The Athens Aeros have reached heights never before experienced by an Eastern Ontario Hockey League Rideau Division franchise.

With a 6-2 victory over the Gananoque Islanders on Tuesday night, the Aeros became the first team to win four consecutive Rideau Division playoff crowns since the Rideau- St. Lawrence and St. Lawrence junior B leagues merged 26 seasons ago.

Athens, which finished atop the Rideau Division regular- season standings (one point ahead of the Islanders), won the best-of-seven series 4-1. The Aeros reached the final after edging the Brockville Tikis in a seven-game semifinal. The Isles downed the Westport Rideaus in the semifinals, also going seven games and winning Game 7 in overtime.

Athens will meet the winner of the St. Lawrence Division final in the Rideau-St. Lawrence Conference final. The Casselman Vikings and Akwesasne Wolves are currently tied 3-3 and heading into a seventh game on Thursday night in Casselman.

After the Islanders scored first — Jon Harris at 4:08 — Athens took a 2-1 late in the opening frame on goals by Damian Levesque and Daniel Lacroix. A couple of unanswered goal in the second, by J.P. Augustine and Drew Powell increased the lead to 4-1.

Gananoque mounted a furious comeback attempt in the third, outshooting the Aeros 26-9, but goaltender Erik Miksik could only be beaten once, at 14:22 by Wyatt Cota on a power-play, before Emerson Moulton netted a pair of empty- net goals in the final two minutes to sink the Islanders. Moulton also had two assists for a four-point game.

Gananoque's Chris Smith assisted on both of his team's goals, giving him 22 points in 12 playoff games. He scored at least a point in every post-season game.

Miksik once again had a huge game, making 54 saves as the Islanders outshot Athens 56-37. Miksik gave up only 10 goals in the series, for an average of exactly two per game. Overall in the playoffs, Miksik has gone 8-3 with a sparkling GAA of 1.87 and a SV% of .955.

One of the Islanders Miksik and the Aeros were able to marginalize in the series was Rideau MVP Wyatt Cota. A 100- point man in the regular season, he had exactly one goal and two assists in the Rideau final after picking up only five points in the seven-game semifinal against the Westport Rideaus, with three of those coming in one game.