“Welcome to the North American Hockey Championship Finals between the #1 seeded Montreal Snow and the #16 seeded New England Wolves here at the Super Sports Centre Arena in Montreal, Quebec. Whoever wins this Game 3 showdown takes home the trophy,” announced TV commentator Jack Jackson. “The Wolves and Snow each have earned tough home victories to push the series to a full 3 games.”

The Snow, the undefeated, 25-time defending champions, had an easy trip to the championship series, beating #7 Chicago, #6 Philadelphia, and #5 Pittsburgh. They were led through the group and knockout stages by wingers Ryan Pronger, Zack Giroux, the co-captains of Montreal, and head coach Thomas Williams. The Wolves had much more trouble, barely making the tournament and the knockout stage with only 2 group play victories and a 7-0 loss to the Snow, with 3 from each Pronger and Giroux in that game. They edged #2 Ottawa, #3 Vancouver, and #4 Toronto in the knockout stages. The leaders of the Wolves are center and captain Cameron Fortney, goaltender John Young, and head coach Claude Poulin.

The final series of 3 games was a generic 1-1-1 setup. The 1st and 3rd games would be at the higher seeded team’s home ice, the Super Sports Centre Arena for Montreal, and the 2nd at the other team’s home ice, the NorthEast Garden for the Wolves. All games were officiated by Hugh McDonald and Collin Edwards. The announcer for all of the games was Jack Jackson. All of this information was announced at the Hall of Fame in Toronto, where the trophy resides when the tournament is not in session.

In preparation for the ultimate series, both teams had a week full of practices at their own practice rinks. The Snow practiced at the Eh Centre while the Wolves held practices at the Wilmington Arena. Coaches Williams and Poulin had completely different ways of practicing. Poulin worked his team hard and built up their strength and conditioning to match the rough and speedy Snow team. The Snow, for practice, played games and barely built up a sweat, thinking that they would win their 26th straight championship with ease in a 2 game sweep.
As the week passed, tickets were bought and sold. By Wednesday, October 12, 2012, all of the tickets for the games were sold out. The 18,000 at the NorthEast Garden and the 30,000 at the Super Sports Centre Arena were sold at $150 per ticket, the highest price in tournament history. The anticipation for the series was at an all time high as it was the first time in history that a 16 seed made it to the championship series, let alone past the first round.
On Monday, October 15, 2012, Game 1 in the series took place in Montreal. The starting goaltenders, announced after pregame warmups, were Pierre Crosby for Montreal and John Young for the Wolves. The game would get out of hand 2 minutes into the game as the Snow scored 3 goals from starters Ryan Pronger and Zack Giroux as well as second line center Robert Kane. Wolves' second line center Josh Camper got the Wolves within 2 with 10 minutes to go in the 1st period. However, that would prove futile as the Snow piled on 7 more goals to 2 for the Wolves to win Game 1 by a score of 10-3. Pronger and Giroux each had 3 each along with Kane, first line center Carter Campbell, and second line wingers Spencer Eriksson and Henrik Enstrom, with 1 goal apiece. The Wolves had goals from second liners Camper and his wingers, Eric Mowers and Chris Callahan. The Snow, up 1 game to none, were in the driver's seat as they controlled their own destiny for their 26th straight championship title.
Between Games 1 and 2, Coach Poulin knew that it was going to take a miracle for his underdog team to take down the best in the world in each of the last 25 tournaments. He was asked in an interview following the 10-3 Game 1 loss how would he describe the series. Poulin answered the question by saying, “This series, since being announced, has been a battle between David and Goliath. I believe that this series will be difficult and we are the underdogs, but we think that we can come back from this tough and frustrating game with, hopefully, a strong home effort on Thursday.”
Tuesday and Wednesday were used as travel days for the teams and gave them time to rest and also prepare for Game 2. Since there were only a few bright spots in Game 1 for New England, Montreal did not use too much film to study. New England, however, took most of Tuesday night and Wednesday morning watching film on the Snow to learn from their Game 1 errors and to learn how to stop the volatile Snow offense. Both teams did hold practice Wednesday afternoon, with 30 minutes from Montreal and 90 minutes from New England.
Thursday, October 18, 2012 brought Game 2 to New England for the first time in their history. The Wolves knew that they needed to focus on the game and to eliminate all other distractions. As in Game 1, Crosby and Young earned the nods in net for their respective teams. The Wolves, who had their star Cameron Fortney kept off of the scoresheet in Game 1, started with their second line, Callahan, Camper, Mowers, Oliver Heaps, and Will Miller, against Pronger, Campbell, Giroux, Victor Hanson, and Keith Keith for the Snow, Montreal’s top line. In their first shift, Keith took down defenseman Miller while he was on a breakaway, which gave Miller and the Wolves a penalty shot. Following the takedown, Miller and Keith collided into Crosby. The 2 defensemen got up immediately, but Crosby remained down until he was helped off of the ice. Montreal was forced to put in backup goalie Garth Johnson for the rest of the game. In his first action of the game, he faced Miller on the penalty shot, who came in and rang a shot off of the crossbar and each post before going out of danger, keeping the score tied at 0. You could easily hear a collective gasp from the crowd.
