The Red Deer Optimist Chiefs came into the U18 AAA playoffs as underdogs and surprised the rest of the league.
After claiming the second-last playoff spot at fifth place in the Alberta Elite Hockey League south division, the Chiefs went on to sweep the fourth-place Calgary Royals in the quarterfinals.
The Chiefs then went on to face the league-best Calgary Buffaloes stealing Game 1 in Calgary 5-3 last Wednesday. However, the Buffaloes came along in Games 2 and 3 beating the Chiefs 5-1 and 6-2 to end their season.
Head coach Tyler Lightbownsaid his team competed hard throughout the postseason.
“I’m just proud of the way they stuck with it. We came in as the five-seed and were playing teams who were ahead of us. I don’t know if anyone outside our dressing room thought we’d win a game but we had confidence in our group,” he said.
“We came up against a Buffaloes team that was really talented. They scored a ton of goals and at the end of the day, we couldn’t keep up.”
He felt his team played well but are disappointed in the outcome. Before the playoffs, the Chiefs had the Buffaloes number all season. In five matchups throughout the regular season, they went 4-1 against Calgary.
“They had only lost nine games all year and four of them were against us… Mostly because we played them really hard. They’re a super-skilled team but we tried to really push the pace and make life difficult for them,” he said.
“When we won the first game I wasn’t surprised because we played well against them all year. But then their offence kind of woke up and ours kind of disappeared which in sports is the way it goes.”
Lightbown said in Games 2 and 3 he thought if they had scored first the outcome may have been different. However, they didn’t and that’s why Calgary won so many games.
In the regular season after a slow start to the regular season, Lightbown said they played substantially better in the second half. He thought they were one of the best teams in the province in the latter half and finished with a 24-14-0-1-3.
They were also one of the league’s youngest rosters and knew as the season went along they’d improve.
“It was truly a complete team effort, which kind of gave us all of that hope going into playoffs if we could keep it going. It’s too bad we didn’t. I think we were a scary matchup for any team. I know a lot of teams who didn’t want to play us,” he said.
Heading into the offseason the Chiefs are hoping to return most of their roster. They will lose some players including the team’s leading scorer Cooper Moore who will be heading to the BCHL’s Trail Smoke Eaters next season.
Lightbown said that’s the byproduct of having a talented group to choose from and how they develop their players.
They also put in a bid to host the 2025 Telus Cup, which is Canada’s U18 national club championship where the best teams from across the nation compete.
They will hear back from Hockey Canada in April with their decision on who is awarded the tournament.
“We’re excited,” he said. “It’s an extremely storied franchise and everybody looks forward to it as a two-time winner. The program knows what it takes to win and be successful… I would love to have the opportunity to bring it here.”