Rockford leaves UHL as champions

Game 1 - at Rockford 3, Kalamazoo 2 (OT)
Game 2 - at Rockford 6, Kalamazoo 1
Game 3 - at Kalamazoo 3, Rockford 0
Game 4 - at Kalamazoo 6, Rockford 5
Game 5 - at Rockford 6, Kalamazoo 1
Game 6 - at Kalamazoo 6, Rockford 2
Game 7 - at Rockford 3, Kalamazoo 1
(Rockford wins series, 4-3)

Rockford, Ill.- A storybook season came to a storybook end.

The Rockford IceHogs clinched its first ever Colonial Cup championship with a 3-1 Game Seven Colonial Cup finals win over the Kalamazoo Wings in front of a franchise postseason record 6,236 at the Rockford MetroCentre.

The IceHogs won the championship series 4-games-to-3.

The home team won all seven games in the finals and this one went down to the wire. Rockford grabbed the 1-0 lead early in the first period while shorthanded. Center Kevin Ulanski picked off a Kalamazoo pass and broke over the Wings line on a 2-on-2 breakaway. Ulanski pulled in the high-slot and beat Ryan Nie 2:47 in to give Rockford the 1-0 lead.

Kalamazoo battled back and tied the score at 1-1. Wings wingman Nick Bootland was camped out in front of the Rockford net while Kalamazoo was on the power play and he tipped in a Tyler Willis pass past Frederic Cloutier for his 12th postseason goal at 9:08.

The tie game was broken in the second period when Hogs winger Jason Notermann would notch the eventual game-winning goal. Notermann broke into the Wings zone and fired a shot in on Nie. Nie made the initial save, but Notermann was there to clean up the garbage and knocked in his fifth postseason goal at 6:11 to give the IceHogs a 2-1 lead. Notermann also netted the game-winning goal in the IceHogs semifinals clincher.

The game was tight the rest of the way and wasn't iced until late in the contest. Up by just a goal and with the Wings pressing to tie the game, winger Nicolas Corbeil finished off Kalamazoo when he blasted home his ninth postseason marker at 18:27. Corbeil's goal sent the MetroCentre crowd into a fury and the Hogs road out the 3-1 win and its first ever UHL championship.

Cloutier made 24 saves in the win and tied a UHL postseason record with his 12th win. Ulanski was named the Colonial Cup postseason MVP after leading the IceHogs with 21 points in its 17-game championship run.