Former Mustang has great season in junior hockey league

The Creston Valley Thunder Cats enjoyed its best season to date in the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL), which was thanks in large part to help from a former Whitehorse Mustang player.

The Creston Valley Thunder Cats enjoyed its best season to date in the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (KIJHL), which was thanks in large part to help from a former Whitehorse Mustang player.

Defenceman Alex McDougall, 18, finished the season with 22 points, scoring five goals and contributing 17 assists.

His stellar play was one of the main reasons the B.C. junior B team finished second in its division with an impressive 65 point total.

Although the team lost its first round playoff series against the Kimberly Dynamiters, McDougall said the season as a whole was a success.

“If you look at what the past history of what Creston hockey has been, they went from being an in-the-basement team to being a real contender in the league,” he said.

“So I am happy to do the whole season all over again.

Hopefully with a better outcome than a first round playoff exit, but personally I think it was a success even for the new coaches and a bunch of new players on the team as well.”

This was McDougall’s first year playing junior hockey.

His goal before the start of the season was to make it onto the Canmore Eagles, which is an Albertan Junior A team.

Unfortunately, his attempt at playing for the Eagles didn’t work out, but McDougall took it all in stride and found the next best fit for him in Creston Valley.

What made the Thunder Cats a logical choice was the team’s two newest coaches, who both just happen to have coached McDougall the previous season while he was playing for the Midget Mustangs.

The coaches were Mike Young and Joe Martin, who each were very familiar with McDougall’s style of play and strengths on the ice.

The Thunder Cats got off to a great start and occupied sole possession of first place in its division before a five game losing streak in December resulted in them dropping down to second in the standings.

January featured McDougall’s highlight on the season when he was selected to the KIJHL’s prospects game, which was being held, along with the all-star game, in Creston Valley.

Two other players on the Thunder Cats were also chosen to play in the prospects game, while four Thunder Cats were selected to play in the all-star game.

Making it onto the prospects team was one of McDougall’s objectives for the season and could go a long way in his future plans to play for a junior A club, as several college and junior A scouts were in attendance.
McDougall’s team ended up losing the game by a close score of 5-4.

The Thunder Cats played very well for the remainder of the season and finished with a record of 29 wins and 19 losses and five overtime losses.

The 29 wins were the most the team has ever recorded in an individual season.

In a best of five opening playoff series, the Thunder Cats played against the Kimberly Dynamiters.

The Dynamiters ended up winning the series in four games, with two victories coming in overtime and the regulation win by just one goal.

“The games were really close, so it was kind of a tough pill to swallow,” McDougall said.

“We were going in a pretty hot team, so we were shooting for the finals this year.

It was pretty disappointing when we were out in the first round.”

He said despite losing in the first round, it was a great season and attributes that to both the team’s spirit and their goalie, who was named to January’s all-star team.

“We had a really good goalie,” he said. “Wade Waters was the real backbone of our team.

We could always rely on him to makes some big saves late in the game and the team never really got down.

We always kept our heads up and pushed forward. We were always in every game.”

McDougall said his experience playing in the junior B league improved his game, which will help with his goal of making it onto a junior A team next season.

“I feel more confident,” he said “Just having a year of junior hockey under my belt and I can play at that level, successfully, so I think coaches like to see that.”

He plans on trying out for the Eagles again next season as well as a junior A team in B.C.

McDougall is playing in this year’s Native Hockey Tournament in the ‘A’ Division.

This will be his third time playing in the tournament.

Last year he won the gold, while playing in the Jamboree Division.