The 1981-82 season provided the perfect ending to the junior A history of the Prince Albert Raiders with a championship final bow.
In the regular season, the Raiders posted an impressive 57-3 record to top the SJHL standings outscoring their opposition 429-192. They won all 30 of their home games and had an overall winning streak that reached 30 games. Prince Albert continued to roll in the post-season going 20-3.
The post-season run concluded with the Raiders sweeping away the Guelph Platers from Ontario 4-0 in a best-of-seven Centennial Cup Championship Series where every game was played at the Art Hauser Centre, which was then known as the Comuniplex. In 1982, the Centennial Cup was awarded to the national junior A championship team in a best-of-seven series played between an Eastern and Western Canadian champion.
During the regular season, the Raiders had 10 players who recorded 20 or more goals and 11 players who recorded 50 or more points. They also received solid play in goal from the netminding duo of Tiger Pierce and Gil Hudon.
The Raiders were guided by iconic head coach and general manager Terry Simpson, whose disdain for losing has created many stories his players love to share to this very day. Still when Simpson looks back to that last junior A season in 1981-82 before the Raiders joined the major junior ranks in the WHL, the 57-3 regular season and the 20-3 post-season records jump out at him.
He said even as a coach or a manager you never realistically think a hockey season is going to be that successful.
“It is kind of hard to believe,” said Simpson. “So out of 60 games, you lose three.
“I mean that is hard to believe. Obviously, it is hard to repeat it. We never had to repeat it, because we were gone.
“That is quite a record for sure.”
Simpson credited the team’s leadership in captain Bob Lowes and assistant captains Mark Odnokon and Robin Bartel for being the reason the Raiders seemingly almost never had an off game in that campaign.
“When you’re coaching in junior hockey, you’re always concerned about your team getting complacent,” said Simpson. “We had some good, real good leadership on that team.
“It was actually pretty simple, but it wasn’t simple at the time. We had to work for all we got.”
Carl Van Camp was a star forward who led the Raiders in scoring in 1981-82 recording 100 points on 43 goals and 57 assists. After starting the 1982-83 season with Boston University in the NCAA Division I ranks, Van Camp returned to Prince Albert to play with the Raiders for just over the last half of their inaugural campaign in the WHL.
The Melfort product still marvels at the record the Raiders put up in 1981-82 to close out their time in the SJHL.
“I ended up coaching junior A later in life,” said Van Camp. “It is hard to tell a story when you’re coaching that I know a team that was 57-3.
“Everyone looks as you like you’re crazy, and I go, ‘Yeah. Well, I was there,’ so I know it is true.”
Van Camp believes the Alberta-based Brooks Bandits of recent years were the only club to do something similar in junior A to what the Raiders did in 1981-82. The Bandits did post a 57-3 record in the 2018-19 AJHL regular season.
They claimed the AJHL championship that year but fell in the best-of-seven Doyle Cup series between the AJHL and BCHL champions 4-2 to the Prince George Spruce Kings. The Bandits were the host squad of that season’s National Junior A Championship and would beat the Spruce Kings 4-3 in the event’s championship game.
For how impressive the Bandits were in 2018-19, they fell short of the dominance the Raiders achieved in 1981-82.
“It is going to be tough to beat that good record that we had,” said Van Camp. “It was fun to have your name put to it.
“It was really such a good team all around that the record just indicates that.”
For memories of the daily happenings with the Raiders in 1981-82 campaign, Simpson said the players will have a better recollection than he does. Simpson, who can still be as sharp as a tack at age 81, remembers the period of time from after the Raiders second Centennial Cup win in 1979 to the club’s Memorial Cup win in 1985 to become CHL champions as all blending together for him.
There was a reason for why that happened too.
After the Raiders won the Centennial Cup in 1979, management with the team started making initial tire kicking inquiries with the WHL about joining that circuit. Simpson said the Raiders were starting to become a victim of their own success and regular season attendance started dropping because it was a foregone conclusion the team would win. Home games would be packed again once the post-season started.
