Burroughs players Alec Rosen (left) and Jeremy Chen lead the post-game celebration. (Damon Bell photo)

Brent Bowers knows a little bit about championships, having scored the game-winning goal in double overtime to give John Burroughs the Mid-States Club Hockey Association Tier II title in 1997. He also knows that, as the old saying goes, “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

So when younger brother Brian took the ice for John Burroughs just prior to the MSCHA Wickenheiser Cup championship game Monday at Savvis Center, Brent Bowers offered these words of wisdom.

“He said, ‘I have no words of advice because you seem to be doing pretty well the last four weeks in playoffs,’” said Brian Bowers, the Bombers’ senior captain. “He said, ‘Just keep doing what you’ve been doing.’”


Sound advice for a team searching its seventh win in eight playoff games and its first title since ’97.

“We just had to play our game, keeping working hard and playing like we have been,” head coach Andy Leonard said.

Bowers, who had 13 points (9 goals, 4 assists) in John Burrough’s first seven playoff contests, scored a pair of goals on Monday and was named the game’s MVP as the Bombers rolled past St. Charles West 4-1.

“It’s unbelievable. It’s really . . . I can’t even explain it,” Bowers said. “We worked really hard to get here, as a whole team, and everybody played great tonight.”

Sophomore Jimmy Martin had two assists for John Burroughs, who was seeded No. 1 in the Wickenheiser Cup and ended the season 15-8-5. West finished 14-13-2.

“We said after the game if we had to play them six times a year, it’d probably be us three (wins), them three. It just wasn’t our night,” West head coach Dennis Gossett said. “We ended up outshooting them, I think it was 18-16, but we just didn’t get a whole lot of quality shots on.”

John Burroughs was able to minimize the damage from the Warriors’ top line of Pete Chilcutt (9 goals, 4 assists in the first eight playoff games), Matt Johnson (9, 19) and Aaron Schulz (5, 8). Johnson scored West’s line goal off a great individual effort to make it 3-1 early in the third period.

“That was a line that definitely scared us,” Leonard said.

“They were very quick, quick around the edges, and we were a bit concerned because of the bigger rink. They also were phenomenally clever across the crease. They would score by going across to the backdoor guy, and so what we did was we pulled our weak-side forward down. We designed a whole defense for that line, pulled our weak-side forward down and just had him jam, and for the most part it worked.”

It was the second runner-up finish for West in the last three seasons. The Warriors lost to Belleville Althoff 5-3 in the 2003 Wickenheiser Cup championships.

“We’re the only St. Charles team that’s ever made it down here two times,” Gossett said. “Two times in three years. I’ve got to be proud of them.”

John Burroughs took a 1-0 lead midway through the first period. Martin carried the puck into the zone, skated around one defender, draw another into the right circle, then one-handed a pass into the middle for an open Will Chapman, who chipped it nicely into the upper-left corner.

“That was huge,” Bowers said of scoring first. “That’s been a big key the whole playoffs.”

And Leonard said his team got an even bigger boost out of the fact that the goal came from someone other than the Bombers’ top trio of Martin, Bowers and Alex Hubb.

“One of our wings got it, not one of our big three, so that cheered up the whole bench,” he said. “That was a huge lift, because one of our wings got it, and that meant they were contributing, too.”

John Burroughs went ahead 2-0 with a shorthanded goal at the 5 minute, 47 mark of the second period. Martin skated in on a mini break but was knocked behind the net with the puck. As West goaltender Mitch Coval tried to recover from a bump from his own defenseman and slide to the opposite post, Martin sent the puck out to Matt Elitt and he knocked it into the crease, finding a hole between Coval’s skates for his third goal of the playoffs.

“They’re always tough to recover from, shorthanded goals,” Gossett said. “And now you’re looking at, that’s two goals to put it back even again, and we just didn’t have the jump that we usually do.”

Bowers delivered the first knockout blow just 35 seconds into the third period. With the puck sent into the Warrior zone, Coval tried to pass it ahead but Bowers knocked it down and hit a quick shot that deflected off of Coval and into the net.

“The goalie got a little flustered there, and I just happened to get it on my stick and just flicked it to the net real quick,” Bowers said. “Luckily it got in.”

Johnson responded less than a minute later, carrying the puck in the left side and faking a shot at the top of the circle. He was taken down by defenseman Hubb but was able to slap the puck on net and sneak it through goaltender David Bosner.

But Bowers dealt West another staggering blow with 9:11 to play, blasting a shot from just inside the blue line that beat Drew Philipps, who had replaced Coval.

“The defenseman was kind of in front of me, I kind of used him as a screen,” Bowers said. “Just blasted it at the net and it got over his pad.”

Bosner would then drive in the final nail. With just over six minutes to play, a Bomber defenseman covered up the puck in the crease to kill a West flurry and the official gave the Warriors a penalty shot. Johnson took it and tried to go to the backhand, but Bosner made the pad save.

“That was fabulous. That absolutely sealed the game,” Gossett said. “We knew we could hold on from that point. The whole bench was energized, everybody was ready to go.”