The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League’s (SJHL) Champion Yorkton Terriers and the identical twins who man their blue-line came a post away from extending their season last weekend, but “it just didn’t work out in the end.”

Chase Norrish, a 20-year-old defencemen for the Terriers and a Strongfield product, said their 1-0 loss to the Alberta Junior Hockey League’s (AJHL) Brooks Bandits in the final game May 5 at the 2013 Crescent Point Energy Western Canada Cup (WCC) held in Nanaimo, B.C. was really close and despite the loss his team should be proud of themselves because they tried their best.

“Each team had their chances,” said Chase. “It was a great game. Everybody on our team was closely matched with them. We just didn’t put the puck in the net, but we hit a lot of posts.”

With the win, Brooks locks up the second and final spot in the 2013 RBC Cup National Junior A Championship held May 11 to 19 in Summerside, P.E.I. The British Columbia Hockey League’s (BCHL) Surrey Eagles took the other Western spot in the national tournament by finishing first at the five-team WCC. Joining teams from the SJHL, AJHL and BCHL at the first-ever WCC were the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s (MJHL) Steinbach Pistons and the host Nanaimo Clippers.

Chase said the competition at the WCC was great and each team was similar talent wise to each other, so nobody was “blown out of the water” at the tournament.

“Everybody on our team was thrilled to be there,” he said. “It was the first one ever to happen and it would have been nice to win it, but just being there was pretty special too.”

Brady Norrish, Chase’s identical twin and partner on defence, said the games at the tournament were “pretty intense” and it was a great experience to be representing Saskatchewan at the Cup. He said they all had a “little bit of nerves” to start the tournament, which saw the team go 2-3 in round-robin play before defeating the Clippers in playoffs to advance to the final against the Bandits, but all the players stepped up and gave it their best effort.

“We have a great group of guys,” said Brady. “We were one goal away and on every chance we were giving it our all.”

To read more please see the May 13 print edition of The Davidson Leader.