Otters Win OHL Championship

Erie, PA – Sean Courtney scored 14:14 into overtime to lift the Erie Otters to a 2-1 win over the Barrie Colts to win the OHL Championship Series 4-1.

“Coach was telling us all game to go to the net and I just shot it at the net and it happened to find its way in,” Courtney told the Erie Times-News. “I’m pretty sure it hit a defenseman and went into the net. I didn’t actually see it go in. There was no better feeling than that. I heard the crowd cheering and everybody was coming toward me.”

Courtney, the Otters’ first round pick in the 2002 OHL Priority Selection, was the MVP of the OHL Cup last March leading the Peterborough Petes to the all-Ontario Bantam Championship.

Corey Pecker opened the scoring with his 25th goal of the playoffs 6:34 into the first period before a capacity crowd of 5,591 at the Tullio Arena. Pecker was the leading scorer in the playoffs with 42 points in 21 games.

Joey Tenute replied with his fourth goal in the past two games, a powerplay marker at 16:01 of the first period. The score remained tied at one throughout regulation time.

Otters’ captain Brad Boyes was named the Wayne Gretzky 99 Award winner as the Most Valuable Player in the OHL Playoffs as selected by the media in attendance at the Championship Series. Last week, Boyes was won the Red Tilson Trophy as the OHL’s most outstanding player in the regular season.

“Winning this award means I have great teammates, it means we have a great coaching staff and we have great leaders in the front office,” Boyes said. “But mostly it means we have the best team in the league, and we proved it tonight.”

The Otters are just the second American-based franchise to win the OHL Championship, following the Detroit Junior Red Wings (now Plymouth Whalers) in 1995.

Sherry Bassin, the Otters Managing Director and General Manager has constructed championship teams in each of the past three decades, including the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds in 1991 and 1992 and the Oshawa Generals in 1987.

Coach Dave MacQueen won his second OHL Championship after guiding the Peterborough Petes to the J. Ross Robertson Cup in 1996.

The Otters will represent the OHL, along with the Host Guelph Storm at the 2002 MasterCard Memorial Cup at the Guelph Sports and Entertainment Centre May 18 – 26. The Otters open the round robin portion of the tournament on May 19 against the champions of the Western Hockey League.