Before he started playing for the Accelerated Physiotherapy/earls Rhinos in the final month of the Westwood Pub PG Rec Hockey League season, five years had passed since Mark Currie last had a regular gig in goal.
But there was no sign of rust wearing off on his red jersey Saturday at Kin 1 when he started blocking shots against the first-place Kode Contracting/Stones Bay North Stars to decide the playoff champion of the Rec A division.
Currie, a 27-year-old veteran of three seasons in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League staring down junior A shooters, brought his game face to the rink and in Medusa-like fashion stoned the high-octane North Stars to preserve a 4-3 victory.
"Everyone dug deep and got the big goals we needed and shut them down defensively when we needed to," said Currie, who replace injured Rhinos goalie Blair Embry. "They shut down the cross-ice passes and took the high guy and it was fun."
Currie moved to Prince George last summer but didn't start playing for the Rhinos until March.
"I was with a few SJHL teams (Yorkton Terriers, Notre Dame Hounds and Nipawin Hawks) and since then I've played goal once or twice every year or two with some buddies," he said.
"Mark fell into our lap and it was like a blessing," said Rhinos captain Colin McDonald. "He said he was coming n pretty cold and he played phenomenal. We were playing as underdogs in the playoffs and it feels good. This is the first Rec A title we've won."
The regular season champion North Stars came into the final heavily-favoured, having lost just eight of 36 league games while scoring an average 9.4 goals per game. But on Saturday, it was the fourth-place Rhinos, who won just 10 regular season games, showed their offensive flair first as they built a 4-0 lead on a pair of goals from Jeremy Stewart and singles from McDonald and Joshua Garneau.
Nick Matte and Drew Nelson finally found chinks in Currie's armour to make it a 4-2 game before the halftime flood, and with seven minutes left in the second period Matte deflected a goalmouth pass from Brendan Tapanilla for his second goal of the game.
In the third period, Stewart took a stretch pass on the fly to set up a breakaway but was denied of his hat trick by Stars goalie Casey Hogue. Currie was at his best in a busy final period, and with every save he made his teammates responded by tying up their opponents and clearing the puck out, rarely taking any offensive chances to effectively kill the clock. Currie had to come up big on a number of occasions and just got his leg on a defected shot from Matte with two minutes left to keep his team ahead.
"They kind of caught us off guard on the big ice, we haven't really played there all season and they outskated us in that first period and capitalized on their chances and played well all game," said Nelson. "We made a game out of it and it was just too bad. Their goalie stood on his head and they played a good defensive game in the second half. Most years we're usually a contender but we seem to have a hard time finishing in the finals."
Other Rec League division final results Saturday were: Rec B -- APR Contracting Grizzlies 3 CIP Warriors 2 (OT); Rec C -- Kenroc Reapers 1 Rosenau Transport 0; Rec D -- CIP/Can-Crane Specialists 6 Pilsner Ice 3; Masters B -- Visa Truck Rentals/Fountain Tire 3 Interior Offroad 2.
On April 2, the Westwood Whalers beat the Oilers 5-3 to win the Masters A title and Mainline Plumbing defeated the Grizzlies 6-4 in the novice final.
