Kent, Trentham crowned AJHL champs

By Tyler Lowey, Times Reporter

The Alberta Junior Hockey League playoffs are supposed to be grueling; a battle of attrition. But two former Strathmore-based players made them look like a piece of cake.
Armed with former CFR Chemicals Bisons captain Brett Trentham and former Wheatland Athletic Association goaltender Nolan Kent, the Spruce Grove Saints capped off a strong second half of the season where they only dropped three games; the Saints swept their first two rounds of the AJHL playoffs.
“It’s pretty surreal. I knew we had the team to do this, but now that we are actually here is pretty amazing,” said Kent, a Chestermere product.
Their prize for running the table in the playoffs was a date with the top-ranked Okotoks Oilers, along with former Bison Kyle Gordon and Blake Wells in the Inter Pipeline Cup.
The Saints stunned the Oilers by picking up a pair of overtime victories in Game 1 and 2 in the best-of-seven finals at the Pason Centennial Arena in Okotoks.
Trentham, who blocked a shot in a Game 4 win in the semis over the Whitecourt Wolverines was still trying to figure out if he was able or not to play the series.
“The shot went off my left foot and it hurt pretty bad. I got X-rays on it and they came back negative, so I tried to play in Game 1,” said Trentham. “I also tried to go in Game 3, but it was too painful. I went and got X-rays again and it turned out that my fibula was broken.”
The Saints didn’t seem to be slowed down by the loss of the red-hot Trentham, as they captured the AJHL trophy with a 3-2 victory in Game 5 back in Okotoks April 20.
Trentham was on fire in the playoffs. Appearing in only 10 playoff games, the Three Hills product matched his 46 regular season total with three goals and eight points.
“He was unbelievable for us. He was a guy we expected to turn it up in the playoffs,” said Saints Head Coach Bram Stephen. “He has been a captain in the past and been on winning teams all his life. We didn’t expect the offensive production, but we knew he was going to raise his game in the playoffs.”
The Saints were also without the AJHL MVP Chris Van Os-Shaw, who went down in Game 3. Despite running into the injury bug at the most important time of the season, the Saints were able to play their lock-down system in front of Kent.
“Nolan’s focus and intelligence is unbelievable,” said Stephen. “We knew we could play a certain way in front of him because of how comfortable he is dealing with traffic in front of the net. That way, we were able to send bodies in front of the net and block a lot of shots because somehow he was still able to see the puck.”
Kent never faced more than 26 shots throughout the finals and looked calm as ever with the AJHL championship on the line.
“My team really played well in front of me. I never really had to deal with too many shots. It’s easy to play behind a team like this,” said Kent, who played in all three levels with the WAA.
Like Trentham, the Oilers had their own injuries to deal with. Wells didn’t play one second in the finals after sustaining an upper-body injury during Game 6 of their semifinal win over the Brooks Bandits.
Gordon was healthy, though, and recorded a pair of assists in the finals, to give him two goals and six points in 15 playoff games during his 19-year-old season.
Even though Wells and Gordon are on the other side of the ice now, Trentham is still friendly with his former Bisons teammates.
“I still talk to those guys lots. It sucked that Blake was injured, but Kyle and I would talk all the time,” said Trentham. “I would tell him stuff like I hope he scores a hat trick, but his team still loses 4-3 in the end.”
The Saints now advance to the Doyle Cup to take on the B.C. Hockey League champion, the Wenatchee Wild, for the rights to advance to the RBC Cup.
“Wenatchee is a really good team and we are going to have our hands full,” said Kent. “But we are going to enjoy this one tonight and then get ready for them, whenever the series starts.”
The series gets underway April 27 at the Town Toyota Center in Wenatchee, Wash., before returning to Grant Fuhr Arena May 1 for Game 3.
Trentham is most likely sidelined to start the series but isn’t ruling out a comeback at some point this series.
“Having to watch the past couple of games sucked. Now I know what my mom went through during those playoff games in Strathmore,” said Trentham. “I’m not sure when I’ll be good to go, but I’m a hockey player, so I’ll do everything I can to get back out there as soon as possible.”