Canterbury defends NZIHL title
26 Aug 2013 | Henrik Lundqvist
The Canterbury Red Devils defended their 2012 New Zealand Ice Hockey League title with a 7-3 win over Dunedin Thunder in the final.
Five teams participate in the league on New Zealand and after 16 rounds the top two teams qualify for the grand final. This year Canterbury Red Devils and Dunedin Thunder both finished on top with 32 points. Botany Swarm, two points behind, just missed the final.
After a scoreless first period Canterbury scored three goals in the second. And then another three during the first half of the last period. Six goals behind with ten minutes to play... of course the title game was lost for Dunedin, but they didn't give up. They managed to beat Michael Coleman in Canterbury's net three times in six minutes. Two minutes before the end Chris Eaden closed the scoring for Canterbury when he made it 7-3 with his second goal of the game.
Also Takumi Ledbetter scored twice and was named MVP of the game.