The road to Junior B hockey superiority will once again come through Okotoks.
The Okotoks CARSTAR Bisons have won a successful bid to host the Hockey Alberta 2023 Junior B Provincial Hockey Championships from April 6-9 at the Centennial Arenas.
“For our organization, it’s an honour to host, but it also gives us an opportunity to make some money,” said Bisons general manager Ryan Rarick. “Ideally, there’s an opportunity for your program to make some money.
“And we’ve had such a strong team both those COVID years and then last year so I think it’s recognition of us having a strong program as well.”
Okotoks last hosted the Jr. B provincials in 2012 with the Bisons winning silver on their home ice, the Murray Arena. They would go on to win their first and only provincial gold medal the following spring in Wainwright.
Most recently, the Bisons capped the 2021-22 HJHL championship with provincial bronze at this past spring’s event, also held in Wainwright.
“It’s going to be a new team, a little bit different, we’ll have some new faces in there and some existing faces as well,” said Bisons head coach Brad Cobb. “Hopefully we’ll leverage the experience at the provincials last year from those returning guys and help the younger guys out that are coming in.
“I think we’ll be a competitive team, for sure.”
Okotoks will earn automatic entry as tournament hosts with the other HJHL slot going to the league champion or the finalists, should the Bisons win the title.
“The biggest thing will be the grind throughout the regular season,” Cobb added. “Especially this year with the new division alignments, it will be way more competitive and hard to achieve the goal of winning the league to get to provincials.
“The grind that it was to get to provincials and then the actual tournament itself, how to focus in and it’s a one game deal and can change very quickly.”
This year’s format will see six teams, rather than eight, with two HJHL reps, along with the league champions from the Capital Junior Hockey League, North West Junior Hockey League, North East Junior Hockey League and Hockey Calgary.
Rarick said the news should help the Bisons' recruitment and to further solidify the roster.
“It definitely will help,” he added. “I think what this will help with is maybe some of those Junior A cuts, or if they’re local kids or Calgary area maybe some of them will look at that.
“And then maybe some of those players that were on our team that maybe haven’t made a decision on whether they want to come back or not because it is a tough choice, a lot of these kids are working or going to school and it’s a balancing act.”
The Bisons have a long and storied history at the Jr. B provincials with 14 appearances in the competition along with eight medals won.
For more information on the event, go to hockeyalberta.ab.ca.
