Medicine Hat Cubs forward Cooper Hilworth fires a puck on net in the first period of the Cubs 4-0 win over the Coaldale Copperheads on Jan. 20 at the Kinplex.--NEWS PHOTO JAMES TUBB
jtubb@medicinehatnews.com@ReporterTubb
The Medicine Hat Cubs were a close knit group in the regular season, and it started from the top.
With all but seven players on the Medicine Hat roster being a rookie, getting close early allowed the group to have the amount of success it did, finishing second in the South Division and earning the first-round playoff bye.
A lot of the responsibility for bringing the group together falls on the leadership core of captain Levi Schlosser and assistants Colby Friedrich, Jacob Milne and Cooper Hilworth.
Milne, who is the only Cubs rookie to don a letter, said it was a close group early on in the season.
“Everyone meshed kinda fast, it’s just a tight group from the beginning,” Milne said. “Everyone likes to joke and have fun and has meshed well that way.”
The Medicine Hat product said he’s not the most vocal leader in the Cubs dressing room but said he lets his actions speak for him as he tries to keep the room loose.
“I might not lead a lot in the room but I am more of an on-ice kind of guy,” Milne said. “I like to joke, keep things light in the room and hopefully that helps out the room.”
Schlosser shared the same leadership mindset as Milne.
“A little bit of both, if guys are down we’ll step up and try to do a little bit off the ice but we’ll say stuff in the room as well,” Schlosser said.
Cubs head coach and general manager Randy Wong said assembling a room of players that would work together and play for one another was a game plan they put together last season.
“We didn’t want to have anyone in that room that was going to lead this team in a direction that we weren’t comfortable with,” Wong said. “We identified that early and that was a process last year that we saw and said we were going to do something about this year and we did. That group is a tight group in there and I know it’s going to translate into having some success in playoffs. That they will play hard for each other.”
Milne said Wong is like another letter for the Cubs in their room and has meant a lot to him over his junior hockey career. He agreed that Wong has been a big part of the Cubs’ success this season.
“Randy means a lot, he has coached me the last few years of my career and I’m pretty close with him,” Milne said. “He knows me pretty well, I know him pretty well. But he’s been nothing but helpful and he’s got me to the place I am right now in life, I credit him a lot for my hockey life.”
Wong said when they took over the Cubs last season they wanted to change the image around the club and that started within the room with their mindset.
“Our biggest thing was that we didn’t want to have the ‘Jungle B’ mentality, that is what I had heard when we came in and took the program over,” Wong said. “That’s not what we’re about, we want to play the game the right way so we have to bring in players that play the right way … It’s a small portion of success we had in the regular season but I think there is a lot more in the tank to push into the playoffs and see where things go.”
The Cubs get their playoffs started tonight when they host the Coaldale Copperheads at the Kinplex to kick off the second round of the HJHL post season. That game gets underway at 8:15 p.m.
