When the Langley LY6 Titans work hard, good things tend to happen.
That was the blunt assessment of coach Steve Blatz.
And lucky for the Titans, they worked hard through the Langley Cup playoffs.
“They started working hard, that is what it really was,” he explained. “They weren’t the most talented team but they worked their butts off.
“Whenever we didn’t work hard, we didn’t play well and got beaten.”
The Titans defeated the Ice Hawks 5-2 in Monday’s atom Langley Cup championship game at Sportsplex.
The Ice Hawks opened the scoring on a goal from Kingston Digaf but Titans’ captain Tyler Sousa scored a natural hat trick, all in a span of 1:53.
Digaf had the only goal of the second to cut the lead to 3-2.
The Ice Hawks were applying the pressure early in the third, but the Titans defence, led by assistant captain Xander Wick, was great at minimizing the opportunities, and when the chances did come, goaltender Leif Blatz was there to make the big save.
“Our defence played unreal,” the coach said.
The Titans’ Eben Schwartz scored on a breakaway with 4:21 to extend the lead to two goals.
“There was still a lot of tension on our side, knowing that our opponent had the talent to put a late comeback against us,” Blatz said.
But 74 seconds later, some of those tensions were relieved when Keegan Huber made it 5-2 and the Titans would capture the Cup.
“From where we started and where we finished, it was night and day,” Blatz said. “The kids bought into what we were coaching them.”
The Titans had won the league banner for the flight, finishing 9-0-1 but they struggled in the playoffs, before finding their game in time for the Langley Cup.
“We just decided to play hockey again and got better and better each game.”
The team is made up of: Leif Blatz, Kamryn Blatz, Reece Bryde, Jaden Drummond, Keegan Huber, Rohan Prihar, Eben Schwartz, Gavin Selinger, Tyler Sousa, Emily Taylor, Jacob Van Polanen Petel, Taylor Wagner, Xander Wick, Lincoln MacRitchie and Riley Turnbull.
The coaches are Steve Blatz, Brad Blatz, Tyler Wagner and Craig MacRitchie and the manager is Courtny Huber.
sports@langleytimes.com
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