It had been 14 years since the Cowboys had sipped from the golden cup. The team unity and spirit was as strong as it had ever been, but something had happened to the team. By now the majority of the team had never experienced a championship with the Cowboys. The elders had long held onto the image of the Cowboys as a winning team. That concept had no validity among the newer members of the team. Just as winning is something you can become accustommed to, so too can losing be habit forming.

Sometime late in the 2001-2002 season, the Cowboys kicked that habit. It was true that the RIHL was a much stronger league than it was when the Cowboys joined 5 years earlier. The Raiders joining the league were evidence of that with some faces the Cowboys had seen before many years before in Collector informs (Cowboy Tuesday). But the dynasty was still the Blackhawks was had been dominating the year for quite some time. In fact, when the Cowboys met them in the 2002 play-offs, they had yet to beat them. That changed very quickly with the Cowboys eliminating the Blackhawks in the first round. This time (unlike Cowboy Tuesday) the celebration was subdued. There was still work to do and the Boys were liking the taste of victory.

How ironic that the final game of the season would take place on a Tuesday.

The Raiders were a force to be reckoned with, but no match for the fired up Cowboys that night. It was a 5 - 1 victory for the Cowboys and winning was the new habit.