Unbeaten Shattuck wins school Challenge

They came, they played, they conquered … again.

The World Sport School Challenge has become Shattuck St. Mary’s own, which means they’ll happily keep coming around these parts during the holidays to provide their particular brand of cheer to the tournament.

“We’ve been lucky here,’’ conceded head coach Tom Ward, whose perennially excellent prep team won the third annual Challenge for the third time on New Year’s Day, defeating the Okanagan Hockey Academy 8-1 in the gold medal final at the Markin MacPhail Centre.

“Calgary has been our good luck city for us; it’s kind of our charm city. We’ve come up to the Mac’s tournament and done well and then this tournament and done well. We enjoy our trips up here during the holidays.’’

“It’s nice to come here at Christmas,’’ pitched in forward Clayton Keller. “There’s nothing better to do than this.’’

When they win, they win big and this year was no exception. Going 5-0, Shattuck scored 47 goals and surrendered just five.

“Every time we take the ice we expect to play at a certain level, regardless of our opponent,’’ Ward explained.

“We like to have a really high standard of play and that is the expectation. We play a really weird schedule; we’re a hybrid team, we play men’s teams, college teams, junior teams, midget teams. So it’s a unique schedule and we get a little bit of everything through the course of the year. It doesn’t really matter who or where we’re playing; we expect to play a certain way and let the chips fall.’’

There’s a reason Shattuck St . Mary’s is thought of as the overwhelming favourite in this tournament and it’s all in the way they play. In Wednesday’s final, they pounced on loose pucks like a hungry feline on a rodent and displayed some exceptional passing skills, scoring just 45 seconds into the game on the power play and making it a very busy night for OHA

It’s good to come up here and play our best CLAYTON KELLER

netminder Cole Kehler, who faced 56 shots.

“It’s pretty huge coming out here and showing off our talents, how big our school is, all the guys in the past who have come to our school and all the success,’’ said Keller, the 15-year-old forward who was the team’s player of the game and its leading scorer in the tourney.

“It’s good to come up here and play our best and usually win the tournament.

“It kind of puts a little pressure on us at first because we’re not really sure what the teams are going to be like, but once we’re here and playing and getting our feet moving, it all seems to settle in and we usually get the W.’’

The Challenge also gives Ward a good indication as to where his squad is midway through a busy season.

“Your team game should be polished and then you have to work on little things,’’ he said.

“Then you get to the dog days of the year and you just want to stay healthy. It’s a good measuring stick for us right now to see where we’re at. We’ve had a lot of travel lately; we’ve been overseas and the boys came up here with their tails wagging pretty good. I was happy for them.’’

Shattuck St. Mary’s took their collective feet off the gas in the third period, if reaching 56 shots can be considered lightening up offensively.

OHA got their one goal in that frame, Deven Sideroff scoring on Luke Kania, who saw just 18 shots in the Shattuck net.