Fresh off winning the NWJHL championship, the La Crete Lumber Barons are hoping to continue that momentum into provincials this week.
Lumber Barons GM Dennis Paul says with the younger lineup that they have, they may be able to surprise some teams.
“Most of those teams from the South will have their four 21 year olds maxed out and a lot of talent on some of those teams. We’re young, we’ve got some energy and maybe that’s an advantage, but maybe it might also be a hill we have to climb against some more experienced teams. It’s definitely a step up, every game has to be better than the last one.”
In just their second season in the NWJHL, La Crete took home the league championship getting a five game win over the Fort St. John Huskies in the final.
That has earned them a trip to the Junior B Provincials in Peace River.
Paul says they expect to have a large contingent of fans coming to town.
“There’s already been a lot of chatter around town where people are looking to stay somewhere and find a room. It’s really been a great support out of the community. I suspect we’ll have a pretty good fanbase at the games and that voice and that cheer in the crowd and hopefully that’s a bit of an advantage we also can bring into the games against teams that are travelling up from the south.”
La Crete’s schedule for the round robin is as follows.
Wednesday vs North Peace Navigators, 8 PM.
Thursday vs Okotoks, 3:30 PM
Friday vs Wainwright, 12 PM
Saturday vs Calgary, 11 AM
You can listen to the full interview with Paul below.
– Kyle Moore, Trending 55 Newsroom
