For the first time in three years the Russ Barnes Trophy is up for grabs.
And as the Okotoks Bisons descend upon Wainwright for the Hockey Alberta Jr. B Championships it should be a clean slate for all eight teams involved in the March 31 to April 3 competition.
“It being postponed for a couple of years it’s anybody’s tournament, it’s anybody’s provincial,” said Bisons head coach Brad Cobb. “All those teams are there for a reason and it’s because they were winners coming out of their leagues.
“It’s wide open.”
The Bisons stamped their ticket to the big dance after sweeping the Cochrane Generals to win their twelfth Heritage Junior Hockey League title last week.
Okotoks closed the HJHL final in the minimum of three games over Cochrane, who also qualify for provincials as league finalists, granting the herd the opportunity to lick its wounds and earn a few days off before heading north.
“Our boys hung in there, it was tough losing (AJ) Belanger that second shift of the first game of the series, but the boys battled hard and I’m proud of them,” said Bisons general manager Ryan Rarick. “It’s not easy, there’s a lot of them there that are banged up and I’m thankful we were able to end it (in Game 3) and rest because there’s a lot of them that are banged up.”
Hitting the reset button will be the focus of practices leading into the event, Cobb added.
“We’ve won our championship with the league and we need to reset and refocus on the bigger task at hand here now,” he said. “So, we’ll get the flow going, get the legs moving and the more key part is getting guys back in the arena thinking hockey again.”
The host Wainwright Bisons are two-time provincial champions with 2017 and 2018 banners in their rafters.
This season, Wainwright arrived through the front door with a convincing North Eastern Alberta Junior Hockey League championship capped by a four-game sweep over the St. Paul Canadiens, who also qualified for provincials as league finalists.
From the Capital Junior Hockey League, the champion Sherwood Park Knights and finalist Beaumont Chiefs are through to provincials. Sherwood Park took the Capital in a three-game sweep.
Rounding out the contingent is the North West Junior Hockey League’s Fort St. John Huskies and from the Hockey Calgary U21 Jr. B League, the CBHA Rangers.
“You’ve got to approach it a little differently because they’re more desperation games and one-game deals in a tournament format,” Cobb said. “So you can’t afford to have any lapses, you have to be dialed in right from the drop of the puck and take care of what’s in front of you and take care of your game and your emotions and control those.”
Okotoks is pooled alongside Wainwright, CBHA and Sherwood Park with the top two teams getting through to the semifinals.
The battle of the Bisons opens tournament play for Okotoks on March 31.
“Every team that’s up there is championship calibre or they wouldn’t be there,” Cobb said. “But Wainwright is one of the better teams in the province so to see them game one really just sets the stage and gets the energy going for us.”
The 2022 tournament will mark the 14th appearance on the provincial stage for the Bisons. Okotoks has won seven medals in its history at the competition, highlighted by its gold rush in 2013 along with a trio of silver and bronze medal finishes.
HJHL representatives have fared well at the provincials over the past decade plus with four of the past nine gold medallists coming from the Heritage, with the Airdrie Thunder hoisting the Russ Barnes Trophy in 2019 – the most recent championship which went off.
“I think it will be the consistency through every game, the consistency through every shift,” Cobb said.
“Through the Cochrane series we finally found our gear where every 20 players were going, there were no passengers and they were working extremely hard and working extremely smart.
“I think if we do that up in Wainwright, we’ll come home with a medal.”
The competition, running March 31 to April 3, will be available to stream through the HN Live platform.
For more information go to juniorb.haprovincials.ca
Bisons provincial schedule
March 31, 8 p.m. Okotoks vs. Wainwright
April 1, 1 p.m. Okotoks vs. Sherwood Park
April 2, 9 a.m. Okotoks vs. CBHA
April 2, 8 and 8:30 p.m. Semifinals
April 3, 10:30 a.m. Bronze medal game
April 3, 2 p.m. Gold medal game.
