Though it may be hard for them to accept right now, the 2024-25 Spokane Chiefs had a remarkably successful season, one that included record-setting performances, a highlight reel jam-packed with offensive fireworks, and an exciting run through the Western Hockey League playoffs that ended a few wins short of immortality.
The Medicine Hat Tigers won Game 5 4-2 at Spokane Arena Friday, clinching the organization's sixth Ed Chynoweth Cup as Western Hockey League champions. And though Friday's loss still stings, it shouldn't damper the achievement and progress the organization made this season, and over the past few.
The team went from 15 wins two seasons ago to the brink of a league title this spring. For the players, most of whom are still teenagers, it's still too soon for reflection.
But coach Brad Lauer made it a point to bring it up when addressing the team after Friday's loss while they were still in the room.
"I just said 'Hey, remember this. This is a good lesson for us,' " he said. "Obviously we would like to be the team on the ice right now. It didn't work out that way. ... Let this motivate you, because then when you come back next season expectations are going to be raised for all those guys (returning)."
"Right now, it hurts a lot," Chiefs captain Berkly Catton said after the game. "But I mean, from what we did two years ago to now, it's pretty impressive. We had kind of that core group of guys that turned this thing around, you know, and that's awesome. But it just really hurts right now."
"Every guy in that room battled to the end," overage defenseman Brayden Crampton said. "We did everything we could and unfortunately it just didn't go our way."
The Chiefs were expected to be good this season, with Catton, Crampton, Shea Van Olm and a few other veterans leading one of the younger teams in the league.
"At the start of the year, we carried six 16-year-olds, which is not normal," Chiefs coach Brad Lauer said. "But I think the type of players they were, it was the right call."
But in-season trades for eventual scoring champion Andrew Cristall and Sam Oremba help the team go from "good" to contender.
"If you were to ask anyone, they probably wouldn't have expected us to be here," Catton said. "But you know, we did, and we earned it to be here. I'm just proud of how much we grew."
"They really bonded together, and that's you want as a coach," Lauer said. "They cared for each other. They wanted success for each other. And when you have that, you can do a lot of things. It's credit to them what they were able to do and to be where we are today."
The Chiefs relied on a high-flying offense all season, and it was no different in the playoffs, as they averaged 5.26 goals per game in the playoffs entering the series. But the Chiefs were limited to just five totals goals in their four losses in the championship series. Their regular-season leading power play (28.9%) was held to just 3 for 18 (16.7%) in the series.
"They had a good goalie," Catton said. "They're a good team, obviously. But a couple of those power plays we had open nets and we were missing them. Sometimes that's the way it goes."
"Give credit to Medicine Hat, they played a very good game," Chiefs coach Brad Lauer said. "They're a fast team. They they played us very well. They did those little things of taking away our time and space, and they didn't give us a lot of time to make plays with the puck at times."
The Tigers put the clamps on the Chiefs top line of Catton, Cristall and Van Olm. The trio combined for 39 goals and 61 assists in 15 playoff games through the Western Conference series. Against Medicine Hat, they combined for just six goals and eight assists in five games, with just three even-strength goals, and were a combined minus-26.
"That's hard to believe. I would never have guessed that," Tigers coach Willie Desjardins said. "That big line is an incredible line. They're so, so talented. We have a really good defense corps, and (series MVP goalie Harrison) Meneghin was exceptional. But our forward group worked really hard coming back and taking away their time. If you give that big line time, they're going to put up tons of goals."
Now comes a summer of reflection, planning and waiting.
Obviously, the teams three overage players - Crampton, Van Olm and Swedish center Rasmus Ekström - will graduate. All three will leave a strong legacy, especially Crampton - who will go down as one of the most prolific defensemen in organization's history.
"(GM) Matt (Bardsley) did a really good job of building this team from the ground up, going from that 15-win season even to last year," Crampton said. "And we doubled (wins), and then this year we almost doubled it again. It's pretty incredible to see, and to be a part of it."
"At the start of year I asked a lot of them. I expect a lot from our 20-year-olds," Lauer said. "Offensively, on the ice, off the ice - because it's their last year. They've got to be the foundation of our group. And, you know, I thought they all did a tremendous job."
And it's entirely possible, bordering on likely, that Cristall and Catton will be playing professionally in the fall. For Cristall, it's an almost certainly, whether that is in the NHL with the Washington Capitals or with their AHL affiliate in Hershey, Pennsylvania.
Catton, as a 19-year-old next season, would have to make the Seattle Kraken's roster and be kept on the team the entire season or be offered back to the Chiefs to complete his major junior eligibility.
"He has to play the (NHL) next season in order to play pro. And he's going to have a good chance to do that," Lauer said. Whether that happens or not, Lauer knows the impact Catton has had on the program and the younger players.
"He's meant a great deal being homegrown for us, drafted by us, being in our organization, right from the start at as a 16-year-old."
"Coming in as a 15-year-old kid, and kind of not a great team, what we did here it's pretty special," Catton said. "A lot to look back on, just how great the management has been, how great of a group of guys it's been. Whatever happens in the future, this has been the greatest time in my life."