Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Squamish Cougars drop puck on season

Local players on roster as new team, league gets rolling

By Andrew Mitchell

After months of preparation in Squamish, and years of work behind the scenes, the World Hockey Association’s Junior West Hockey League is officially on the ice.

For the Squamish Cougars, one of seven teams in the new league, the home opener took place on Friday, Sept. 22 against the Armstrong Crusaders, with a packed house at Brennan Park Arena taking in all the action. More than 200 people were in line an hour before the faceoff, and officially the game was sold out.

There have been open tryouts for positions throughout the summer to complement the scouting and recruiting of the league, and local Sea to Sky players were encouraged to give it their best shot.

With an upper age limit of 20 and no lower limit, the 2006-07 Cougars so far range from local high school students just out of midget to former professional junior players from California and Florida.

But while the fans have been onside since the beginning, not everything went smoothly for the home opener. The Crusaders were expected to arrive for 3 p.m. but didn’t show up in Squamish until 7:15 p.m., about 15 minutes before the game was scheduled to start.

After quickly changing into their gear and a short 10-minute warm-up the puck dropped about 10 minutes late.

According to Jess LaFramboise, the volunteer announcer for the Cougars, the crowd was into the action right away.

“The mayor (Ian Sutherland) did the ceremonial puck drop, and everyone was on their feet for the first minute of the game. The players were pretty fired up, too, and there was even a fight about 51 seconds in. Jeremy Ennis, who is a Squamish kid, dropped the gloves and the crowd went crazy.”

Squamish scored the first goal of the game, which the crowd loved, but they were eventually beaten down by Armstrong in the last period. The noise made it hard for players and referees to hear the whistle, creating some confusion when a Cougars goal was called back. Even the scorekeeper had a hard time keeping track of goals and penalties because he couldn’t hear the referee over the crowd.

The Cougars were outshot 51 to 33 by the end of the game, although the score could have been even more lopsided without the efforts of starting goalie Graham Hallenback.

The Squamish roster is still being filled out, but had eight Sea to Sky athletes. From Squamish, the list includes Ennis, Nick Johnston, Kyle Marquette, Cole Nelson, Ross Pattison, Alex Wilkes, and Kyle Ritchie — who is also a well known mountain biker, despite the fact he stands six-foot-five and weighs 240 pounds.

Whistler’s Troy McLean is the team captain, having played in the Vancouver Island league for several years, and Patrick Wiebe is also on the team on defence. Lillooet’s Bobbi Leech made the cut as well.

Coach Matt Samson is happy with this team’s first effort.

“We played pretty well considering it was our first game, a lot of these kids have never played in front of a crowd that big,” he said. “The first period it definitely showed we were a little nervous, and that’s understandable, but things were pretty good in the second period. We had a couple of bad breaks and a disallowed goal, and broke down defensively in the third period, but overall I’m pretty happy with the effort and with the fan support.”

The Cougars will practice four times a week through the season, and play an average of two games per week.

“There are some players with a little more experience, but our younger players definitely stepped up and played well,” said Samson. “Overall it’s a really good mix, with a core group of guys from Squamish and some good players from other areas.”

According to Gary Scott, VP of operations for the Junior West Hockey League, opening week for the league went as well as could have been hoped for.

“All the seats were full, people were standing along the top, along the sides, in the mezzanine. I’m sure they could have fit a few more in there, but not many,” he said.

Opening games in Armstrong, Lumby, Osoyoos and Bellingham were either at or close to capacity, and the New Westminister Whalers pulled in a crowd of over 1,400 spectators.

“Opening nights in every location were good, the fans were quite pleased with the level of hockey. We even got the comment that it was nice to see the refs letting the kids play hockey for a change, as opposed to other leagues where the refs dictate the flow of the games — that’s always good, when the fans have something good to say for the refs.

“I can say it was good physical hockey, nothing really dirty, and the fans really responded.”

Scott’s focus up to this point was to get the franchises established, hire coaches and find players and referees. Now that everything is up and running and the teams are into their 48 game schedule, he says there will be more time to look at numbers and focus on the business side of the league.

Unlike most professional leagues all of the teams are owned by a single entity, the Junior West Hockey Association, and managed separately through coaches and office staff. As a result the strength of any single team is secondary to the strength of the league itself, which Scott has said will ensure every team will be competitive year after year.

The league is also not associated with any other league, using players that have either been cut or never tried out for Junior A and B, but want to continue playing competitive hockey.

The next game for the Squamish Cougars is this Friday, Sept. 29, at 7:30 p.m. — a rematch against Armstrong. Tickets are $8 for adults and $6 for seniors and kids 12 and under.

Home games will be every Friday night through the winter, with the exception of Oct. 24. The regular season for WHA teams is 48 games, followed by the league playoffs.

A complete look at the teams, results and rosters will be posted at www.officialwha.com