The game went into the third period as a scoreless tie. The Snow struck first 30 seconds into the period with a shot from the blue line by Charlie Hamilton and another 2 minutes later from Louis Clark, both second line defensemen. Down 2-0, the Wolves had their backs up against the wall. With help from first line wingers Jacob Smith and Luke Pollastrone, Fortney got a pair of assists on a goal by each of his wingers with 7:59 and 4:11 left in the third, respectively. As the time ticked down, Fortney carried the puck into the attacking zone and wristed one by Johnson with 51 seconds to go, giving the Wolves a shocking, come-from-behind Game 2 victory to force Game 3 in Montreal on Sunday, October 21, 2012, which happened to be the birthday of New England captain Cameron Fortney.
The Friday and Saturday before Game 3 had Montreal having a 2 hour practice and 1 hour of film to watch while the Wolves had a 1 hour practice with 3 hours of film watching. Montreal did not speak to the press, except to say that Pierre Crosby suffered a concussion in the collision with Miller and Keith, ruling him out of Game 3. Johnson had played most of Game 2, so the Wolves were able to have film on the goaltender. The Wolves announced that backup goalie Andrew Quick was most likely going to get the start in Game 3, which ruined the planning for the Snow.
The Wolves spoke with the media pertaining to Game 3, the play of the first line, and as well as Fortney’s birthday when they talked with him. Fortney, when asked about what it will be like to play the final game in the championship series on his birthday, he replied, “I forgot that Sunday was my birthday. I am focusing solely on playing the game and trying to help our team upset the favorites on the road.”
After a seemingly long wait, Game 3 arrived to the Super Sports Centre Arena. The teams came out for warmups. To the shock of the Snow, John Young led out the Wolves, symbolizing him starting in goal. The Snow had prepared for the wrong opposing goalie. When asked before the game, Coach Poulin said that, “John had been struggling in practices and faced a strong home team in Game 1 and could not handle the rapid-fire shots from the Snow. It seemed as if he was under too much pressure. We said that Andrew (Quick) was most likely going to start to relieve some pressure from John. He was informed, as well as Andrew, that John would be in net tonight.”
Following a second line start in the previous game, Poulin went back to his first liners, left winger Pollastrone, center Fortney, right winger Smith, left defenseman Phil Chara, and right defenseman Brian Carter against the Snow’s first liners, left winger Pronger, center Campbell, right winger Giroux, left defender Hanson, and right defender Keith. The opening faceoff of the highly anticipated final game went in favor of Fortney instead of Campbell. After a few minutes of play, Keith delivered a devastating hit on Heaps, causing Miller to fight Keith, who would receive a 5 minute major penalty for boarding and a game misconduct. “Miller and Keith drop the gloves and this should be interesting,” Jack Jackson shouted with excitement. “Miller lands a few crushing right hooks. And down goes Keith. He took a few uppercuts and only got off 1 weak left hook. It is Fight Night here in Quebec.” Both player earned themselves 5 minute fighting majors, adding to the 5 minutes and game misconduct for Keith. He was kicked out of the game, leaving Montreal with 5 defensemen.
After the fight, Miller was livid with Keith for his hit on Heaps. As he was going to the tunnel, Keith shouted out towards Miller as there was still leftover tension from their Game 1 collision, “I have one thing to say to you. Puck you, you turtling, wimpy crybaby.”
The second period had passed with 40 total shots on goal in the game, 20 from each team, and nothing on the scoreboard. In the locker rooms, both coaches gave speeches to their teams to motivate them. Williams gave a short, but sweet speech to his team that gave the Snow some energy. Poulin gave a 5 minute speech to his team that not only gave them energy, but also motivation to bring home the trophy. The zambonis finished their rounds of ice resurfacing and referees McDonald and Edwards came out of the tunnel before any team came out. Montreal came out first, followed by New England about 5 seconds later. They skated around a bit and went to their benches for the start of the last regulation period of the tournament.
Fortney and Campbell drew on the draw, but the puck was taken away by Pronger. He and Giroux, as well as Fortney, were being held quiet through 2 periods. Half way through the period, Pronger and Giroux came in on a 2 on 1 against Chara. They got Chara away and had a 2 on none, with just the goalie to beat. Pronger slipped a pass to Giroux to tap in for the first goal of the game, but Young dove to rob the Snow of the opening goal. Less than a minute later, Chara took a slap shot that deflected off of the left post and went around the boards for Kane, who had a breakaway on Young. He pulled a triple deke out of his bag of tricks and got Young to bite, but he pulled the shot off of the crossbar and left the game in a scoreless tie.
