2012-2013
Port Elgin native and Lakeshore Winterhawks alum Peter Roedger was named head coach in July 2012.
The Winterhawks opened their quest for a third-consecutive championship with three new faces, as Andy Mitchell, Marc Roedger and Adam Shular joined the team, while Matt Turcotte, Jordan Lang and Greg Virgo did not return. Forward Tyler Kennedy joined the club midway through the season, while James McHaig & Ryan Dudgeon left the club.
They would open the season with a 5-2 win over the Shallow Lake Crushers, but would drop their home opener to the Mapleton-Minto 81's less than a week later. The Winterhawks would lose consecutive games for the first time since 2009 with a loss to the Ripley Wolves the following night.
Forward Bryan Kazarian co-captured the league scoring title with 54 points (17 goals, 33 assists), sharing the honour with Ryan Stephenson of the Komoka Classics. It marked the first time in franchise history that a Winterhawks player had won the scoring title.
The Winterhawks finished the regular season with a record of 16-7-1, good enough for 2nd place in the North Division.
The Winterhawks faced off against the Mapleton-Minto 81's in a best-of-7 North Division quarterfinal to start the playoffs. Mapleton-Minto would put a scare into the Winterhawks, forcing overtime in Game 2, but Saugeen Shores ended up prevailing, 5-4. In the remaining three games, Saugeen Shores outscored the 81's by a margin of 26-2, sweeping the series in four games.
The North Division semi-final opponent for the Winterhawks was the rival Shelburne Muskies. The Winterhawks swept the Muskies after a nail-biter of a Game 3 with the final score being 4-3 and the 'Hawks scoring 4 unanswered goals in the last 10 minutes of the 3rd.
The Winterhawks faced off against the Elora Rocks in the North Division final once again and prevailed in six games.
The theme of familiar foes continued in the league final, as the Winterhawks took on the Tavistock Royals for the second straight year and third time overall. Tavistock jumped out to an early lead, thumping the Winterhawks 5-2 in the opener. The Winterhawks roared back with back-to-back overtime victories to put themselves ahead, but dropped Game 4 to the Royals, 5-1. The Winterhawks once again used overtime to secure victory, taking a 4-3 decision on the road in Game 5. Using a home crowd of more than 1,000 to their advantage, the Winterhawks defeated Tavistock in Game 6 to secure their third-straight league championship.
Read more about this topic: Saugeen Shores Winterhawks