Brian Swane, Special to Canada West
EDMONTON – Death, taxes. They ain’t got nothing on the Canada West men’s hockey championship.
The last time a team other than the Alberta Golden Bears or Saskatchewan Huskies won the Dr. W.G Hardy Trophy was 1996.
That’s 21 straight seasons.
And it’s about to become 22.
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The Golden Bears and Huskies meet in the best-of-three Canada West men’s hockey championship at Clare Drake Arena, with Games 1 and 2 set for Friday and Saturday, and Game 3 if necessary on Sunday.
You might want to keep your schedule open.
“There’s not much that separates both teams,” Bears coach Serge Lajoie says. “Goaltending is strong, defense is very solid one through six, and there’s depth within the forward lines, so special teams will have to be special and it’s going to come down to the team that manages the ebbs and flows within the game and within the series that is going to put themselves in a spot to win.”
For a third straight time, Alberta and Saskatchewan are squaring off to determine the Best in the West; The Bears won 2-1 last year after being swept by the Huskies in 2016. This season, Alberta finished first atop the Canada West standings with a 47 points (23-4-1), just ahead of the Huskies, who were second with 41 points (20-7-1).
Alberta played the Huskies four times during the regular season, going 3-1, including a pair of wins at Clare Drake Arena on Feb. 2 and 3.
“Our guys really get up to play Saskatchewan because we look at them as an opportunity to gauge where our team is at,” says Lajoie. “That series against Saskatchewan in early February gave us good indication that our game’s in a good place when you work hard …There was a lot of confidence for us coming out of that weekend.”
The U of A’s top goal scorer, forward Steven Owre, and its wins leader, goalie Zach Sawchenko, weren’t even born in March 1996 when the Calgary Dinos swept the Regina Cougars 2-0 to capture the Canada West men’s hockey championship.
Since then, the Golden Bears have won the conference 15 times, Saskatchewan the other six. Alberta has failed to reach the championship series just once in that span, while the Huskies are appearing in the Canada West final for the 17th time over the last 22 seasons.
It’s rare to see one team remain at the pinnacle of its sport for so long, let alone two. How have they done it?
Success, explains Lajoie, breeds success.
“Players graduating (junior hockey) that move on to university hockey, their first choice are programs that consistently put themselves in position to compete for a national championship or a Canada West championship, so I think the succession plan is in place because of the tradition of excellence in both programs,” the third-year Golden Bears coach and former player says.
“Once the new players come in, they learn from the older players and the veterans on how to do things; how to balance school and hockey and how to balance the high expectations that are put on them by the coaching staff, and, frankly, the success that preceded them puts pressure on them to want to uphold that year after year.”
Following this weekend, both Alberta and Saskatchewan will be off to Fredericton, N.B., for the University Cup, March 15-18. At last year’s national championship, the Bears were eliminated in the quarter-final round while the U of S came home with silver.
To the casual observer, this Canada West men’s hockey season may look much like the one before it which seemed awfully similar to the one before it, which resembled so many others over the past two decades, but Lajoie feels otherwise.
“There’s just a different feeling within the team,” he says. “I’m not sure if it’s just from a coaching perspective or the players feel it as well…. But we definitely feel that there’s some unfinished business to take care of.”
The entire series can be viewed online by tuning into Canada West TV – the official streaming home of the conference.
ALBERTA GOLDEN BEARS
- How they got here: defeated Mount Royal 2-0 in best-of-three Canada West semifinal
- Canada West championships: 1973, 1975, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1984, 1985, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1997, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017
- National championships: 1964, 1968, 1975, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1986, 1992, 1999, 2000, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2014, 2015
- Regular season leaders: goals – Steven Owre (17), assists – Luke Philp (29), points – Luke Philp (40), wins – Zach Sawchenko (12), shutouts – Brendan Burke (2)
SASKATCHEWAN HUSKIES
- How they got here: defeated Calgary 2-1 in best-of-three Canada West semifinal
- Canada West championships: 1981, 1982, 1983, 1987, 1998, 1999, 2000, 2007, 2012, 2016
- U Sports championships: 1983
- Regular season leaders: points - goals – Josh Roach (13), assists – Josh Roach (24), points – Josh Roach (37), wins – Jordan Cooke (16), shutouts – Jordan Cooke (3)