The Northern Bears huddle around the net ahead of their Esso Cup opener on April 23, 2023. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW staff)

By Logan Lehmann

Moving on

‘I’ve made friends, family’: Graduating Northern Bears reflect on their junior careers in the Black and Orange

Apr 29, 2023 | 10:00 AM

As the old saying goes, all good things must come to an end.

Following Thursday’s Esso Cup game against the Stoney Creek Sabres, eight Northern Bears players took off the Black and Orange jerseys for the final time. Some are going onto USports and NCAA, while others hung up the skates, potentially for good.

Among those who played their final game in the sport was goaltender Brooke Archer who reflected on playing her last few games on the national level.

“It was really special, it was a good way to go out,” she said teary-eyed. “It was fun, our team did all we could do. We did good keeping up with the teams and that’s all I could really ask for.”

Prior to the third period in Thursday’s game, Archer was seen on the Bears’ bench standing alone and when asked what was going through her head in that moment, she said it was a bittersweet moment of preparation and reflection.

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“I was just kind of talking to myself,” she said. “Preparing for the third period, the last twenty minutes and just preparing to leave it all out on the ice.”

Brooke Archer is seen standing alone on the Bears bench ahead of her final period of hockey. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW staff)

Along with Archer, her teammate Jasmine Kohl also graduated from the Bears on Thursday, however, her days in hockey aren’t over yet. Kohl is now getting ready to further her career, and her education, at Lake Forest College in Illinois where she shared her thoughts on how the Northern Bears have prepared her for the next level.

“I think that going through the practices and learning and breaking everything down has kind of taught me a lot on how to become a better player and more-so a better person,” she said. “I think I’ll be able to take that on with me to college hockey because it’s a tougher game, it’s a lot faster and I need to know all those little attributes to keep going.”

Jasmine Kohl lines up for the draw at center ice against the Regina Rebels. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW staff)

After the season finale, head coach Steve Young talked to paNOW about being able to coach the graduating players over these last few seasons.

“It’s special,” he said. “At any level, they come in young and think ‘okay, I’m going to be here for a long time’ and all of a sudden their years are up. I think that really hit the ’05s (Thursday night) that this is it for them and obviously they’re going to move on to bigger and better things but at the same time, I think it takes a lot of emotion in them understanding that this is it for them.”

Archer also shared her thoughts on what the Northern Bears and the City of Prince Albert mean to her after spending the past few seasons with the team.

“It’s been a backbone these last three years,” she explained. “I’ve made friends, I’ve made family, these are years I’m never going to forget. It’s been some of the best moments of my life and I truly wish that I could go back and relive them all again.”

She added that she hung up the skates to pursue a career as a pharmacist.

Aside from Archer and Kohl, six others graduated from the Northern Bears program including Claudia Lammers, Kaebree Young, Kassie Ferster, Jazlyn Petreman, Taelyr Ballard, and Jacquelyne Chief.

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logan.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @lloganlehmann