The South East Prairie Thunder will make their seventh straight appearance at the Allan Cup next month in Lacombe, Alberta after sweeping the Ste. Anne Aces in two straight in Hockey Manitoba's best-of-three Provincial Senior AAA final. 

The Ste. Anne arena, packed full of mostly Aces fans, was left quiet Friday night after the tough 4-0 loss. Both team's powerplay units were unsuccessful, with the Aces going 0 for 6 and Prairie Thunder 0 for 4. 

It would take until late in the first to open the scoring. The Aces powerplay turned over the puck and there to pick it up, Prairie Thunder star forward Tyler Dittmer who walks in and snipes one over the shoulder of Aces goaltender Guy St.Vincent.

The Aces would get a few chances early in the second but Steve Christie of the Prairie Thunder stood tall between the pipes and showed his glove was not letting anything by. Another costly give away by the Aces led to the games second goal scored by Devon Leblanc. Remi Laurencelle picked up the assist. 

"So were down 2-0 on a couple of mistakes and that's what happens when you play against teams that are a pretty good hockey team," commented Aces Head Coach Joe West. "Today we learned a lesson that if we're going to turn pucks over, we're going to get caught playing against a team like that and that's exactly what happened."

Later in the second, a nice passing play by the Prairie Thunder led to a wide open Derek Leblanc who buried the one timer, from Carson Dubchak and Matt Backhouse, to give the Prairie Thunder a 3-0 lead heading into the intermission.  

The intensity rose in the third as the Aces knew they needed to get on the board before it was too late. In the dying minutes, St.Vincent was called to the Aces bench but Devon Leblanc potted the empty netter to secure the win for the Prairie Thunder who outshot the Aces 38-30.

Christie got the shutout and the South East Prairie Thunder are off to the Allan Cup, April 8-13 in Lacombe.

Captain Ryan Bonni says his team's puck management and their solid play inside their blue line is what made the difference Friday night. 

"I thought game one we had a lot of turnovers inside our blueline but tonight that wasn't the case so we were a lot more responsible with the puck in our end and I think we came together more as a team."

Bonni added the smaller ice surface in Ste. Anne makes it more difficult for the poweplay to create chances and says that is a likely factor of why both powerplays were scoreless.  

The Prairie Thunder will play the host Lacombe Generals in their opening game and Bonnie says their team knows how to get it done at that level.

"It's our seventh straight appearance, we've won a couple, so we know how fun it is and we know how tough it is as well. Hopefully we have everybody on board and, like I said, the older we get too, it's even more of a thrill, so hopefully we can do it one more time."