After a long regular season, the playoffs have officially arrived for the Cochrane Chaos junior women's hockey team.
The Alberta Junior Female Hockey League (AJFHL) squad is in familiar territory, having finished first yet again in the U21 league's south division thanks to a 22-4-1-1 record.
As a result of their first-seed placement, the Chaos will enjoy home-ice advantage for their opening-round, best-of-three series against the Calgary Titans, which gets underway this Saturday at the SLS Centre.
Team captain Kaley Mueller said she's looking forward to opening the Chaos' post-season push this weekend against the Titans. The Cochranites are already familiar with their first-round opponent, having played the Calgary team five times already this season. (The Chaos have won four of those five games).
“I enjoy playing against them,” the 22-year-old left wing said. “They’re good competition, but not dirty. It’s nice because being in Calgary, the stands will be full of their fans, but since it’s close to Cochrane, our fans will come too. The stands will be pretty rowdy, which is good.”
Mueller credited the team's strong showing this season to the Cochrane players' attitudes in both practices and games. While many of the team's players were new additions this year, she said the players continued the same winning mentality that previous Chaos teams have showcased.
“I’d say we definitely bring it all the time,” she said. “During practices, we tell ourselves that we are our best competition. In practices, we always make sure to push each other so that we can have that same drive during the games.”
One thing for certain is that Cochrane's returning players from last season will have redemption on their minds as they get this year's playoffs underway. In 2022, the Chaos expected big things after a dominant regular-season showing, but faltered in the second round, when they were eliminated by the Lethbridge Eagles – their main south division rivals.
This season, the Chaos and the Eagles once again finished first and second in the standings, and depending how their first-round series shake up, could face each other in the south division finals yet again.
However, Mueller pointed out that, as the Chaos experienced last year, anything can happen in playoff hockey.
“On paper, that’s the way it should be, but playoffs are such a different ball game,” she said. “You can’t really expect anything going into them.”
One thing the Chaos learned from last year, according to Mueller, is how to respond to adversity.
“Last year, we won so many games and beat teams so heavily that we didn’t really know how to be down,” she remarked. “We now know how to get out of bad situations and how to come back from [being down].”
Puck-drop for the Chaos' opening game against the Titans will be at 7:30 p.m. at the SLS Centre this Saturday. Game two gets underway at 1 p.m. at Winsport in Calgary. Game three, if necessary, will be back in Cochrane on Feb. 25, at 4:45 p.m.
For scores, schedules, and other info on the Chaos, visit ajfhl.ca
