One goal, a shutout and a championship victory highlighted Kilrich's game against Edgewater Hotel on Wednesday.

Kilrich's 1-0 championship win in the Whitehorse Oldtimers Hockey League concluded what has been an incredible run for the team.

Kilrich was able to turnaround its season late in year by winning its last eight contests, including four games in the playoffs.

The team still finished with a below .500 regular season record (15-20-7), but came on strong when it mattered.

Edgewater Hotel was also another surprise team to make it to the final. The orange shirts clinched a berth in the championship game after they eliminated top ranked regular season squad Medicine Chest last week by a 3-1 score.

All eight squads in the Oldtimers league qualify for the playoffs, which features a double loss knockout format.

A lot of Kilrich's late season success was due to the great play of goaltender Mike Hawkins, who recorded four shutouts over the eight game streak.

"Things started coming together," Hawkins said. "We had to play that orange team (Edgewater) twice and they're a good team. I had to be on my toes to make saves off those guys."

The previous playoff match against Edgewater ended with Kilrich scoring a goal in the last minute to break the tie.

Wednesday's game got off to a slow start, with both team's feeling each other out. However, it quickly turned into a goaltenders duel between Hawkins and Edgewater's Shawn Cassellman.

For the majority of the opening frame, the two netminders matched each other save for save.

Hawkins showed off his hand-eye co-ordination on more than a few occasions, using his glove-hand to snag down a variety of shots and tip in attempts.

Edgewater enjoyed the best scoring chance, which came early on in the period on a shot that got past Hawkins, but not the crossbar.

The hotel's missed opportunity came back to haunt them later on in the first frame.

The eventual game winner was put in with less than two minutes before the end of the opening period.

The play started on a rush that ended with a behind the net, centering pass to Bob Allison, who made no mistake in sending the puck into the back of the net.

Allison, who had only two goals during the regular season, was greeted with cheers and praise upon returning to Kilrich's bench.

Peter Grundmanis and John Skilnyk each assisted on the goal.

The play opened up a little in the second period, with Edgewater pressing hard for the tying goal.

Hawkins, however, was more than capable of handling whatever they fired at him, making a number of saves to preserve his team's one goal advantage. One of his most difficult saves involved a double pad stack, coming with only five minutes remaining on the clock.

Hawkins also benefited from his own players attention to defence and clearing pucks out of the zone when he was in trouble.

The combination of solid goaltending and hard work on the defensive end helped Kilrich hang on for the close win.

For Bill Watson, Wednesday's championship victory was a long time coming.

Watson has been a player in the Whitehorse Oldtimers League since 1995, but this was the first time he has ever been on a first place team.

Watson was so committed to playing in the oldtimer's league that he made the commute from Teslin for his first five seasons, never once missing a game.

He said Wednesday's championship victory was well worth the wait.

"We knew we had a good team when we had everybody out and we worked hard, bunch of hard workers," he said. "We had, of course, Mike playing in goal, that helped a lot."