Unlike the tradition of the Stanley Cup, which gives players on the winning team a chance to bring the trophy to their respective hometowns, no such sharing tradition exists for players who win the big prize in junior A hockey.
So it was a fortunate turn of events when Liam Blackburn and Jake LeBrun of the West Kelowna Warriors were given permission to bring the RBC Cup national championship trophy they won two weekends ago in Lloydminster, Sask., to their Prince George hometown. Blackburn's father Curtis was given the responsibility of taking care of the trophy and drove it up from Kelowna with Liam.
They also brought the Fred Page Cup, which the Warriors won April 23 as champions of the B.C. Hockey League title. Having played for the Cariboo Cougars major midget team before they began their junior careers in the BCHL, LeBrun and Blackburn decided the Cougars dressing room at the Kin Centre would be a good place to have a meet-and-greet with their fans.
"I never would have thought, leaving here, that I'd come back three years later with two trophies, after winning three, and to be able to bring it back is amazing," said Blackburn, who played three seasons in West Kelowna after leaving the midget Cougars.
LeBrun, 20, joined the Warriors in January when he was traded from the Prince George Spruce Kings along with forward Bryan Basilico for future considerations which turned out to be Warriors forward and assistant captain Brett Mennear, a 20-year-old for next season.
It was a proud moment for LeBrun and his father Sean (a former second-round draft pick of the New York Islanders), greeting a crowd of people who showed up to have their photos taken with the two Warrior forwards and their trophies.
"I grew up playing hockey here and you can't really describe all the support that P.G. gave us the whole time we were playing," said LeBrun. "After every game I was getting text messages and social media and all my friends and family got behind it and it's really cool to bring the trophies here. It just goes to show that if you just stick with it and keep playing, anything can happen."
Both LeBrun and Blackburn let their beards grow for the duration of the Warriors' playoff run, which started March 4 with their opening-round series against Salmon Arm. West Kelowna went on to upset Penticton in the second round, beat out Nanaimo to get past the third-round round-robin, then defeated Chilliwack in a six-game final series to claim the BCHL title.
"The BCHL was by far the hardest one to win, that was the hardest competition we faced," said Blackburn, who turns 20 on Wednesday. "Every team we played through had a really good chance at both those other tournaments and could have won those other two tournaments.
"Lots of guys got bumps and bruises and we had a couple of guys in the finals of the RBC Cup, one with a separated AC joint (Jonathan Desbiens) and one with a broken finger (Kylar Hope) and it's just something you have to play through. It's playoff hockey and it means that much more to guys. It starts to wear on you, but our training staff did everything to give us the best chance we had and that helped a lot."
The Warriors were aptly named for their lengthy playoff run, culminated by a 4-0 win over the Lloydminster Bobcats in the RBC Cup final. In the Western Canada Cup in Estevan, Sask., the Warriors went 3-0 to claim the first berth in the RBC Cup. They went 3-1 in the RBC preliminary round, then beat Brooks 4-1 in the semifinal to advance to the final May 22.
From start to finish, their 36-game playoff run covered 80 days.
"My beard was gross, I had to put it down the toilet, I didn't want to try to put it down the drain," said LeBrun. "It didn't realize how long it was until I actually took a chunk out of it got it in my hand.
"I think everybody was feeling fatigued, especially the last month on the road. We were in a hotel for 28 days, eating restaurant food and it obviously wasn't the best quality. It took a toll on the body for sure."
LeBrun has drawn the interest of the UBC Thunderbirds and was asked to send his high school transcripts to the Vancouver university to possibly continue his hockey career next season in the CIS.
Blackburn's hockey future is already set. He'll attend the University of New Hampshire next season on a hockey scholarship and is enrolled in the genetics program. He'll return to a job in Kelowna next week, with the trophies, and plans to play summer hockey in the Okanagan.
