The El Dorado Lynx, a franchise that won it all in 2004 only to miss the playoffs for five straight seasons, are your new Gump Cup Champions!

The Lynx beat the defending champs, the West Virginia River Rats, in seven games: a hard-fought back-and-forth series with no shortage of intrigue. For one, the River Rats were missing leading scorer Sidney Crosby since game 4.

The Rats opened the scoring in game 7 with an unassisted tally by Eric Staal, his 10th of the postseason. West Virginia made it 2-0 as the second period was windown down – this time thanks to Corey Perry.

The Lynx wouldn’t get onto the board until early in the third. With El Dorado defenseman Eric Brewer serving a penalty, the Lynx managed to confuse the Rats’ powerplay unit and take advantage, with Vern Fiddler feeding veteran Jamie Langenbrunner for the shorthanded goal.

2-1 was the score until the last minutes of regulation, as Andrei Kostitsyn beat Ryan Miller, assisted by brother Sergei and Fiddler, to tie the game at two.

That set the stage for the most exciting situation in hockey: overtime in game 7. The home team was reeling from El Dorado’s late-game attack. Just three minutes in, Alex Ovechkin fed Christian Ehrhoff, who dished to one-time first overall pick Tuomo Ruutu, acquired by El Dorado in 2010. The winger made no mistake, beating Miller cleanly and earning the right to hoist the Gump Cup.

                                 GAME SUMMARY
                          2012 Gump Cup Finals Game 7

EL DORADO     0  0  2  1  -  3
W VIRGINIA    1  1  0  0  -  2

First Period
Scoring:
  1, W VIRGINIA, E.Staal 10, 10:52. 
Penalties: Burns, WVR, 2:19; Price, EDH, 3:54; Selanne, EDH, 7:35; Burns, WVR,
8:43; Kesler, EDH, 8:43.

Second Period
Scoring:
  2, W VIRGINIA, Perry 11 (Vanek, Semin), 15:18. 
Penalties: Aucoin, WVR, 7:31; van Riemsdyk, EDH, 17:50.

Third Period
Scoring:
  3, EL DORADO, Langenbrunner 2 (sh) (Fiddler, Ehrhoff), 1:54;
  4, EL DORADO, A.Kostitsyn 3 (S.Kostitsyn, Fiddler), 15:42. 
Penalties: Brewer, EDH, :13; Tyutin, WVR, 2:45; R.Miller, WVR, 12:46; Moore,
EDH, 19:55.

Overtime
Scoring:
  5, EL DORADO, T.Ruutu 3 (Ehrhoff, Ovechkin), 3:07. 
Penalties: None.

Shots on goal
EL DORADO     9  8 15  2  -  34
W VIRGINIA   16 10  6  3  -  35

Power play conversions: EDH - 0 of 4, WVR - 0 of 5. Goalies: EL DORADO, Price
11-5-0 (35 shots-33 saves). W VIRGINIA, R.Miller 11-9-0 (34-31).