An absolutely stunning victory for the Airdrie Thunder Tuesday night at the Ron Ebbesen Arena.

Surrounded by their hometown fans, the Thunder added the first HJHL championship to their trophy case for the first time in 19 years. Their last HJHL championship wins were in 1997 and 2000.

The Thunder defeated the Coaldale Copperheads 10-5 to sweep the best of five series in three games.

Rylan Plante-Crough, who scored 50 goals during the regular season, dominated in the clinching game with a hat trick and a trio of assists.

“It means so much because I've lost to the champions the last two years,” Plante-Crough said. “So it's finally good to win and be the champion.”

The win caps off a stunning regular season where the Thunder went 35 and 3

Injured captain Jacob MacDonald wasn't able to suit up in the final, but was there to support his teammates during every game.

“I'm just super-proud of the guys,” MacDonald said. “From start to finish, we competed every night.”

Thunder bench boss Derek Stamp said once his team is focused and ready to roll, look out.

"It was kind of appropriate that that was the way that the (...) season ended. We've, all season long, had questions come our way about all these goals going in the net and these lopsided scores that we've been on the right side of. These guys, it's a pretty special group, a pretty talented group and they were ready and they were focused. When we got on the ice they were just committed to it being over yesterday and not having to go back to Coaldale. When that happens and we're on point, the offence that we create is substantial."

Stamp said that during this series they saw big performances from their star players and that it helped them make the sweep.

"Our top end guys showed up and played big. Rylan Plante-Crough had a huge series, he was buzzing the whole time, he was always in the right place. Jordan McConnel had a great game last night, Tyler Petrie, Cooper Page. Our big guys, the guys the contributed major points all season long really stepped up in this last series and that kind of carried on. Our secondary scoring was there, so when that happens, we put up a lot of goals."

The previous series against the Mountainview Colts saw the Thunder losing two games back-to-back for the first time in the season. Stamp said that the amount of pressure going into the northern final really affected their game and that winning it may have brought them the confidence to sinch the championship

"Mountainview should get a lot of credit for how hard they pushed us and how well they game planned for us. Part of it too, in the last couple of years, the Thunder has kind of reached that point where they're competing for the North title, but couldn't really get over that hump and get out of the North," admitted Stamp. "There felt (like) there was a lot of pressure on the team as a whole in that Mountainview series. They game planned us well and they pushed us hard and when (we had) those close games that didn't go in our favour, it kind of put some stress on the guys and gave us some hard adversity to work through."

"Once we got over that hump, and once we got out of the north and won the North Division, it just seemed like there was a huge amount of pressure that just melted off of everybody. We were confident. The confidence going into the room in this Coaldale series was a three-game-sweep right off the start."

The crowd, the team and the fans were all absolutely thrilled to see their team bring home the championship for the first time in 19 years and Stamp said even the owners could not help but glow with pride.

"There was tons of excitment. Especially with the ownership group that runs the Thunder right now. They've managed it for the last handful of years and when they puchased it they were local Airdrie business and business owners and they bought it with the right idea. (They wanted) to have a local community team that brought an entertaining product with a place where Airdrie kids could continue junior hockey careers. I think, for them, there was a huge amount of pride and deservingly so for everything that was accomplished."

"It just felt great. I think everybody was happy and excited and is ready to see what we can do at provincials."

The Airdrie Thunder are now heading to the provincial tournament April 5th to 7th in Wetaskiwin.

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