich managed to overcome a one-goal deficit on three separate occasions.

'We had some lapses in our game and we weren't passing the puck very well,' said Gerald Haase, a right-winger for Kilrich. 'Even if you are working hard, sometimes if you don't work at the basics, like getting those passes tape to tape or coming out of your own end very well, you're kind of shooting yourself in the foot.'

The season began at the start of October and games are held on Wednesday, Thursday as well as Sunday. Bodychecking and slap shots are against the rules and players are penalized for violating either one.

Players who want to join the league must be at least 35 years old and pay a fee of $410. All eight teams in the league qualify for the playoffs, which take place in March. Both Kilrich and AON are in the middle of the pack this season, with records around the five-hundred mark.

The game got underway with AON taking an early lead, scored by Al Koehl, with not even five minutes off the clock. Kilrich came right back, though, scoring with under 10 minutes to go in the period, but Koehl added another goal at around the five minute mark to once again put AON ahead. After Kilrich's Woody Bennett brought the game back to an even tally, Jim Giczi netted his lone goal of the night and gave the lead back to the Flames. However, this would be AON's shortest lead of the night, lasting only 21 seconds before Kilrich scored with a minute-thirty to go before intermission. This goal seemed to spark Kilrich as they put an increased amount of pressure on goaltender Jeff Kalles, but he stood his ground and helped AON avoid going into the final period trailing behind.

The Flames didn't waste any time when the second period got underway, scoring 21 minutes into the frame and another goal came just under six minutes later. However, a late penalty against AON created the best scoring opportunities Kilrich had all game and eventually they managed to reduce the Flames' lead to one goal with less than one minute remaining. As the remaining seconds ran down Kilrich managed to get possession of the puck and attempted one last drive, but it as well as their chances for tying the game went up in smoke after an offside call was made with only one second left in the game.

Both goaltenders played very well, giving their teams a chance to win. Jim Giczi, a player on AON, commended Kalles' composure throughout the entire game.

'The turning point was probably our goalie's play, just the way he stayed tight through the whole game,' he said.

Giczi has been playing in the oldtimers league since 2002. Although he is happy with the victory, Giczi doesn't put a whole lot of stock into finishing the season with a high ranking in the standings

'I've seen the first place team lose it all and one year when we finished last (in the standings) we almost won it,' he said. 'In the playoffs anyone can win.'

Kilrich started the season with four consequitive wins, but since then they have fallen into a bit of a slump, losing four and tying one. The bad luck continued in Wednesday's game when a goal that Haase scored was disallowed because the whistle was blown as it went in. Hasse was disappointed about the goal not counting, but he said in the oldtimer league you don't argue about that sort of thing. Instead he commented on how pleased he was that one of his linemates was able to score two goals in the game.

He said despite the team's bad luck in the last five games, they are not disheartened.

'I don't think too many teams get demoralized in oldtimers, it's just a slump and come playoffs everybody is in. That's the standard joke,' Haase said. 'It is a totally different season because it's game-by-game.'

Haase has been on one championship team since he started playing in the league seven years ago. He said it is a great feeling to win it.

'You feel like you are on top of the world.' he said. 'It's your own little, private championship and you go to every game in the playoffs just totally pumped.'

Haase is confident about his team being able to break out of their slump, but he said if he could pick a time for that to happen it would be at the beginning of the playoffs.