The Cochrane Chaos junior women's hockey team has a chance to make program history, as they move on to the Alberta Junior Female Hockey League (AJFHL) finals this weekend after sweeping the Calgary Jags in their best-of-three south division final series.
The Chaos emerged victorious last Saturday night at the Bowness Sportsplex, beating the Jags 3-2 in overtime to secure the series sweep and book their spot in the final. Cochrane will now vie for AJFHL glory against the Sherwood Park Steele, who beat the Central Alberta Amazons in the north division final. The best-of-five series will open March 11 and 12.
Chaos head coach Derek Loomer said it was a mixture of excitement and relief when Kalaina Kozak scored the winning goal in OT on Saturday night, putting a top-corner shot past Jags goaltender Stephanie Gross after intercepting the puck at centre ice and charging forward on a breakaway.
“I thought we played really well throughout the whole game," Loomer said. “We got into some penalty trouble and fell behind, so we had to claw our way back. I thought we out-played the Jags for most of the game and deserved to win the game, so it was a relief to get the result right at the end.”
Cochrane had beaten Calgary 4-2 in game one on Feb. 26, giving the Chaos the opportunity to wrap up the best-of-three series in Calgary this past weekend.
Kicking off game two on Saturday night, Calgary opened the scoring late in the first period through a five-on-three power play goal from Mila Preville to take a 1-0 lead. The Chaos had found themselves on the penalty kill for much of the first period, with four players spending time in the sin bin during the opening stanza.
“We talked about how you can’t control how the refs are going to call the game, so you just have to bear down and kill the penalties when you get them," Loomer said. “I thought our penalty-killers did a great job. The five-on-three opened the scoring and in the second period [Calgary] got another power play goal. But I think we were short-handed 10 or 11 times, so to give up two goals when it’s tiring to go that long – they did a pretty good job.”
Kanika Sandhu doubled the Calgary team's lead to 2-0 with another power play goal for the Jags in the second period. Then, Cochrane brought one back through a power play goal from captain Kaley Mueller in the final two minutes of the period, meaning the score was 2-1 after 40 minutes.
The third period was mostly devoid of goal-mouth action, until the Chaos managed to force overtime with a goal in the final six minutes, when Brooklyn Carels scored to tie it up 2-2.
And then, Kozak won it for Cochrane with her breakaway snipe in overtime.
“She’d just stepped off the bench on a change, and the Jags were throwing the puck up the middle of the ice," Loomer recalled. "She intercepted it and went in on a breakaway. She beat [Jags goaltender Stephanie Gross] top-shelf on her blocker side. She ripped a really good shot…and caught Stephanie a little bit flat-footed, just because of how quickly she picked it up and attacked from the blue line.”
While the game was tied after regulation time, stats showed the Chaos produced most of the scoring chances, out-shooting the Jags 52-35. Goaltender Kaylee McKay made 33 saves from 35 shots for Cochrane, while at the other end of the ice, Gross made 49 saves for the Jags from 52 shots.
With the south division title wrapped up, the Chaos had a few days to rest before starting to prepare for the AJFHL finals against the Steele.
This year marks the first time the Chaos have made it to the AJFHL finals since 2020, but the series was called off that season due to the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. According to Loomer, the team has made it to the league finals three times before, but the Chaos have never managed to hoist the AJFHL trophy.
He said this year's Chaos group – especially the players who are graduating from the junior age division at the end of the season – recognize the opportunity to achieve program history is now a real possibility.
“If you look at the goal-scorers last night, it was all our over-age graduating players,” he said. “That’s our top line and each of them contributed to the scoreboard. And then Nicole Johnson, our other graduating player, played an absolutely gutsy game on the PK.
"Those four are really determined to make this work and are pulling everyone else along with them, and they’re very willing participants in this ride."
