Yukon Inn and Tim Hortons emerged victorious after a jam-packed schedule of Whitehorse Oldtimers hockey playoff action this weekend at the Canada Games Centre.

Yukon Inn outscored the Firth Rangers 7-4 to take the Junior Circuit title; and Tim Hortons won the Senior Circuit playoff crown by downing Medicine Chest 2-1, both games played on Sunday.

Yukon Inn and Tims were undefeated heading into Sunday’s final games, but Firth put a road bump in the Inn’s way with a 4-2 win early Sunday, necessitating a second game, as Firth was coming up from the ‘B’ side. Tims went 3-0 in the Senior playoffs, exhibiting stellar team defence in only giving up one goal in their three games.

Junior Circuit

Kilrich went into the playoffs sporting the best regular season record, but ran into some much-improved teams, and lost two straight to bow out of the playoffs. Yukon Inn started their run with a tight 5-4 win over CapriCMW Friday night, then squeaked by Firth 6-5 in overtime Saturday to book their ticket to the final. Firth downed Kilrich 6-2 in their first playoff game, lost to Yukon Inn, and then made it to the final with a 7-2 trouncing of CapriCMW on Saturday, which eliminated the latter from the playoffs.

In the first game of the final, Firth trailed 2-1 after one, but goals midway through the second period by Mark Bowen and Greg Charlie put the boys in blue ahead, and Mike Gau added an empty-netter. Yukon Inn got first period goals from Colin Nash and Joel Witten.

In the winner-take all game, Firth jumped out to a 3-1 lead on two goals by Dustin Heffner and one from Mike Gau and led 4-3 after one period, but couldn’t hang on, as the Inn stormed back with four straight goals in the second period to take the title. Colin Nash and Tyson Wirth each netted two in the victory, and Scott Olafson (game winner), Chad Cowan and Shawn Kinsella (empty netter) had one apiece. The other Firth goal came from Anthony Grottoli.

Senior Circuit

Backstopped by Floyd McCormick, Tim Hortons suffocating defence saw them down Air North 5-0 on Thursday and then blank Medicine Chest 3-0 on Saturday to reach the final. Medicine Chest won their opener 4-3 in overtime over EDI, lost to Tims on Saturday morning, and then downed Air North 3-2 in a shootout to make the final.

In the final, Medicine Chest’s Stu Mackay scored the first goal on a wild goal-mouth scramble, but Tims’ Mike Sage tied it up late in the first period, lifting a rebound over Eugene Johnson in the Chest net. Mike Blower got the winner for Tims on another crazy goal mouth scramble, with only 4:34 left on the clock, and the coffee crew hung on for victory.

The playoffs wrapped up a Covid-challenged but successful season for the Oldtimers league. Thanks go out to all the players, on- and off-ice officials, and the city’s rink personnel for allowing us to get an entire season in. We were indeed fortunate to be able to play this season.

Submitted by Bernie Adilman