Revised - The Fort St. John Huskies, featuring two players from the Yukon, have won the Alberta Junior B Championships.

The Huskies, including Yukoners Cole Cowan and Oscar Burgess, defeated the Cochrane Generals 6-0 April 3 in Wainwright, Alta.

The Huskies had suffered their only loss of the tournament at the hands of the Cochrane team by a 5-4 score, thereby exacting their revenge in the title game.

Due to travel challenges, the team plays in the Junior B North West Junior Hockey League (NWJHL) with Grande Prairie, Peace River, Sexsmith, Fairview and Dawson Creek. The Huskies had a remarkable 38-2 record in league play this season.

Fort St. John manager Jeremy Clothier explained how they arrived at their championship form.

“It’s something we built for two seasons of COVID. Last year, we got to play two games all season, so we practised all year and practising from September to the end of February, end of March, definitely gave us a little bit of a leg up out of the gate.

“A lot of the players that we had knew the systems, knew what we were looking at doing, knew the coaching staff ... so definitely got us going early ... the team, the boys just gelled.

“They were one big group right from training camp right till the end of the season. We had a windup on the weekend and we weren’t missing anybody. Everybody is together all the time. The camaraderie and the culture that we built here is amazing.”

The team got off to a bit of a slow start in Wainwright, but soon righted the ship.

“We stumbled a little bit out of the gate,” recalled Clothier.

“We lost the first one with two seconds left on the clock ( the 5-4 loss to Cochrane) ... and our guys just had that mentality that that one was over; it was on to the next one and that one was in the past and then we just got better and better and better as the weekend went on ... we got to the semi-final ... and we won that one and got to the final and we basically just shut Cochrane down.

“There wan’t many opportunities for them to score and take advantage of any miscues that we had because we were just all over them. We were just that much stronger and ready to go.”

Revenge was a factor in the rematch against Cochrane.

“Absolutely,” exclaimed Clothier.

“When we got to the semi-finals ... our players were talking – they wanted a rematch with Cochrane because we didn’t play well against them and we knew we could hang in there with them.”

Clothier thinks very highly of the Yukon kids on the team.

“They’re awesome. Oscar’s one of my favourite human beings. He just works hard ... he’s just so focused right from the get-go. His biggest line is ... ‘it’s just another business trip.’

“Every game was just a business trip. We go there, we get our business done, we go home.

“We go to the next one, we do our business, we go home. That’s all it was the whole season for him. He’s just a great human being in general.

“Works hard on and off the ice, holds our guys accountable – he’s one of our assistant captains ... he’s just a leader.”

Burgess, 20, a defenceman, will play for the Huskies as a 21-year-old next year. The age range of the league is 17-21.

“Cole, being a young kid, we had him last year as a 17-year-old, so he’s an 18-year-old for us this year and he got better and better and better every time on the ice. So I’m excited to see where he can fit into next year with us,” stated Clothier.

He said each young athlete brings different qualities to the team.

“Oscar brings immense professionalism and leadership ... he doesn’t say much. He just goes about his business and gets ready to play and plays hard. There’s no let-up for him at all ... you won’t find a harder working guy than him.

“Cole’s got some hidden offence that a lot of teams don’t respect enough for the kind of player he is ... he’s got a pro wrist shot which a lot of teams don’t see ... and then he lets it go and it’s in the net and they’re like, ‘oh! Where did this kid come from?’”

Cowan described what it meant to win the championship.

“It was unbelievable. Nobody on our team thought that we would do that good in Provincials going into it, but I think we really surprised ourselves when we showed up and meant business when we went to every game.”

The Huskies excellent regular season record boded well for the provincials.

“We were definitely happy with that and after the playoffs for the league we were definitely hungry for more,” said Cowan.

The young player described how the Huskies won the championship.

“For the first game, we were playing against the Cochrane Generals who were seeded higher than us ... we ended up going into the third period with a tie game and then the last 2.3 seconds they scored one, so we ended up losing that game.

“We went into the next day a little more focused. Everybody was a little more on their toes, ready to go, and we ended up beating the Beumont Chiefs.

“On the third day, we knew that we had to win the game, so everybody was dialed in, ready to go. I was unfortunately sitting. Another player was playing in my position, but I was happy to cheer on my team from the sidelines ... (we) ended up pulling off the win 5-3.

“Going into semis, there was a lot of stress there. We were going up against the Okotoks Bisons, and they were seeded first ... we knew ... we needed to play our best game ... we ended up beating them 5-2 with a couple of empty netters at the end of the game. Definitely our best battle of the tournament, I’d say.

“Then we were excited to go back up against the Cochrane Generals ... we were like ‘we need to win this. We know we can beat this team.’ We played our hearts out. We stuck to the system; did everything our coach said; it couldn’t have gone better. We ended up winning 6-0.”

“It was just a great experience. It was fun,” added Cowan.

“In peewee, I left B.C Provincials with a second place thing; wasn’t too happy with that, so I was definitely excited to win first place in Alberta.”

Burgess said it was great to win the championship.

“Oh, man, it was a long time coming. It felt surreal. I kind of have no words. To win with those guys – it’s unbelievable.”

Burgess has his own take on the championship journey.

“We were off to a bit of a slow start. We had a tough loss in the first game there. But after that, we just kept going, one period at a time, put our head down and keep working and we ended up winning the rest of the tournament, so it was pretty great.

“We had a little bit of a sour taste in our mouth since we lost with one second left in our first game and we were all just ready to go and it was kind of picturesque that we beat them 6-0 in the championship game.”

According to Burgess, the team’s great regular season record had the other teams looking out for the Huskies.

“All the teams obviously knew who we were, so we got everybody’s best game all year long, including playoffs and provincials.”

Burgess added “There’s no better feeling than winning. It’s not about winning or losing but it sure is a lot of fun to win.”