Appleby won the Bermuda Ball Hockey Association league title after they triumphed 2-1 over Alexandra Mosher in the deciding match at Pembroke Community Club on Monday night.

The wet conditions on island had twice prevented the final match in the best-of-three series from being played, with the game postponed on May 19 as a result of the slippery rink.

The second attempt, on May 26, was abandoned with 18 minutes left because of heavy rain with the score tied at 1-1 after Bill Calko scored for Alexandra Mosher and Curran Trentouth found the target for Appleby.

However, it was third time lucky on Monday for Appleby, with their goals coming from Brad Koperdraad and Andrew Kuzma, who scored two game-winning goals in the finals. Appleby goalkeeper Yves Paul won the most valuable player award.

Hart Freedman, Appleby general manager and captain, was thrilled with the victory.

“It was an amazing and impressive team effort,” he said. “Team Appleby came together as a well-rounded unit that came to be defined by cohesive play, tight defence and relentless attack.

“We brought high energy to the rink last night and ultimately pushed the other team to elimination. Team Appleby is a team that gelled early in the season and we got along well. We believe that it was important for the whole team to work together and found success when everybody else started following the same gameplan.’’

He was full of praise for goalkeeper Paul, who played 18 matches in the regular season and finished with a goals-against average of less than three per game after conceding 52 times.

“He is the play-off MVP winner, he only lost four games the entire year,” Freedman said.

“He had the lowest goals-against average and was the only goalie to have a goals-against average under three. We were a bit sad that we were not able to get him a win in game two of the finals because it was his birthday the next day, but we gave him a late birthday present with the win for game three.’’.

Appleby’s victory was a true team effort as they won the championship without any player finishing in the top ten scorers for the season. Jeremy Estey, of Spine and Sport, was the leading points scorer with 59 after registering 25 goals and 34 assists. Matthew Katzsch had the highest number of points for Appleby with 30.