CHILLIWACK, B.C. -- All season long, Regina Pats forward Maddox Schultz had found ways to score big goals at big moments for the Regina Pat Canadians, and was no small part of their success from the very beginning of their campaign.
All their winning had come down to overtime in the final game of the season, with a national championship and everything they'd played for since Day 1 on the line.
So it should come as no surprise when the 15-year-old phenom went out and saw to it his team would be coming home with the Telus Cup male U18 AAA gold medals.
Schultz scored the game winner with 28 seconds gone in overtime and the Pat Canadians would take a 3-2 victory over the Chevaliers de Levis in the Canadian championship final on Sunday afternoon.
“It feels awesome,” Schultz said when asked by Shawn Mullin on HNLive.ca about his reaction to the win and thoughts going into overtime. “I was just thinking ‘let’s go win it, why not’ so it definitely feels real cool right now for our team to be so good… it’s super special and our team is extremely excited.”
The goal came with the teams playing three-on-three and was the product of a nice set-up by Jonah Sivertson and Dane Mansuy, who ended up giving Schultz time and space to score the winner.
“They were on me, so I had to get loose,” Schultz said while beginning to describe the play. “It was a great feed from Sivy back to Mansuy and he tapped it back to me, then I just had the whole right side of the net from where I was and ripped it low glove.”
There’s little question that things wouldn’t have reached overtime without the stellar play of goaltender Taylor Tabashniuk. Regina’s player of the game in the final had 19 saves, including a handful of huge stops to preserve the tie in the third period.
“It feels unreal, we’ve been working for this all year and it’s a surreal feeling, it’s still settling it. It’s just unforgettable,” Tabashniuk said. “The boys just never gave up. We went down one there late in the second and scored a late one in the second, and that was a huge goal. We just kept our heads down and worked our butts off.”
The win wasn’t actually too much of a surprise to the just-turned-18 goaltender, especially as a feeling of inevitability began to build as the season progressed.
“I never doubted this group, I just felt a sense of champions in this group so I knew something was brewing and obviously we were rewarded for it tonight.”
Head coach Don Hodgins was of a similar mindset, especially with how the team responded after losing a 6-2 decision to the Chevaliers in their final round robin game. That led into a 5-0 win over Elgin Middlesex in the semifinal and eventually their gold medal victory.
“The loss motivated us,” Hodgins said. “I think with our group, it never bothered us. We don't complain. We just stick to the grind. We just got back to work after that loss. These guys, all year they just compete. And the compete is second to none. It's hard to beat a team that competes like we do, and then the skill just takes over with the compete.”
Asked about his team’s success throughout the season and the title win, Hodgins was quick to express his pride in his crew.
“It's unbelievable. It's surreal. It's a good feeling,” he said. “When your top guys work as hard as ours do, it's hard not to follow. And man, oh man, this group deserves everything they got right now.”
