SkyCity Stampede aren’t strangers to winning New Zealand Ice Hockey League titles. But this season their mettle was tested like never
before, making their almost against-the-odds victory even more special, as PHILIP CHANDLER explains
Victory’s always sweeter when it’s hard-earned.
In years to come, they’ll talk about how Queenstown’s SkyCity Stampede lifted ice hockey’s Birgel Cup after two heart-stopping finals in Auckland, about how its younger players stepped up and about how some veterans returned towards the end to fill a depleted playing roster.
Like former Ice Blacks captain Bert Haines, 42, who was on the ‘long list’ but didn’t expect to play.
He says a big driver this year was the Stampede had won all its 16 games last season but, when Covid killed the finals, weren’t allowed to claim the cup.
‘‘I think it left a really raw taste for everybody that had given so much,’’ he says.
Coming into this season, Stampede knew goals would be harder to come by, especially in captain Matt Schneider’s absence.
Defenceman Callum Burns, a huge contributor this season, says they knew, too, there’d be disruption with players succumbing to Covid, however there were also injuries — he himself yielded to a torn hammy during the last round-robin game — and youngsters leaving early to play in the northern hemisphere.
‘‘Every single guy was pulling on the same rope and just filled roles across the whole team.
‘‘We got guys like Max Macharg, Lachlan Frear, Stefan Amston, just scoring big goals at the right time.’’
After six wins on the trot, Stampede lost five of their last 10 regular-season games.
Guttingly, they dropped their last two games against West Auckland Admirals, on home ice, when they’d just needed a point to top the table and host the finals.
As a result, they had to win two semis at home, against Canterbury Red Devils, before playing best-of-three finals against the Admirals in Auckland.
By this time, Haines was playing again, Schneider was back from Vietnam on a quick break, and even Colin McIntosh, who’d been ill since December from an adverse reaction to the Covid vaccine, had been lured back.
In the nerve-wracking first final, the teams were locked 3-all after overtime before a shoot-out in which Stampede goal-tender Aston Brookes amazingly kept out five of the comp’s best shooters, before Connor Harrison celebrated his 200th game with the winning goal — his first in a shoot-out.
Stampede then won the second game 2-1 to cue raucous celebrations.
McIntosh, who says he was a shadow of himself on the ice, says, ironically, finishing second in the round-robin ‘‘was the best thing for us’’.
Having semis meant players like Haines, Schneider and himself got some playing action before the finals, rather than going from ‘‘zero to 100’’.
Haines, who brought up his own 200th game for the Stampede in the final game, adds: ‘‘I think it was really good for the team to face some adversity and have to go play a semi-final, to then go and play a final on the road, because I think the last time we won a championship on
the road would have been 2006.’’
He had no qualms over Schneider returning from Vietnam, despite opposition protests, which weren’t upheld.
‘‘He’s played for the team for 10 years, so it’s not like he’s a foreigner coming in just to be a hot stick.
‘‘There’s a reason you put those guys on your list, because if you’re going to get to the dance, you want to still be able to have the opportunity to win.
‘‘It would be a bloody shame to get down to the end and lose some people to circumstances outside your control and, next thing you know, you don’t even have a shot at it.’’
Also, McIntosh says, ‘‘they beat us at home in 2018, so it was nice to get the trophy back from them on their ice’’.
Burns, who was so nervous during the finals he could barely watch, says winning the Birgel this year was as good as it gets ‘‘just because it wasn’t handed to us on a platter’’.
‘‘For me, it was probably one of the most challenging years — every single game was tough, there was no easy shift.’’
On the final night, he says he’s never yelled so loudly.
‘‘I just stood there, it was so cool.’’