The Raiders legendary coach and general manager said that when there were some initial “yes” answers and interest from the WHL. Then a process began put the Raiders on the path to joining the major junior ranks.
Simpson said the Raiders board of directors had a number of discussions to ensure everyone was sure that going to major junior was the best direction for the franchise. While the idea of moving to the WHL was intriguing, the Raiders were still serving a role in junior A moving players to the WHL or the university ranks in the United States and Canada.
As momentum was building behind the scenes with regards to jumping to the WHL, Simpson was formulating what his roster would look like for the club’s final junior A campaigns and what the composition would be like for the squad’s initial seasons in the WHL.
The Raiders would win their third Centennial Cup in the 1980-81 campaign posting at the time what was the club’s best record in the regular season at 50 wins, seven losses and three ties. Star defenceman James Patrick played his lone campaign for the Raiders that season before going on to a lengthy career in the NHL that included suiting up for 1,280 regular season games.
Dave Tippett and Greg Paslawski both graduated from the Raiders following the 1980-81 campaign and would go on to have their own lengthy careers in the NHL. When the 1980-81 season concluded, there was a feeling in “Hockey Town North” that campaign would stand as the greatest in the history of the Raiders.
When the Raiders were set to start the 1981-82 campaign, Simpson said the progress behind the scenes of moving the club to the WHL had advanced a long way.
“With the Raider board and myself and everything, I think we probably knew that this was going to be probably our last year (in junior A), but we hadn’t been accepted actually by the Western Hockey League at that time yet,” said Simpson, who received strong help behind the bench in 1981-82 from assistant coach Rick Wilson.
Lowes and Odnokon were two local products who cheered for the Raiders since the team was created back in 1971 on top of being part of the club’s leadership core in 1981-82. Lowes was part of the crowd of 650 that jammed into the Kinsmen Arena to see the Raiders first regular season home game in December of 1971 before moving to the now completed Art Hauser Centre permanently three days later.
Odnokon developed a long and deep connection with the team. He was a stick boy for the Raiders in the 1976-77 campaign when they won their first Centennial Cup.
After graduating from the Raiders as a player after the 1981-82 campaign, Odnokon kept finding himself being pulled back to the team as part of the club’s coaching staff. He currently serves the role as development coach and respect champion for the Raiders in the present day.
Before the 1981-82 campaign started, Lowes and Odnokon said there was outside noise that the Raiders could be embarking on their final junior A season. Both said the noise didn’t really matter, because the team’s goal was to win the Centennial Cup every year at that point in time.
Lowes said the leadership was always strong with the team, and the players that were part of the leadership group in 1981-82 were carrying on the work of the captains that came before.
“It was just the culture was just there from year to year,” said Lowes. “You didn’t lose it because Terry (Simpson) was there.
“The continuity was there with Terry (Simpson), but it was handed down from one group to the next the leadership part of things and the culture and what was expected of everybody. It just kind of fed itself.”
Odnokon said the Raiders were focused on keeping up their lofty standards at the start of the season. He said they had that same focus at the start of every season.
While the Raiders had some big key players move on at the conclusion of the previous season, there was excitement for what newcomers like Al Stewart, John Lamb, Todd Bergen, Mark Raedke, Joe West, Louis Lemire, Wally Niewchas and Perry Thomas could bring. The Raiders also had a strong group of returning veterans in Bill Watson, Warren Harper, Dave Reierson, Doug Hendricks, Barkley Rocheleau, Bartel, Van Camp, Lowes and Odnokon.
“It was like you never got ahead of yourself,” said Odnokon. “It was the same hard practice, the same getting ready for this game (and) the same thing was expected of you.
“We were always told, and we always believed that this is how it has to be. This is how we play. It was like there was never any taking your foot off the pedal at any time.”
As the Raiders romped through the 1981-82 campaign, they did have a moment where they were brought back to earth. Before they knew the team’s move to the WHL was going to happen, the Raiders traveled to Camrose, Alta., for a second straight year to take part in the Viking Cup.