With no score through 3, the game headed into overtime, the first time that the deciding game for the title went into overtime, also known as “Free hockey” to Jackson. The rules for overtime were that there would be a 15 minute intermission for the teams to recuperate and the zambonis to resurface the ice. The overtime period would be 20 minutes long. It was a sudden-death format with no shootout. If no goals were scored in the first 20 of overtime, then there would be another 15 minute intermission and 20 minute period until 1 goal was scored to end the game.
The first overtime came and went with little action either way, forcing a second overtime period. 2:34 into overtime #2, Fortney led a 3 on 1 with Smith and Pollastrone against Hanson. Hanson blocked the first shot from Smith and the second from Pollastrone, but the rebound went to Fortney in front, who jammed the puck past Johnson. While he was poking at the puck, his teammates were screaming, “Jam it home birthday boy!” The Wolves had gotten the goal to win the championship, but Hanson had previously forced Smith wide and he crashed into Johnson, interfering with the goalie. McDonald said that the goal counted, contrary to Edwards, who called for goaltender interference. The referees called to the replay office in Toronto to see if Johnson was interfered with by Smith. “After review, the call is no goal. The goaltender was not able to make an attempt to save the puck after being contacted by an opponent,” announced Edwards, much to the dismay of the Wolves. Coach Poulin was infuriated with the call, saying that Smith did not interfere with Johnson and the call should have been a goal. His arguing led to nothing as the second overtime passed with no more drama or great chances.
A third overtime was to come. Players on both teams were on the verge of vomiting from exhaustion, even though these teams were highly conditioned. The zambonis once again cleared the ice for a 6th period of 20 minutes. The stands remained full, but tired and hungry as the food concessions were running low on food. It seemed as if no one could handle a fourth overtime.
The third overtime started, and in a similar situation as the first overtime, no great chances formed in the first 10 minutes of the period. 7:41 remained when the Wolves took a penalty for delay of game by clearing the puck into the stands while in their own defensive zone. The penalty was called on top penalty killer Fortney.
With a man advantage and the man in the box being one of the best penalty killers in the tournament, the Snow had their best chance of the night at the time to end the game. They won the faceoff and possessed the puck for the full 2 minutes of the penalty in the attacking zone with 10 shots on net. Young was screened by Campbell, but he somehow stopped each shot and helped clear the puck to Fortney, fresh out of the box, who came in on a breakaway. He went forehand, backhand, forehand and found an opening next to the pad of Johnson, but he put it an inch wide of the opening with a “cling” of the post.
With under a minute to go, a fourth overtime seemed imminent. The puck was mostly in the neutral zone for the time after the breakaway until the final minute. As the seconds ticked down, the Wolves changed lines to bring out Fortney and his wingers. Pollastrone picked the puck up from Smith and entered wide of the net and tried a wrap around, but was stopped by Johnson. The rebound went to the slot and Fortney waited there for the puck. He picked up the puck and took a quick wrist shot with less than a second remaining. His shot had eyes for the top right corner, which is the high glove area of Johnson. He got a piece of the puck, but not enough as the puck entered the net as the clock struck 0. A review was needed as it was unknown if the puck went into the net fully before time ran out.
Every player remained where they were as it was reviewed. If it was called a goal, the Wolves would jump onto the ice and then onto Fortney to celebrate the winning goal. If not, another overtime would come. The review took 5 minutes, but seemed to take an eternity. Tense moments were felt all around the Super Sports Centre Arena.
After the review ended, the referees conferred with each other to get an official ruling on the play. As Edwards left the review box, the whole arena stood still, waiting for the word. “After review, the call on the ice is a goal. The puck completely entered the net with 0.1 seconds left on the clock.” That was it. The Wolves had done the unthinkable. They came back from a game down against the 25 time defending champions and took the series in 3 games with a road victory in triple overtime to clinch the title. They stormed the ice and jumped upon their hero, the birthday boy and captain, Cameron Fortney.
Both teams went through the congratulatory handshake line, led by the coaches. After the game, the awards were announced. Young was the best goaltender, Chara was the best defenseman, and Fortney took home the best forward and MVP. The all-tournament team had Pronger, Giroux, Fortney, Chara, Keith, and Young. The head of the tournament committee then congratulated both teams, coaches, and all of the fans. In a signature event, he called Fortney over to collect the championship trophy. He took a picture with the tournament head and then was given the freedom to take the trophy and celebrate with his team. They got together to take a group photo with the championship trophy that they earned by taking out the best team in the previous 25 tournaments. On that night, the New England Wolves were on the top of the hockey world.