Buffaloes face long trek to national U18 crown
The long haul began even before the actual grind begins for the Calgary Under-18 AAA Buffaloes.
How's this for travel to the 2024 Telus Cup in Membertou, N.S.?
A lengthy red-eye flight Saturday night before landing in Halifax at 7 a.m., followed by a six-plus-hour bus ride to Cape Breton and team photos, ceremonies and other events upon their 1:30 p.m. AST arrival.
Ugh.
“I mean ... it's all part of the experience,” said Buffaloes forward Luke Mcfarlane of the journey just to reach the Hockey Canada Men's U18 National Club Championship.
“It's just keeping level-headed, trying to get as much sleep as you can, staying hydrated and eating right. But I think just the excitement of just going to this tournament is going to fuel the fire.”
The tournament begins on Monday for the Buffaloes against the host Sydney Rush at Membertou Sport & Wellness Centre (4 p.m. MT).
As Pacific Region winners, they follow with more round-robin action Tuesday against the Atlantic champion Kensington Wild from Prince Edward Island (noon MT). On Wednesday, they'll face the central king Markham Waxers from Ontario (8 a.m. MT). Thursday, it's a matchup against the Western champ Brandon Wheat Kings (8 a.m. MT). Friday sees the Buffaloes tangle with the Quebec-winning Cantonniers de Magog (8 a.m. MT).
All games are being livestreamed on Fasthockey.
“It's like basically seven games in seven days,” said Buffaloes head coach Brent Harrison. “So we've got to get our rest when we can, make sure that we're not taxing certain guys too much throughout the round robin and just make sure that we're eating right, getting our sleep, getting our rest ... all that stuff.”
“Yeah ... it's a helluva grind,” agreed Buffs defenceman Zak Green. “But we've got a tight group. So I know we're going to go in there and give it our best. It's going to be about sticking together as a team.”
They've done that well so far this year. Rocking four solid lines and a sound trio of defensive pairings in front of solid goaltending has vaulted the Buffs to this point, through the Alberta Elite Hockey League season, onward to the U18 AAA provincial title and past the host Vancouver North East Chiefs in the Pacific Region series earlier this month.
They scored at least five goals in five of their eight playoff wins to grab the league title, and those 3-2 and 1-0 victories in the Pacific set proved they know how to shut the door on other teams.
“We're a team that has been able to score goals, and we play a pretty good team-defensive game, but I'd say the depth is a big part of that,” Harrison said. “We're able to trust a lot of different guys in key situations.”
Good thing, because the Buffs need all that for the Telus Cup grind. And Harrison himself knows that first-hand, having guided the Buffaloes to the semifinals — where they lost 4-2, basically a one-goal game, to the Toronto Young Canadians — in the 2019 Telus Cup.
“Oh ... we've got good depth,” added Harrison. “As the season's gone on, I think our depth has kind of shown to be better than maybe we thought at the start of the year. So it's right up there. So I think that does favour us.”