Darren Zary
Saskatoon StarPhoenix
Oh, those were the days.
Chase Bertholet remembers those hockey seasons, as a youngster, that saw him regularly take a four-hour round trip just to get to practice.
Bertholet — who grew up in the remote northern Manitoba community of The Pas, first playing for The Pas Huskies — is now a member of the University Cup national championship-bound University of Saskatchewan Huskies.
Along with goals and assists were even more miles and kilometres, as he had to keep travelling during the early stages of his hockey career, by necessity.
“It was hard,” recalls Bertholet, whose Huskies host the Mount Royal Cougars this weekend in the best-of-three Canada West championship final at Merlis Belsher Place, with both teams automatically advancing to the University Cup national championship in Ottawa.
Game-time is 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday. A third game, if necessary, would be played Sunday at 6 p.m.
“It was hard on my parents,” Bertholet added. “When I played bantam with the (Normand Wolves), we had to travel four hours just to practice. Our closest place to play was two hours away.
“It’s a high demand on players and parents who want to play on travel teams and get to that next level. It takes a lot of commitment.”
Bertholet, 21, played his under-15 hockey for the Wolves in Thompson, Man. and under-18 for the Prince Albert Mintos. He played in Melville during a shortened COVID-19 Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League campaign, had WHL stops in Winnipeg with the Ice and Spokane with the Chiefs and, professionally, with the Fort Wayne Komets.
“(Spokane) was by far the difference in my career,” noted Bertholet, a 6-foot, 175-pound forward who is of Cree heritage. “I got there and played top minutes, developed insanely as a player. It’s been on an upward trend here.”
Saskatchewan added Bertholet over the Christmas break for the second term. The speedy Bertholet made his presence felt in short order.
During the regular season, he had three goals and five assists for eight points in 12 games.
He had the overtime winner against the MacEwan University Griffins, and scored a key shootout goal in a road win over the British Columbia Thunderbirds.
Bertholet twice hit the 20-goal mark during his WHL career. He racked up 24 goals and 47 assists for 71 points in 64 games last season. He had 28 goals and 41 assists for 69 points in 67 games the season before.
“He’s very tenacious on the puck; his speed is his asset,” says Huskies head coach Brandin Cote, who has been named Canada West men’s hockey coach of the year. “He didn’t (score) this last series, but he had lots of opportunity. He’s a guy who can score, flat-out. He’s got a good release. He finds areas.
“He brings another element that we didn’t have … Definitely a guy who has some offensive upside and he’s shown that, at times, and he’s going to continue to get better.”
Like with Landon Kosior a year ago, the Huskies were able to add a key player over the Christmas break. Kosior, too, left the ECHL early to retain his U Sports eligibility that season and utilize his WHL scholarship package.
“I had to make the decision with me and my family to think beyond hockey and think towards my future,” explains Bertholet, who plans to major in marketing and enrol in the Edwards School of Business.
“Not only is this a good opportunity for me to further my education, but it was the best school where I could develop my hockey a little bit more.”
Bertholet’s teammates in Spokane included current Huskies Mac Gross and Cade Hayes. He also played with Ashton Ferster on the Mintos and Kosior on the SJHL’s Melville Millionaires.
“That helped with the transition a lot,” Bertholet admits. “I think it just made the transition easier moving to a new team.”
Cote had a good feeling Bertholet would end up making the move.
“It was one of those situations where he’s comfortable in Saskatchewan; he has ties to Saskatchewan,” Cote says. “He’s played with some of our guys in junior and U18. It just worked out that he decided to come.
“He has such dynamic speed. You can use him in the middle, but with the centres that we have, he complements a guy like Wonger (Trevor Wong) or any of our guys, really. He’s a complementary guy. You can put him in there to generate a lot of speed all over the ice and up and down the wing. He’s a guy I can move anywhere in the lineup and be a threat.
“I can use him in a ton of situations. He’s been patient so far, just immersing himself in the group. I’ve used him on the penalty-kill, on the power play at times — he was used as a bumper in the (UBC) series and he’ll stay there.”
Bertholet is celebrating his first playoff series win.
“I’ve been playing for a while and this has been the first playoff series that I’ve actually won a game in,” he admits. “Being on such a good team during those games … good teams find a way to win, and our power play came up huge for us (against UBC) and our goaltending came up huge for us, too.
“They were a good team and they pressured us hard, but we came up big when we needed to. That’s what good teams do.”
Good teams rally around each other. For the Dogs, that means playing for the seasoned vets, some of whom are still around from the COVID-19 pandemic pause and non-season.
“Since I’ve got here, I’ve heard lots of things from the older guys who have been here five or six years and how close this team has been to getting there in the last four years,” Bertholet points out.
“I’m excited for myself to get this opportunity, but I’m more excited to be able to help out those guys who have been working for the last five-six years to get to this spot.
“I’m going to go out there and play hard for them, help out where I can and win for them — for the guys who have been doing this for a while now.”
dzary@postmedia.com
