The host team scored twice in the first five minutes and blew the final wide open with three unanswered goals in the second period en route to a 7-1 win over Whitby before a sold-out crowd of some 2,000 enthusiastic fans at the Powell River Recreation Complex.

"No question, that was the best team we've played all year, hands down," said Dunlops coach Mike Posavad after the game. "They've got a lot of experience, they work hard and they're solid at every end of the ice."

As a testament to Powell River's dominance, they had four of the six players on the tournament all-star team: defencemen Kip Noble and Misko Antisin, forward Rick McLaren and goalie Chad Vizzutti.

They boasted three other players with National Hockey League experience, including former all-star Mike Ridley, who scored twice in the Allan Cup final.

"We have four strong lines and good defence and great goaltending and that's what helped us win," Ridley said during the post-game celebration. "It wasn't one or two guys.

"It's good hockey," continued Ridley, who is 42 and hadn't played competitively for nine years prior to the tournament. "Just because you played in the NHL awhile ago doesn't mean you can come in and dominate. I had to work very hard to do what I did out here."

The Regals were the class of the tournament, winning all four games they played, including an identical 7-1 decision over the Trail Smoke Eaters in the semifinals. Jamie Leach, son of former NHL sniper Reggie Leach and himself an ex-NHLer, had three goals in that one.

Noble was named the tournament's most valuable player, but it just as easily could have been Antisin, giving Powell River by far the best one-two punch on the blue-line.

"We've got a lot of talent, obviously. We built the team to win," said Regals coach Tod English, who was a player on the previous two championship teams. "We had eight guys in the stands who all can play... We managed our bench well. And our goalie is unbelievable. We have the best goalie in senior hockey by far."

The lone challenge the Regals faced came against Quebec's Shawinigan Xtreme in the round-robin, but they pulled the game out when Mike MacKay scored with two seconds remaining in overtime for a 2-1 win.

Shawinigan, a young and fast team that was expected to then advance to the semifinals against the Dunlops, was instead upset 3-2 by Trail in the quarterfinals.

Although the Dunlops might have struggled against the swift Shawinigan team, they completely shut down the Fort Saskatchewan Hotel Chiefs in their semifinal, winning 4-0.

Still, no matter how it had all played out in the other games, one got the sense Powell River was not going to be denied.

"We always say you have to go through Powell River to get to the Allan Cup and we're pretty proud of that," said English.

The Regals have now one three Allan Cups in the past 10 years, also prevailing on home ice in 1997 and in Lloydminster, Sask., in 2000.