They made it to the tournament final and fell 11-3 to the Czechoslovakian under-18 all-stars. The Czechoslovakian squad included tournament MVP Petr Klima and netminder Dominik Hasek, who both went on to star in the NHL. It marked the second straight season the Raiders fell in the title game of the Viking Cup.
“We felt pretty good going into that game,” said Odnokon, who was part of the Raiders coaching staff in their 2018-19 WHL championship campaign. “We thought we had a chance there.
“We played them earlier in the tournament. We were close. Then, we got into that game and nope.
“They started doing some backdoor stuff and some things we’d never seen.”
As a result of that loss, Odnokon remembered the Raiders started to incorporate the plays the Czechoslovakian team used into their play.
“That stuff right there was brought into P.A.,” said Odnokon. “Simpson didn’t miss a beat.
“Wilson didn’t miss a beat. If they saw something that worked, it doesn’t matter who it came from, bang, it is added to our arsenal.”
Then on January 28, 1982, the official announcement came out that the Raiders would be joining the WHL for the start of the 1982-83 season. Odnokon said the reality hit that the Raiders had to end their history in junior A the right way.
“I think there were 20 to 23 guys in that room who said, ‘Yeah, this is going to happen, but we’re going out on a winning note,’” said Odnokon. “There was no denying it.
“So there was another, I guess, little angle of motivation for us. This is your last year in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League. You are going to finish it off. You’re going to go out big.”
Lowes said the players were aware that decisions were going to be made by both players and team management on who would be back for the inaugural WHL season. Lowes started the 1982-83 season with the Raiders before being dealt to the Regina Pats in January of 1983 in a significant deal that brought defenceman Dave Goertz to Prince Albert. Goertz would be a key piece to the Raiders Memorial Cup championship team in 1985.
As far as the 1981-82 season went, Lowes said the players compartmentalized any decisions about playing futures until after the campaign was done.
“Once it was official, I think what it did is it just made us motivated to want to finish it off the right way and go out winning,” said Lowes. “I think it just motivated all of us to try to do our best in the last year.”
In the post-season, the Raiders swept through the SJHL playoffs eliminating the Humboldt Broncos, Swift Current Broncos and Yorkton Terriers in the minimum 12 games to capture a seventh straight Hanbidge Trophy as league champions. In the best of seven Anavet Cup series against the MJHL champion Fort Garry Blues, the Raiders dropped the series opener 4-2 to account for their first loss on home ice of the campaign. Prince Albert would take the series in six games.
The Raiders advanced on to the best-of-seven Abbott Cup final to crown a junior A Western Canadian champion against the Alberta-based St. Albert Saints. Prince Albert claimed that series in five games.
Next up were the Platers in the Centennial Cup final. The Raiders took the first three games of the series by respective scores of 9-4, 7-3 and 6-3.
On May 6, 1982, the Raiders played their final game at the junior A level posting an 8-4 victory in Game 4 of the Centennial Cup final to complete the series sweep. Van Camp had a beyond impressive series in the Centennial Cup final recording 11 goals and nine assists for 20 points in the four contests. He took home honours as the MVP and most sportsmanlike player of the series.
“It is a long year, so you do feel a bit of relief,” said Van Camp. “You fight all year for that moment, and when it comes, it is a bit of a relief to be honest.
“It is a lot of work all year. You start in the end of August and to go mid-May. That is a lot of hockey.”
While Van Camp noted he felt relief, he added he felt a joy you couldn’t describe being on the ice after winning the Centennial Cup.
“There is that relief factor, but I mean you’re really overcome with emotions,” said Van Camp, who enjoyed playing for the Raiders faithful. “It is the guys you stick together.
“Most of us played for two years together, and you are tight. You see it in all sports now how tight the guys are and how happy they are at the end of winning. It is boy there are just moments you don’t ever forget.
“It is great to win with a great bunch of guys.”
