For the Whitby Dunlops, the painful feeling still lingers
Fri Mar 28, 2008

By: By Shawn Cayley

Moments after the Whitby Dunlops punched their ticket to a third straight Allan Cup national championship with a four-game sweep over Dundas on Wednesday, one thought came to Mike Posavad's mind.

"Remember the pain," he said, while sitting in the coaches room behind the Dunlops' bench at Iroquois Park.

Those three words meant everything to the Dunlops this season. They were the motto. The slogan. The constant reminder.

It was nearly a year ago that the Dunlops boarded a plane back to Ontario after dropping a 4-3 decision in the national championship final to the Lloydminster Border Kings in Stony Plain, Alberta.

And the piercing sting of that loss remains.

"Last year hurt so much that a lot of guys haven't even talked about it," says Posavad. "Sometimes you have to go through that experience to win it all. You have to know what it is like to lose in order to really appreciate what winning it would be like."

For captain Peter MacKellar, the loss marked the second consecutive year in which he, and many teammates, returned home from western Canada with the national championship trophy noticeably absent from their luggage.

The first time around, however, was considerably easier to stomach. The Dunnies fell to a stacked Power River Regals team by a 7-1 count in 2006. That one wasn't even close.

Last year? Well, it was too close.

"I know it's been bugging guys for a year," says MacKellar. "We lost a tough game, a game we could have won. I know that's why most of the guys came back here, you know, to get another shot at it. Obviously you can't guarantee a win, but we're going to do everything we can to win it."

That shot looked to be all wrapped up after the Dunlops captured a 7-4 victory Tuesday and a 3-0 series lead and Kyle Musselman's overtime marker on Wednesday turned it into a reality, although the subsequent celebration was a little subdued.

Upon winning the Robertson Cup trophy the last couple of years, the Dunlops played it up a little bit. And rightfully so. A championship win is no small feat and is definitely something to be proud of.

But the focus is clearly beyond that this year, says MacKellar, who chose not to pick up and raise the Robertson Cup over his head in celebration.

"Those trophies are nice to win, but they aren't the one's we want to be raising or the one we want to be touching," he said. "We know we've got a huge step ahead of us. We have to get our game up to another level."

Another heart-breaking loss would probably be too much to take. Here is to hoping, as the old adage goes, that the third time is a charm for the Dunlops.