All the hard work of the Cochrane Chaos during the regular season of the Alberta Junior Female Hockey League (AJFHL) will be on the line starting tonight, Feb. 18.
Their first round of AJFHL playoffs kicks off at 7:30 p.m. in Totem One against the Calgary Jags. It's a best-of-three semifinal series that continues in Calgary on Sunday.
The Chaos was the top team in the regular season of the 10-team provincial league and haven't lost a game since mid-October.
"The girls have been playing great all year, and they're fairly well prepared and excited to get this part of the season started," says head coach Derek Loomer. "They're all just ready to play, they want to be on the ice, they want to be together, and they want this season to go on to the very end."
Competitive from start, the club is now in its sixth season and has made it to the provincial championship game twice before. They were in the thick of a series against the Calgary Titans in the south final in 2020 when the season was capped prematurely due to the pandemic.
The 2020-21 season was a wash, and their roster changed drastically with the return to play last fall.
"We lost four really important pieces to graduation and a couple of others that moved away, so we've seen a bit of a turnover," Loomer said in advance of their exhibition season in early September, "but the new girls that we've got have great experience, look skilled, and look like they're going to fit into the league right away."
The team got off a rough start with two losses in the early goings but quickly found their groove and won the last 17 games to close out the regular season.
Chaos Sarah Gaiser was the top scorer in the regular season, clinching it with a double hattrick in their final game against the Southern Sage on Feb. 13. Emily Straw, of the Calgary Titans, finished just two points behind.
"It was tight coming into that last week," says Loomer. "Against the Sage, she knew where she stood, the girls wanted her to get that, and she scored the number of goals she needed to get that first spot."
The team's goaltending dual of Cassidy Brown and Ella Fournier had identical save percentages of 92.9 to top the south division. Stephanie Runciman, of the Sherwood Park Steele, was the top goalie in the league with a 93.1 save percentage.
If Game Three is necessary, the series returns to Cochrane next Friday.