Craig Aglukark scored 1:24 into the first overtime period to give A&K a 5-4 win over the KIA to take the Rankin Inlet Senior Men's Hockey League championship three games to two.
The championship series was a hard-fought affair, with four of the five games decided by a single goal and three needing overtime to determine the outcome.
A&K captain David Clark said it was challenging and a lot of fun to be involved in such a tight championship series.
He said both teams had good benches for the series, keeping the action fast and tight.
"They were having some goalie issues in the final series because of everyone travelling so much and guys working at the mine, which can make things a little more difficult at times, but that's just part of life now," said Clark.
"Pretty much every team will have to deal with those issues at some point in the season."
Clark said, overall, he thought this past season went fairly well for the league.
He said the biggest issue the circuit faces moving forward is the shortage of senior-aged goalies in Rankin Inlet.
"We're struggling with goalies and there's really not much we can do about that right now.
"But, hopefully, when a couple of the younger goalies out there come back to the community it will help our league."
The league operated with four teams this year captained by Clark, Lee Kreelak, Craig Beardsall and Graham (Bubsy) Kusugak.
Clark said four teams (A&K, KIA, M&T and Kativik) was the right fit for the league this season and, as it stands now, that's the plan again for next season.
He said the excitement generated by the opening of Rankin's new arena in the coming year, however, might lead to an increase in player registration for the league but, if that were to happen, the executive committee would deal with the situation at the time.
"Looking at the standings in the regular season (only seven points separated first place A&K from fourth place Kativik), this was definitely one of our most well-balanced seasons in the past few years.
"Every team in the league went on a bit of a winning streak at different times throughout the season and that was nice to see happen in the league."
This year also marked the first time in recent memory a defenceman took the scoring title in Rankin's senior league, with Kativik's Panniuq Karetak (33-37-70) nipping M&T's Alfred Voisey (32-37-69) by a single point and Clark (33-31-64) – who played five fewer games than Karetak and Voisey – by six to claim the scoring crown.
"I don't know if a defenceman ever won the scoring crown in our league before.
"Panniuq plays a free-wheeling style that sees him join or lead the rush a number of times throughout a game."
Clark said, all in all, it was a positive year for the senior league.
He said it's important for players in the community to have a competitive league that's fun to play in.
"It shows in tournaments that players in our league have solid officiating every season because guys know how to play today's game the right way, which really helps our teams overall.
"It's a competitive league with good hockey but it's also fun and, at the end of the day, we all want to play in a fun league.
"You also can't lose sight of the fact the league has been around a long time now and it continues to grow.
"Hopefully, we'll soon have some younger guys involved in the league step up and start to do more to help keep it going and running smoothly because some of us older guys have been doing
it a long time and we're getting
a little tired of running the league every year."