By Jeff D'Andrea

Former Raider Bourhis wins SJHL championship

Apr 21, 2013 | 3:47 PM

The Prince Albert Raiders put Austin Bourhis on waivers this spring as they couldn’t find a 20-year-old spot for the big bruiser. But as evidenced on Sunday, that cut turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

As a result of the cut, Bourhis will finish his junior career as a champion after his Yorkton Terriers won the Canalta Cup—awarded to the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League playoff victors.

The Terriers, with whom Bourhis played with before joining the Raiders in 2010-2011, beat the Humboldt Broncos 4-3 Sunday and won the best-of-seven series in six games.

“It was amazing,” said the 20-year-old Bourhis from Kipling. “It was my 20-year-old year and my final year, so it was good to end off on a good note. It’s good to get out of the SJHL as the championships.”

Bourhis scored the Terriers’ third goal of the game to put them up 3-0 in the first period. Bourhis’ goal came in handy as the Broncos were able to tie in the game in the third period, before Terriers captain Devon McMullen got the go-ahead with 28 seconds left.

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It was also his first goal of the post season and his eighth point in 16 postseason games. He had not scored in 117 career games in the WHL, registering 10 assists and 293 penalty minutes.

“It was unreal. I knew I need to contribute to the team somehow, I wasn’t really getting a lot of goals in the playoffs,” said Bourhis. “It’s either now or never, so I just pulled up my socks and finally hit the net and it went in.”

Bourhis considers himself a natural defenceman and predominately played on the blueline before being converted to a leftwinger upon joining the Raiders.

This season, he moved back to his preferred position of defence and was still able to contribute on both ends of the ice. Bourhis had 21 points in 47 games in the regular season, to go along with 147 penalty minutes.  “I think I’m a defenceman more than a forward,” said Bourhis. “I just feel more relaxed and more comfortable on the blue line than I did as a left winger.”

Although he spent the entire year in Yorkton, Bourhis still keeps in touch with his Raiders teammates and made sure he was up-to-date with everything Raiders hockey during the season. He even attended a few games, including March 2 when the Brandon Wheat Kings were in town.

“I still talk to quite a few of them actually, I’m still really good friends with a lot of them,” said Bourhis. “I always watch them on the internet and see how they’re doing. I followed them pretty much all season and tune into games every now and then.

“It’s good to keep in touch with those guys, a lot of them will have long good pro careers ahead of them.”

For Bourhis, his immediate future is trying to win the Western Canada Cup in Nanaimo, B.C., starting on April 27.

But after that, Bourhis isn’t exactly sure what the future holds for him.

“What’s next for me? Well it changes by the week,” said Bourhis. “I think I’m going to go to school, I want to be a police officer so I’m going to use my WHL scholarship money, go to school, and then see what happens after. Maybe go play in Australia or something, who knows.”

The Western Canada Cup will feature the league winners from Junior A leagues from Manitoba, Alberta and British Columbia. The top two teams from that will advance to the RBC Cup National Junior A championships in Summerside, PEI starting May 11.

Also on the Terriers is Prince Albert product and former Prince Albert Minto goaltender Dawson MacAuley, who was named the SJHL Tournament co-MVP. See MacAuley’s reaction here.

jdandrea@panow.com

On Twitter: @jeff_dandrea