Clean Sweep! Eagles claim city hockey championship (10 photos)

The Sir James Dunn Eagles were confident they could secure a city title but a sweep in the championship series was something they didn't expect.

Led by shutout goaltending from John Ellis, the Eagles used a second period goal from David McFadden to defeat the St. Basil Saints 1-0 on Saturday night at the John Rhodes Community Centre.

The victory gave the Eagles a 3-0 sweep of the best-of-five championship series and engraved their name on the Canadian Legion Cup.

In a game that featured tight checking and timely saves by the goaltenders, the Eagles rode a stellar defensive performance to the win.

As St. Basil continued to press for the equalizer in the third period, the Eagles were able to limit the number of quality scoring chances for the Saints while relying on Ellis for a big save when needed.

"We practised cutting off the middle of the ice to give them few chances," said Eagles head coach Remi Gentes. "We weren't worried as much about the breakout as we were about just getting the puck out. St. Basil is a very good offensive team.

"We didn't think we were going to win in three games but we were confident we could win this series. All season we knew it would be between us, St. Basil and St. Mary's and we practised all year to prepare for these teams."

McFadden scored the game's only goal while short handed as he slid the puck past Saints goaltender Daniel Martens on a feed from Matt Irving.

Martens also had a solid game and made several huge saves to keep his team in the game.

Ellis' shutout capped an impressive championship run for the goaltender. In the final series, Ellis posted two shutouts and allowed only one goal in total.

The Eagles took game one of the series 2-0 before rolling past the Saints 8-1 in game two.

"The players on this team are all great because they all come from different teams where they were the leaders but with our team, they had to do their job. Some of them are the scorers, some are the forecheckers and some don't play a lot. They all agreed to play their roles and that's why we won," said Gentes.

Ellis and Irving, who scored 12 goals and eight assists for 20 points in eight games, shared the convenor's award as the league's most valuable players in the playoffs.

The Eagles have now elected to attend the Northern Ontario Secondary Schools Association (NOSSA) AA playdowns in North Bay next week.

Meanwhile, the Saints will head to Sudbury for the NOSSA AAA playdowns.