On November 4th 1984 was the Red Deer Bucks made their home opener debut against the Billings Trains, but this home opener was a disappointment not just the Bucks lost 4-1 to the Trains but also the Bucks owner Thomas Hendricks had plans to give this event a wrestling theme with music, lights, and fireworks but the problem the speakers were broken, colour lights not working correctly and on top of it the Bucks don’t have permits to do fireworks. The Bucks would end last place in the whole league with eggs on the team’s face. Many critics are hoping the Bucks don’t mess up their 1985 Draft pick because if they do, the Bucks will have a long road ahead of them.
The biggest news for the WCLH was the NIHAs Saskatchewan Royals are building their brand-new arena in downtown Regina to move there by 1986-87 season which means the old Royal Arena could be open for refurbishment everything for the first time since the arena was open in the 1940s build for a pro level standards now with a new arena being built it open an opportunity for WCLH for a return in Regina Saskatchewan.
Last season, the Medicine Hat Hawks won 4 of the last 5 games to take fourth place. Now this season made a big jump to 1st place in the West Division, a big thanks to overage goalie Sam Abbot, who’s hoping to get drafted into the NIHA draft this season; if not, there are universities that could welcome him with open arms. The 1984 Jade Trophy champions, the Abbotsford Forest Kings, went from finishing first last season with 61 points to finishing 2nd place with 65 points, which was logic out the window to them, but at least with some roster moves made by both head coach Steve Knapford and GM Walter Bertie to make a push for another deep playoff run just like last season. The Chilliwack Alpines owner, Roger Denver, could never be any happier with the 3rd place result, mainly because of rookie goalie Nick Whitebear stepping his game up with a 23-11-2 within 36 games played, and 15 of those wins were shutouts, and he became the first rookie goalie in WCLH history to make 5 shutouts within the first 5 games of his career. Taking forth place is Billings Trains, which had a hard time staying there, mostly because the Surry River Dogs made a big surge with a winning streak but ran out of gas to take forth from Billings, as the Trains won the last three games to finish forth. Listing the rest: Surry River Dogs finished 5th, Lethbridge Cougars 6th, Nanaimo Sharks 7th, and Red Deer Bucks 8th.
The East Division was almost spread apart points-wise in the top four. The Saskatoon Cats once again take 1st place with a very stacked roster in tow. This time, the Cats will have the opportunity to take home the Jade Trophy. 9 points behind finishing 2nd place is the Fargo Owls, who gave their fans a scare when they went 2-8-0 in their first 10 games, but turned it around and never looked back. The Portage la Prairie Magic may have finished 3rd place with 14 points behind Fargo, but the Magic made the most of it with some good numbers of key wins early into the season mostly their overage forward Zachary Natyshak who broke a record with the most career goals in the WCLH history with 176 goals and the reason why the Magic still got the playoffs appearances streak since 1979-80 season. The Swift Current Battalion was supposed to miss the playoffs this season after losing two of their top players to the NIHA draft, including trading goalie Jake Benoit to the Saskatoon Cats for the 1985 first-round pick; however, the Battalion got some young, hungry players willing to step up, and they did take 4th place with 51 points. Rounding off the rest of the East Division are Brandon Buffalos 5th, Moose Jaw Wings 6th, and Kenora Pioneers in 7th.
1985 WCLH Playoffs
Round 1
The first round of the playoffs was nothing over the top as the Saskatoon Cats swept the Billings Trains in four games, with a total score of 19-5. The Abbotsford Forest Kings had high hopes after game one, but the Portage la Prairie Magic took game two in overtime, then took both game three and game four, in game five the Magic had a 2-0 lead but the Forest Kings came back and force overtime but their comeback came short as Marc Sasser shoot on point and scored the OT winner, as the Portage la Prairie Magic won the series in five and move on to the second round. In this series the Fargo Owls were predicted to win in four games however the Chilliwack Alpines had a different idea, winning their first playoff game in game two to even win game three to take the series lead, but the Owls bounce back to win two more games and thought they would finish the series but that didn’t happen because in game six Nick Whitebear let only one goal pass by him but the rest of the game he was a brick wall and the Alps take game six to force a game seven, the Owls finally end the series thanks to Jack Plaxton scored a hat-trick to win 3-1 and move on to the second round. An upset was made for the first time in a long time as the 54-point Swift Current Battalion went back and forth in the first four games until winning the last two games and the series in six games over the 68-point Medicine Hat Hawks.
Round 2
Round two is an all-East division, the Saskatoon Cats had thought this series would be a breeze but the Swift Current Battalion made them win the series the hard way as they kept pushing the Cats to the limit, in game seven Fred Adams scored a hat-trick and held on to the lead over the Battalion to win the series and headed to the Jade Trophy Finals. The Portage la Prairie Magic did the unthinkable, winning four games over the Fargo Owls after winning the first two games in overtime, and the last two games were too much for the Owls as James McDougall led that series with ten goals for the Magic. They are ready for the Jade Trophy Finals.
Jade Trophy Finals
It is just one of those finals; to some, it would be a five- or even a seven-game series, but not everyone believes there will be a sweep in this series. In game one, Fred Adams, Matthew Goodfellow, J.J. Orcas, and Waylen Hook scored each goal for the Cats' 4-1 win over the Magic. Game two, the Magic took a 1-0 lead going into the third period when Matthew Goodfellow, out of nowhere, scored three goals within a two-minute penalty kill, and the clock hit zero, and the Cats won game two 3-1. Ten minutes into the first period of game three, the Magic came out of nowhere as they scored three goals to take the lead. However, it went downhill as the second period started when J.J. Orcas scored two of the three goals to tie it up, and in the third period, the Cats added two more goals, both made by Fred Adams, to take game four 5-3. Game four was a back-and-forth between two teams, one team needed one more win while the other needed to keep this series going, Mark Daneyko gave the Magic the lead 3-2 after making one goal, three points in the first period, in the second period the Cats came back to tie it up 4-4 until in the third period with 2:12 remaining Waylen Hook scored the tie-breaker and the Cats held their ground as the Magic pour everything out but it was no good as the clock hit zero it was over the Saskatoon Cats complete the sweep 5-4 final and become the 1985 Jade Trophy Champions. With that, the Cats have punched their ticket to head to Moncton, N.B., for the 1985 Valor Cup Tournament.
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