There's a lot of hockey played across Canada every year, and a lot of championships won.
But there was something extra special about the Penticton Vees march to the BCHL championship and the Fred Page Cup in 2021-22.
For starters, it was a year when the world slowly emerged from a pandemic state. In February, full capacity crowds were once again permitted at the SOEC. In March, face masks became optional. And by the time the playoffs rolled around and crowds become larger and even more celebratory, COVID seemed so distant.
But it was the manner in which the team barged through the playoffs that might be most memorable. Game one was a loss. But 16 games followed and each was a Vees victory. A 16-game, four-team run is crazy rare at any level of the sport.
So the outpouring of emotion Tuesday afternoon along Penticton's northern waterfront was understandable. A short parade along Lakeshore Drive was followed by a community love-in at Rotary Park, where the team stood on a portable stage, backs to the lake and framed by the mountains above Naramata.
Players addressed the crowd of several hundred, primarily thanking the city for its support. Then head coach Fred Harbinson, who justifiably gets many of the accolades for the continually impressive team, took to the podium to recount the season and playoffs, adding he'd be back for 2022-23 and that it was the chance of winning "back to back" titles that drove him.
And the folks who turned out to watch it all, many dressed in Vees sweaters and some going much further than that, shouted and clapped their approval.
Later, the team milled about with well-wishers, chatting and signing autographs. And we had a chance to chat with goalie of record Kaeden Lane, who went a remarkable 16-1 with a 1.53 goals against average and a .937 save percentage over the four playoff rounds and was just officially selected Vees playoff MVP.
We asked when he knew the team had a chance to do what it ultimately did, and he answered that he had a pretty good idea even before the season began.
"I knew going into the year in the summer that we'd have a good chance to win it," he said, "but that it would take a lot of work to get there.
"But we put in the hours, we came to work every day and we ultimately got the job done."
We told Lane he was beginning to sound like a prototypical hockey player, and he laughed.
"But you know, I tried to not really think about the end goal too much," he added. "I tried to take it one day at a time and enjoy my time in Penticton. It's an awesome city."
Lane said he wasn’t guaranteed the Vees #1 spot as the season opened.
"Coming in I think I was (number one), but we also brought in Colin Purcell, a really good goalie, a big guy. We battled it out at the beginning of the year, but unfortunately he had some health issues and I ended up taking the reins."
We asked Lane if he knew how Purcell was doing now and the reply came quickly. "Okay, much better."
Twenty years old, the native of Grand Forks has now graduated from the BCHL and this fall will attend Northern Michigan University, where he'll again play high-level hockey and likely square off against current teammate Luc Wilson, who'll lace 'em up for Minnesota State.
But first, he's going home. Then back to Penticton.
"I'll head home to Grand Forks for a couple weeks," he said. "then come back to Penticton (at the hockey school) to train during the summer. So I'll be around for a while."
Beyond university, Lane says he's still gunning for a career in pro hockey, specifically in Europe..
"I'm 5' 11" and they don’t reallty like that," he said, "so I have to continue to myself and maybe I'll get a shot one day."
We left Lane and his Vees teammates in the midst of a wild and crazy autograph-signing scrum and spotted a marginally older fellow who looked important. Turns out he was Vees co-owner Gord Kovacik.
Kovacik credited that first playoff loss (5-3 to the Trail Smoke Eaters) to "nerves," saying "everyone struggled."
"But," he added, "I think you get to the playoffs and you always have a chance. "Early on (in the playoffs) we knew the interior teams were tougher, but as soon as we got over that first loss and began to build on it, it become obvious to me that we had the talent to do it."
Now a Vees co-owner for six years, the Edmonton native who also has a house in Penticton said hockey's been a personal passion since he was a kid even though he never played the game.
"I never got to play hockey when I was a kid, for whatever reason. My parents never shoved me into it, and I didn’t know where to go. I would have loved to play, but now I have the means to be involved and it's great."
Like many of the players and fans we've spoken with recently, Kovacik primarily credits the coaching staff for the Vees being as strong as they are. Though he's a believer in "magic" too.
"I think it’s the coaching staff and how they prepare the guys," he said. "They're always prepared. He (Fred Harbinson) works the team around what he's got.
"But sometimes you just have that magic too. You have a group of kids who love each other. And that's hard to stop."
