Yukon Inn is the team that won’t say die.
Arriving in the Whitehorse Oldtimer Hockey League finals with a pair of narrow wins, Yukon Inn again avoided elimination with a 4-0 win over the AON Flames Wednesday at Takhini Arena.
Having taken a 2-1 loss against the Flames earlier in the double-elimination playoffs, Yukon Inn needs another win over the Flames tonight for the championship in the deciding game taking place at the Canada Games Centre at 8:45 p.m.
“Tonight we got some timely goals from our forwards and a goose egg by Jeff (Kalles) in net, so he’s happy,” said Yukon Inn’s Blaine (Bubba) Demchuk. “They’re missing a couple good skaters and we’re missing a couple good players. But we’ve been playing with three lines all year long and we thought if we can get to a final and the other team has three lines, it’s going to benefit us a lot.
“We’ve gone a defensive philosophy and in this league that’s what has won it in the playoff every year.”
Wednesday’s game-winner came off the stick of Demchuk on a centering pass that went off a Flames defenceman’s skate and in at the start of the first period.
Also scoring for the Inn were John Pereira, Grant Lyons and Doug Jenzen. Picking up assists were Demchuk, Darnell Kiriak, Murray Arsenault and Lyons.
Yukon Inn arrived in the finals with a 2-1 overtime win over Medicine Chest on Tuesday with goals from Lyons and Paul Sahagian.
“Both our goals were basically lob shots – change-ups,” said Demchuk.
In the quarterfinals, Yukon Inn downed performance Centre with a 4-3 shootout win.
Contact Tom Patrick at tomp@yukon-news.com