Winding the clock to March of 2023 and the Saskatoon U18 AAA Blazers find themselves in an eerily similar scenario as the one they face this spring.
“We’re back here again and it’s been a goal from the start of the year,” said Blazers captain Raiden Zacharias. “This is just one of the steps in the road for us.”
The Blazers will play for a Saskatchewan male U18 AAA championship for the second year in a row, qualifying for the provincial best-of-three series as the top-seeded team in the league.
There they will battle the Regina Pat Canadians for provincial supremacy, the same team they defeated in five games last year to win the program’s first Saskatchewan title since 1992.
Entering as defending champions, experience is what seven players on the team, including Zacharias, will be leaning on against Regina.
“I think it brings a lot of experience from the older guys to pass it on to the younger guys for this time of year,” said Zacharias.
“It was just a great experience overall and it was one of our goals to get back there again this year.”
Saskatoon’s five-game victory over the Pat Canadians kicked off a historic spring for the franchise, as the Blazers would go on to win the Telus Cup regional qualifier in Warman before capturing a bronze medal in Saint-Hyacinthe, Que., at their first appearance in the national championship tournament since 1974.
It’s a run which has given the Blazers plenty of lessons entering their second Saskatchewan championship series in a row.
“The seven players that have done this before certainly understand the ups and downs, and how we need to keep everything from an even-keeled point of view,” said Blazers head coach Troy Walkington. “Our highs can’t be too high and our lows can’t be too low, but yet we can’t panic. We know that we’re a good hockey club and we’re well prepared.”
The Blazers finished the 2023-24 regular season with a league-best 34-7-3 record highlighted by SMAAAHL top defenceman Brayden Smith and first-year forward Dayne Beuker, who torched the league for 41 goals and 84 points in just 44 games.
A first-round pick of the Lethbridge Hurricanes in the 2023 Western Hockey League Draft, Beuker was named the Saskatchewan league’s MVP, top forward and rookie of the year for his dynamic season.
Beuker will now get the chance to follow up what his teammates were able to do last year: bringing hardware back to Saskatoon.
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“I kind of missed out on what they had last year,” said Beuker. “I’m really looking forward to trying to see what they did last year and go to do.”
Facing the Estevan Bears and Tisdale Trojans in their first two rounds of playoffs, the Blazers only surrendered one loss in seven games and have outscored their opponents 27-13 over the course of the post-season.
Though Beuker said their path hasn’t been easy with both Estevan and Tisdale playing the province’s top seed hard.
“It really showed us that playoffs are different than regular season,” said Beuker. “Every game was close, tight-checking so it was good to get those ones under our feet and we’re ready to go now.”
While the Blazers have yet to face elimination at any point in their championship chase, Walkington agreed that the team has been tested and has been encouraging his players to grow from playoff frustration and pressure.
“Having an easy run for the first two rounds I don’t think helps anybody,” said Walkington. “I thought that we had some adversity and we rose to the occasion, we’re ready to play.”
It’s been a historic season as well for Zacharias in his third and final year sporting the navy and orange, as he capped off the regular season tied for second in league scoring with 62 points.
Unofficially, Zacharias has not only moved into the Blazers’ all-time lead in career points with 177 points in 128 games, but he’s also re-written the record books at the provincial level.
Assisting on 124 goals over his U18 AAA career, Zacharias has passed Len Nielsen’s record mark of 121 career assists and is the third-highest-scoring player in the history of the Saskatchewan male U18 AAA league.
“When you talk about guys that generate assists a lot of times they’re real patient with the puck and he certainly is that,” said Walkington.
“He understands plays, he gives pucks to guys at proper times, he can play his off-side, he can play his proper side, he can play the middle of the ice and he can play 30 minutes if required.”
Commenting on his record performances, Zacharias credited the work of his line mates in being able to finish off the plays he helped to set up.
“It’s really cool to look at and hear about it,” said Zacharias. “But a lot of that goes to the teammates and guys I played with over the years.”
The Blazers will be taking on a Pat Canadians club with revenge on their mind, who themselves will be chasing their first provincial championship banner since 2017 and took three out of four meetings this season against Saskatoon.
Setting up another chapter in one of Saskatchewan’s great hockey rivalries.
“Regina is a good team and they deserve to be here,” said Zacharias. “At the end of the day it just comes down to who wants it more. I think with the guys we have coming back from last year knowing what it takes, we have the edge there.”
Game 1 of the Saskatchewan U18 AAA championship final will be played Friday night at 7:00 pm in Saskatoon at SaskTel Centre, before the series shifts to Regina for Game 2 on Sunday afternoon.
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