The Stingrays put their demons to rest for good at the Raynham IcePlex on Sunday as they capped off a perfect season with a 3-2 victory over the Norfolk County Hawks and a Gold Cup Championship.

“They all wanted it,” said North Shore coach Jon Campbell. “They wanted this from Day One just to make up for last year.

“…Everyone wanted to play, everyone wanted to win. It was a great game.”

The Bantam Division’s race for the Gold Cup playoffs was amongst the tightest seen in the league all season, but from the start of the season the Stingrays set themselves apart from the rest, posting dominant win after dominant win as the weeks went on. They had the league’s best offense and defense by more than 15 goals each and only twice in the regular season played a game that was decided by less than three goals.

“It’s a very special group,” Campbell said of his squad after the championship game. “Great defense, great goaltending. We gave up 13 [goals] all year, so if we count the two we gave up today it’s 15 goals in 14 games, that’s not bad. It’s our goaltending, it’s our defense and our forwards got back to help.”

Despite how much better than the competition the Stingrays, with the second most wins in the division, the Hawks were not too bad of a squad either. Past results were not about to stop them from giving North Shore a game and they came out firing, nabbing the game’s first lead less than a minute in with a William Abbott goal at 0:51.

From that point on, however, the remainder of the first period belonged to the Stingrays who went for three to take a 3-1 lead into the break. William Major got a stick on a Bernie Gillis shot to even the game 1-1 at 6:05. The speed of Jerry Bazile and Wyatt Schlaht came through late in the period to garner the remaining two goals; Bazile showing great hussle to get through the neutral zone and get a step on a hampering defender to setup Tyler Campbell on a 2-on-1 at 9:55, Schalht taking a feed near center ice and using his legs to give himself plenty of room to finish off a breakaway at 12:04.

The North Shore dominance continued into the second period, where all throughout the middle 15 minutes it felt as though they were in complete control of the contest, but thanks to some outstanding goaltending for Norfolk County from both Chris Cataldo and Dylan O’Leary, the Stingrays were never able to put the game away. Trailing 3-1, the Hawks were one bounce away from being right back in the contest.

“I was nervous since the puck drop,” Campbell said. “I knew it was going to be a great game. The Hawks are a good team… They played physical, they played great, our kids just kind of matched them.”

It was bounce that came at 13:52 of the second. The Stingrays defense lost track of a puck off the end boards, giving Brendan Loomer a wide open net to shootout with no one looking. Loomer put it away and got the Hawks within one at 3-2 with a little more than a period to play.

O’Leary and Stingrays goaltender Cam Bernard stood tall throughout the third to keep the goal differential at one, but the Hawks still had overtime hope in the closing seconds, a pair of offensive zone face-offs in the final 0:20 of regulation. Norfolk County got the win and the setup they needed on the first, but the tip went wide. With the title on the line, the Stingrays got the win and the clear on the second draw to secure the 3-2 victory and the 2014 Bantam Gold Cup Championship.