The Beardy's Blackhawks salute the fans one last time. Jeff D'Andrea/paNOW Staff

By Jeff D'Andrea

The final salute

Blackhawks bow out with their heads held high

Feb 23, 2020 | 2:21 PM

Tears rolled down the face of Dale Grayston after he coached his final game for the Beardy’s Blackhawks on Saturday at the Willow Cree Memorial Sports Centre.

You could hardly blame him. Grayston has been with the Blackhawks since the they joined the Saskatchewan Midget AAA 25 years ago. He held the position of head coach for all but two of them.

But his long tenure came to a close on Saturday after the Blackhawks fell 4-3 to the Notre Dame Argos—to finish up their final Midget AAA season. The SMAAAHL will have a new look, as the Saskatchewan Hockey Association decided to replace the Blackhawks and Argos’ clubs with new teams in Warman and Estevan starting next year.

Grayston wasn’t crying over the result, but rather after seeing old players return to shake his hand or give him a hug one last time while he still held his coaching position.

The Blackhawks’ blue line was flooded with stars of the past prior to the game. Players from the 2001 Air Canada Cup team were there. Nick Shumlanski, one of the survivors of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash, was presented with a special jersey during the second intermission. Many others returned.

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Each one has a story, a shared experience with Grayston, and they all came flooding back throughout the day.

“Every face brings back a memory, so you do get emotional. Really emotional…I don’t know if I can finish talking about that one,” Grayston said as he wiped away a tear. “They all meant a lot to us, every player that came through.”

Grayston guided countless players moved on to join the junior and professional ranks through hockey.

That includes Dwight King, who went on to win two Stanley Cups with the Los Angeles Kings. There’s a signed framed photo of King holding Lord Stanley’s mug in the Blackhawks’ dressing room. It was the last thing the Blackhawks saw before they took the ice before each period they played.

Dwight’s older brother D.J. King also played in the NHL with the St. Louis Blues and the Washington Capitals. Linden Vey won a bronze medal at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang. Ryan Pilon was a monster at the Western Hockey League level with the Lethbridge Hurricanes and Brandon Wheat Kings.

But when Grayston looks back and thinks about what he’s most proud of, he didn’t talk about the Kings, or their 2001 Air Canada Cup appearance, or any of the on-ice successes of the past. Instead, Grayston talked about the impact he had on the young men, off the ice.

“You want to teach good values to the guys. Your character is shaped by the people that you met,” Grayston said. “All the guys that come through here, we want to shape their character—a little bit. They’re here for a year, two years or three years, then they move on and someone else takes a turn shaping them, and of course their parents have them the whole time shaping them.

“You just hope in the end they all become really good people.”

Grayston is a self-proclaimed “lifer” coach and hopes to get back into coaching once again after this season. Grayston said he turned down some offers during the season to focus on the group ahead of him.

The last leader

Beardy’s Blackhawks Robert Pizzey will go down in history as the final captain in Blackhawks’ history. Jeff D’Andrea/paNOW Staff

Robert Pizzey will always go down in history as the final leader of the Beardy’s Blackhawks. Pizzey is the last player to wear the ‘C.’ Looking back, Pizzey was just happy to get a chance at the Midget AAA level, let alone lead one in his 17-year-old year.

The Blackhawks saw something in the 5’5 forward from Langham and gave him an opportunity when few other teams would. They called him up as a 15-year-old, before getting a full season out of him in his final two midget years.

“It means a lot. They gave me a shot last year, even in the first year of midget, they gave me a shot to AP,” Pizzey added. “It meant a lot, to have all those great players who wore it before me. For me to finish it off one last year.

“I’m most proud of the memories I made with my friends, especially the coaches. They were so good to me,” Pizzey said. “They gave me an opportunity. That’s what I’m most proud of.”

Pizzey went on to score 55 points this year, the sixth best point total in the league. He was also counted on to play a ton of penalty killing and defensive minutes for the team as well.

The final star

Blackhawks forward Holden Doell won the league’s Top Forward award this year. Jeff D’Andrea/paNOW Staff

The final goal to ever be scored in Blackhawks’ history will be off the stick of Holden Doell.

He made it quite the habit throughout the season, as he finished the year as the SMAAAHL’s Top Forward for the 2019-20 season. He led the league with 77 points, (26 goals and 51 assists). He was also the primary piece of easily the best line in the SMAAAHL, which included the league’s second leading scorer in Cole Duperreault (73 points) and captain Pizzey, who was sixth (55 points).

“It’s super exciting. It’s something I’ve worked hard for. It was really cool to get that,” Doell said. “I couldn’t have done it without my two linemates, Robert and Cole, but it was a really good experience. It was awesome, they’re two really smart guys. They know how to put the puck in the net. It was a fun year, for sure.”

Last year, Holden got to play with his older brother Nolan, who’s currently with the La Ronge Ice Wolves in the SJHL.

“Just learning. Learning some new things about the culture of First Nations and just really becoming a family out here,” Doell said.

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW