The Ste. Anne Aces are Provincial Senior A Hockey champions.

Riley Beauchemin and Tanner Harms scored power play goals 17 seconds apart late in the third period as the Carillon Senior Hockey League champions defeated the South Eastern Manitoba Hockey League champion Carman Beavers 5-3 Sunday afternoon at Bell MTS Iceplex in Winnipeg.

“It’s going to take awhile to sink in,” said Ste. Anne coach Kevin Lansard shortly after the final. “We’ve talked about it after our first time coming here, what a great experience it was and we wanted to come back. It gave us the motivation to win our league because we wanted to be able to come here and represent our league. Even though I feel that we represented well in the past – we felt we had a chance of winning and didn’t get it done. The guys deserve it.”

The Aces, who scored four power play goals in their 7-3 win over the Beavers in the preliminary round last weekend, used the manadvantage to their advantage again in the final.

Beauchemin and Harms scored to give Ste. Anne a 4-2 lead after Carman’s Aaron Nakonechny took a five-minute major and a game misconduct for checking to the head/neck with 7:09 left in the final frame.

Brock Vanderveen cut the deficit to 4-3 when the Beavers forward scored a shorthanded goal with 4:27 remaining.

Dylan Kelly sealed the deal for the CSHL champions when he notched his second of the day into an empty net with 75 seconds remaining.

Ste. Anne goaltender Guy St. Vincent made 17 saves while Carman’s Travis Bosch faced 41 shots.

“We played a heck of a game,” said Aces captain Steph Pattyn. “We didn’t give them anything. They worked for their three goals, absolutely but we didn’t give them anything and we peppered them. Their goalie played extremely well. I think they had a tired bunch. They played a tough game last night and we basically sat our first two lines for the last 10 minutes last night knowing that we had made this game. Our group has been together for three years now. We’ve won championships. This was our goal and I’m just happy for everyone in that room.”

Ste. Anne lost 3-2 to the Lac du Bonnet Blues in the semifinals in 2016 and the following year went 0-2 losing preliminary round games to the Carberry Plainsmen and Notre Dame Hawks.

The Aces finally broke through in 2018.

“We had a team that was willing to win it all,” said defenseman Pat Normandeau who potted Ste. Anne’s first goal 7:37 into the opening period on Sunday. “We put in an amazing effort last weekend and this weekend. We were hesitant the first couple of years and we knew what to expect this year.”