Yukon Inn may not have had the best start to the 2007-08 oldtimers hockey season, but Thursday's 3-2 shootout victory in the final over Edgewater Hotel made it a perfect ending.

The team won the championship after rallying from a one-goal deficit late in the final period of regulation to force overtime and eventually needing a shootout to win it.

"It feels great," said Yukon Inn captain Bernie Adilman.

"Oldtimers is such fun and you know in the end we are playing for hats, so we aren't playing for anything big.

The joke around the league is 'Can anybody remember who did what last year?' and that is the beauty of the league because the teams are always different."

In a back and forth game featuring numerous end-to-end rushes, it was Yukon Inn who were first to get on the board at 13:30 of the first period.

The team capitalized on its first power play opportunity, doing a great job of passing the puck around before a shot from the point was tipped through the five hole of Edgewater goalie Evan Grant.

Phil Borgel scored the goal, while Greg Bull and Al Hammond were each awarded an assist.

It didn't take Edgewater long to respond and just over three minutes after falling behind, they drew even on a goal by Roger Hewlett.

Hewlett scored the goal after gaining possession of the puck in his own end and skating all the way down the ice.

He beat Yukon Inn goalie Mike Hawkins with a low shot that found its way into the right side of the net. Wayne Vallevand was credited the lone assist on the goal.

Edgewater had a power play opportunity of their own with less than five minutes remaining in the first frame, but Yukon Inn limited any scoring chances and eventually forced Edgewater to ice the puck, looking for a breakout pass.

In an exciting conclusion to the first period, a nice pass led to a breakaway for a player on Yukon Inn with less than 30 seconds remaining, but Grant stayed with him the whole time, making the save look easy.

Hawkins came up with his biggest save of the period shortly after, on what would be the final scoring chance of the frame.

The Yukon Inn goalie managed to get a piece of a hard shot and deflected the puck up into the netting to close out the period.

Edgewater had a strong start to the second period and it didn't take the team long to capitalize on its chances.

Tony Clennett scored nearing the 16 minute mark of the period after a nice pass was made at the side of the Yukon Inn goal. Clennett played it perfectly, snapping a quick shot by Hawkins to give his team the 2-1 advantage.

David McMurphy and Scott Lowery were each awarded one assist on the play.

Yukon Inn had opportunities to draw even, most notably with just under 10 minutes remaining when a great setup pass to a wide open player resulted in a wrist shot that Grant just managed to get the top of his glove on.

Yukon Inn's persistence paid off though and the team scored the equalizer on a relatively harmless looking play.

The goal was put in by Pat Michael, who went hard towards the net and tipped in a pass that was going through the crease.

Dallas Yeulett and Andy McLeod were both credited with assists on the goal.

Both goalies were perfect for the remainder of regulation when called upon, forcing an additional five-minute overtime session.

In overtime, Edgewater got into penalty trouble, giving Yukon Inn a four-on-three advantage with just over two and a half minutes remaining.

Yukon Inn had trouble creating any scoring chances with the extra man and after 49 minutes of play the score was still even at 2-2, forcing a shootout.

Yukon Inn's Brian Boorse was the first player to participate in the shootout. Boorse wasted little time, skating hard towards the net.

He fired a perfect shot above the glove of Grant, which found the top corner of the net to give Yukon Inn a 1-0 advantage.

After the next four shooters failed to find the back of the net, Clennett had to score for Edgewater to force additional shooters.

With the season on the line, Clennett skated down the ice and ripped a hard shot that Hawkins was able to glove down for the win.

Players on Yukon Inn flooded out onto the ice to celebrate as both hats and the oldtimers trophy were handed out.

With the shootout victory, Yukon Inn maintained its undefeated record in the playoffs, which was 5-0.

Adilman said Edgewater played a great game.

"There was no room out there tonight," he said.

"They played a very sound defensive game and they jumped on their chances when they had them.

Hats off to them, they took it right to the end.

We kept battling, we didn't quit and we got that last goal, but it could have gone either way."

He attributed the win to the team's "never quit" resolve, which they displayed throughout the playoffs and second half of the season.

"At one point, we knew we had 13 games to go," Adilman said.

"We knew we had to win 10 out of 13 to get to .500.

That was our goal because we had a couple rough patches and we ended up two games over .500.

We just kept it going through the playoffs.

Everybody contributed, it didn't matter who was here or who was missing, we just started clicking and we had a great end to the season and obviously a great end to the playoffs."

Michael, who plays right wing on Yukon Inn, said the team really improved in the last 15 games of the season.

"For some reason, we just became more disciplined and were mentally a lot smarter about our game," he said.

"We are not the most talented bunch, but we were able to get the puck out of our end a lot better during this last half of the season than we had in the first."

Michael has been playing in the Oldtimers Hockey League for 23 years and this was the second time he has won the championship.

He said both teams battled hard the entire game.

"I think both teams played hard all night, but had either of us let up, it would have given the other one a much easier win," Michael said.

"When it comes to a shootout and you win by one it is a shame that somebody had to lose.

They should feel pretty proud of themselves.

They were the seventh place team and made it to the last game of the year and just about won this one."