Odnokon and Lowes both had to watch the Centennial Cup clinching game from the stands in street clothes. They were both serving a one-game suspension for getting fighting majors inside the final 10-minutes of Game 3. The rules in junior A at the time accessed a one-game suspension for any player getting into a fight in the last 10 minutes of game.
Both said they were actually trying not to fight near the end of Game 3, but a scrum situation played out to the point they picked up major penalties. The end of Game 4 was emotional for the two local products.
“I remember I went into our equipment room, our trainer’s room, because I knew I was going to cry,” said Odnokon. “I knew it was over, and somebody was in there crying before me.
“Oh man, that was Bobby Lowes. We both cried. We knew that was it.
“Something pretty special here has ended with a good group. We had our cry for a while, and then we went out and here we go. It was kind of different knowing you’re not going to be coming back into that same dressing room again with all of those guys or at least most of the guys that next year.”
Lowes said that in the current day players who aren’t dressed would get into their equipment for a championship trophy presentation in hockey. Having served as the assistant director of player personnel for the NHL’s Vegas Golden Knights since the team’s founding in 2017, Lowes got to see that first hand, when the Golden Knights won the Stanley Cup on home ice in June of 2023.
Back at the Art Hauser Centre on May 6, 1982, Lowes was proud the Raiders closed out the Centennial Cup final that night on home ice. He still admits he wanted to be playing in that game with Odnokon.
“It was exciting to win the cup and win it at home,” said Lowes. “It was also bittersweet, because we were in our street clothes.
“It was the last time of that era and that group. It was really nice to do, but it was also the ending of a really, really good run. It was the end of an era and the start of another one.”
For Simpson, he was proud of his players and the organization. With that noted, Simpson didn’t take much time to indulge in the Raiders winning their fourth and final Centennial Cup.
He was already thinking about how the club would navigate their inaugural WHL campaign that was coming in fall. Simpson expected the Raiders would take their lumps in 1982-83, which they did finishing second last overall with a record of 16 wins, 55 loses and one tie. As was common at that time in sports, Simpson expected the other WHL teams would be out to put the Raiders in their place.
He didn’t expect the Raiders would take their lumps for long believing the players he would bring in would win sooner than anyone would think. That also meant the payback would come quicker than most people would think.
That played out too as the Raiders finished sixth overall in the WHL in 1983-84 with a record of 41 wins, 29 losses and two ties. The Raiders would proceed to top the WHL standings in 1984-85 with a mark of 58 wins, 11 losses and three ties and advance on to win the WHL title and capture the Memorial Cup as CHL champions.
“We knew there were bigger fish to fry ahead of us, because of where we were going,” said Simpson. “That sort of took over the focus immediately after the celebrations.
“Later on, it was hard work and nose to the grindstone trying to find players. The theory was that some people thought, oh, we’ve got such a strong team in the Saskatchewan Junior League we’ll be fine. When you go up one league like that, there is a huge difference.
“We had good players. We had to find some other players, and they’re really hard to find.”
Still, the Raiders junior A era had come to a perfect championship winning end. In the 11 seasons the Raiders played in junior A from 1971 to 1982, they were always at least 18 games above .500 at the end of the regular season.
Lowes saw it all as a fan for the first eight seasons and as a player for the final three junior A campaigns. He will always look back holding a special good feeling towards that period of the team’s history.
“You’re proud to be a part of it,” said Lowes. “Being from Prince Albert watching it live and growing up wanting to be there, it was so exciting being able to be a part of it.
“You’re just proud to have worn the jersey and proud to have won in the jersey. Being a hometown boy makes it that much more sweet. When you’ve won with guys, it is pretty special.
“That group of guys and those two (Centennial Cup winning) teams (in 1981 and 1982) stand out. There is a good overlap of guys. It is quite a few years ago, but you look back on it with very fond memories.”
Darren Steinke is a Saskatoon-based freelance sportswriter and photographer. He blogs frequently at stankssermon.blogspot.com.
