Cooke earns spot in Team Canada net
EDMONTON – Jordon Cooke won’t be home for the holidays, but that’s all right with the third-year University of Saskatchewan goalie.
Cooke was named to Hockey Canada’s roster for the upcoming Spengler Cup tournament, becoming the first current Canada West player in more than 30 years to join Team Canada for the event, which opens Boxing Day.
A veteran of 149 regular season games in the WHL with the Kelowna Rockets, Cooke will represent Canada at the annual tourney that features some of Europe’s top club teams.
Cooke, along with former Huskies bench boss and Spengler Cup assistant Dave King, is looking to help Canada defends its 2015 title and repeat as champions for the first time since 2003.
As one could imagine, Cooke was caught off guard when he first learned of the roster spot earlier this month from Hockey Canada’s VP of hockey operations Scott Salmond.
“I knew (Scott) previously, as his son (Brodan) is a goalie in Kelowna and I was there when his son was drafted, so I had shown him the ropes around Kelowna at one of our goalie camps,” said Cooke, who was returning home after competing with the U Sports all-stars against Canada’s world junior hopefuls.
Cooke was stellar last season for Saskatchewan, posting a Huskies program record 19 regular season wins to go along with a .921 save percentage, as Saskatchewan skated to the Canada West conference title. This season, the Leduc, Alta., native leads Canada West with 10 wins and has a 1.98 GAA and .928 save percentage.
An business student, Cooke became the first Canada West goalie since Lethbridge’s Trevor Kruger in 1993-94 to win the conference’s outstanding player award in 2015-16, while also earning the CIS top goaltender award.
“Whether I play or not, it’s an honour to represent your country, no matter what tournament it’s in,” said Cooke, who joins Daniel Vukovic (Genève-Servette HC, NLA) and Zach Fucale (Brampton, ECHL) in goal for Canada.
“I’m really just excited to be given the opportunity to be on the roster. Whether I play or not, I’ll deal with the moment when that comes, but right now I’m just ecstatic for the opportunity to go over there.”