Timberjaks forward Keestin Danielson leads the flyby after scoring against Carrot River on Feb. 16, 2024. (Logan Lehmann/paNOW Staff)

By Logan Lehmann

First year in the books

Timberjaks head coach satisfied with inaugural season following playoff loss

Feb 29, 2024 | 1:30 PM

The Prince Albert Timberjaks closed out their inaugural season in the Prairie Junior Hockey League (PJHL) on Wednesday night.

The Jaks fell in their best-of-three first-round series to the Saskatoon Westleys in a do-or-die game three that saw the Westleys prevail 7-4. Prince Albert did have the upper hand following the series opener though with a 7-4 win in game one before Saskatoon pulled things back to even with a 5-1 victory in game two.

Jaks head coach Steph Corfmat spoke about game three and the series loss noting the team played with heart the whole way through.

“We had a little bit of a slow start in the first period, played pretty decent in the second and I think in the third, we scared them a little bit and we played hard right ‘til the end. We never gave up and that’s the main thing.”

“We thought if we could get to playoffs, that would be great and once we got here we thought we could beat [the Westleys] and we couldn’t get the bounces… bad luck I guess.”

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Prince Albert started their first season in the PJHL on the wrong foot, winning just once in their first 10 games. When Corfmat took over the reins after the slow start, the club found its stride and finished the remainder of the regular season near .500 with a 13-14-1 (W-L-OTL) record.

Ultimately, the Jaks closed out their first-ever season with a 14-25-1 record and clinched the franchise’s first playoff berth.

“I came from Kindersley [Klippers] so I wasn’t around much at the start, but after I took over it was really good,” said Corfmat. “They bought into what we were teaching them and they learned and with a young club, that’s all you can ask for.”

Although a young team, the Jaks will be losing two players next season with forwards Ben Peterson and alternate captain Aaron Campbell aging out. Corfmat spoke highly of the players’ commitment to the team.

“They are going to be some pretty hard shoes to fill. They’re basically four-year vets and really good at being team leaders. It’ll be some hard shoes to fill.”

With the off-season now upon the club, Corfmat looked ahead to next season and hopes for bigger things for the club.

“We expect better things next year. We’ll be a year older, the [players] will know the league and we’ll try to either make some trades or pick up some young guys and we’ll go from there for next year.”

He added that the support from both the fans and community was better than the expectations and looks forward to hitting the ice in 2024-25.

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loganc.lehmann@pattisonmedia.com