GRANDE PRAIRIE, AB – The Aurora Tigers, who are the Central Region champions, have gone the distance and captured the 2004 RBC Royal Bank Cup, Canada’s National Junior A Hockey Championship. The Aurora Tigers defeated the Kindersley Klippers 7-1 on Sunday afternoon, in front of a boisterous crowd of 2,721 at the Crystal Centre.

This is the first time that the Aurora Tigers have won Canada’s National Junior A Hockey Championship, and are the 2nd team from the OPJHL to win the coveted RBC Royal Bank Cup.

Aurora finished the tournament with a convincing 5-1 record, with their only loss coming at the hands of the host team, the Grande Prairie Storm.

The Tigers took a 4-1 lead into the second period, and never looked back as they won convincingly 7-1. Francis Walker, playing in his third RBC Royal Bank Cup, led the way for the Tigers with 1 goal and 2 assists. The tournaments Top Goalie, Aurora’s Chris Whitley, made 21 saves in the victory.

The Player-of-the-game for Aurora was Sean Scully, while Curtis Bazylinski took home the honours for the Kinderlsey Klippers.

The 2004 RBC Royal Bank Cup set a new attendance record with 35,953 fans over the course of the 13 game, nine day tournament.