For the fourth year in a row, the Ste. Anne Aces are Carillon Senior Hockey League champions after an emotional thriller Sunday night in Grunthal.  

Similar to last year, it was an overtime winner that sealed the deal for the Aces who took the series in six games over the Grunthal Red Wings. Ste. Anne forward, and former Brandon Wheat Kings captain, Brenden Walker scored his third of the night at 4:59 of overtime to lift the Aces past Grunthal 6-5.

Ste. Anne came out with a bit more pace in the opening frame and ended the period with two goals by Russel Trudeau and Brenden Walker, who slipped one through the five-hole of Grunthal's Matt Krahn on a penalty shot to give Ste. Anne a 2-0 lead.  

The Red Wings, however, showed their resilience in the second period with goals by Landon Plett, Joel Schreyer and Lee Christensen to pull the Red Wings ahead 3-2. The Aces tied it back up near the end of the period with a powerplay goal by Brenden Walker. 45 seconds later, Derek Gingera replied for the Red Wings to give them the 4-3 lead heading into the break. 

Red Wings player/coach Blake Forsyth acknowledged his team did not play their best hockey in the first 20 minutes but said the message came through in the intermission. 

"The guys answered, couldn't ask anything more. If we're going to lose, let's go down flaming." 

Remi Laurencelle buried one past Ste. Anne netminder Guy St-Vincent, to put Grunthal up by two midway through the third. At that point, it looked like the Red Wings were going to send the series back to Ste. Anne for game seven as they led 5-3 with seven minutes left in the third.

"I think the first period we saw an extreme high and the second period we saw an extreme low and the third period we kind of just battled back and did what we had to do to win," said Aces captain Steph Pattyn.   

The Aces tied the game on goals 16 seconds apart by Russell Trudeau and Keith Grondin. The game was now headed to overtime with Grunthal on a two-man advantage for the first 91 seconds. 

The Aces successfully killed both penalties and moments later it was a pass up from Aces defenceman Erik Leefe to Brenden Walker who buried the game-winner.

"Four in a row. People talk about four in a row," Pattyn added who commended the effort of his team to kill the two-man advantage to start overtime. 

Aces coach Kevin Lansard described the game as a hard fought match and, at a greater scale, said this was probably the toughest final series they have played in the last four years.

"We have different players that are willing to step in and play a certain role, and I think that's the reason why we're talking about a 4-peat today. They're able to accept the role they have and play it to the best of their ability"  

The Aces are Hockey Manitoba's reigning Provincial Senior A champions. Ste. Anne will face the Tiger Hills Hockey League champion Boissevain Border Kings, the North Central Hockey League champion Miniota/Elkhorn C-Hawks and either the Morden Redskins or Warren Mercs who are going to a deciding 7th game in the South Eastern Manitoba Hockey League final. The Provincial Senior A championship begins Thursday.