Schutte, Cochrane gear up for Centennial Cup

Quinn Schutte has learned that sometimes you have to make your own luck.

It wasn’t that long ago when the 19-year-old Brandonnite had no clear path to playing whatsoever, yet now finds himself in a key role on one of Canada’s biggest junior hockey stages at the Centennial Cup in Summerside, P.E.I., which begins tonight and runs through May 17.

“The boys are so excited just to get out there and experience a tournament at that level,” said Schutte, a forward for the Thunder Bay North Stars of the Superior International Junior Hockey League. “I think the boys are confident that we can make some waves this year too and kinda show the country what the Thunder Bay North Stars can do.”

Schutte and Thunder Bay will face nine other league champions from across the country, all competing for the national title. The field includes the Niverville Nighthawks (MJHL), Flin Flon Bombers (SJHL), Canmore Eagles (AJHL), Toronto Patriots (OJHL), Greater Sudbury Cubs (NOJHL), Rockland Nationals (CCHL), Truro Bearcats (MHL), Collège Français de Longueuil (LHJQ), and host Summerside Western Capitals (MHL).

The North Stars open round-robin action on Friday against Canmore, then take on Niverville on Saturday, Rockland on Monday, and wrap up on Tuesday against the host Summerside squad.

For Schutte, this opportunity didn’t come easy — or expected.

The five-foot-11, 160-pound, right-shot winger was hoping to return for a second season in Saskatchewan with the Yorkton Terriers after showing a solid year of development as a freshman, but it never worked out that way. The two sides simply didn’t see eye-to-eye.

Schutte, who posted two goals and seven points in 36 games for Yorkton last season, was coming back from a serious head injury after taking an elbow to the back of the head during Game 3 of his team’s second round series against the Melfort Mustangs — who they eventually fell to in four straight last post-season — and the Terriers’ staff felt he still wasn’t ready to play in the fall even after five to six months of recovery.

While Schutte admitted that might had been the case in the summer, training camp in September was a different story.

“Last summer was just so frustrating,” Schutte said. “Every day it felt like maybe it feels better, so then you’d go for a run or something, and then your body kind of just shuts off, but when you’re not doing anything, you kind of feel normal. I’d wake up and I’d feel fine and then I try and push myself and it’d be like, ‘Oh, I’m not ready yet.’

“It was really frustrating to go through that and it just kind of felt like it was just never gonna end until it did my first game back in the pre-season. I felt unreal and it was amazing to lose all that stress of the concussions and stuff, so I was so happy to be back to normal. It was just a really good feeling and it made me appreciate the sport so much more.”

After months already away from the game, Schutte couldn’t help but put his future back in his control. He felt he was ready to go and wanted to play for a team who believed it, so he requested a trade out of Yorkton.

“There was just a lot of miscommunication and I just kind of felt that maybe I needed the change of scenery,” he said. “The coaching staff in Yorkton was really worried about my future, which I mean makes sense, they weren’t gonna play me too, too early in the season, but I felt I could and I wanted to prove it.”

He would then get that chance with Thunder Bay once head coach and assistant general manager Matt Valley reached out and was willing to take a flyer on him. Schutte thought about it for about a week and then made the decision to move.

And he hasn’t regretted it since.

“They took me in right away and I don’t think I could have been more happy with the decision to come to Thunder Bay. I’m just really appreciative of Matt (Valley) for taking a chance on me and letting me prove to him that I can do it even with my concussion history.”

Schutte proved his worth and then some, chalking up nine goals and 27 points in 39 contests to help the North Stars lock down third place in the standings with a 30-14-4 record thanks to a six-game winning streak to end the season. In the playoffs, Schutte also recorded two goals and five points alongside Connor Larrett and Stony Mountain’s Cole Swanson, a line that combined for 20 points while playing against team’s best players.

Schutte and Thunder Bay defeated the Ironwood Lumberjacks in four games, the Dryden GM Ice Dogs in five, and then edged the Fort Frances Lakers in seven — in a series that saw the road team win every game — off of James Cullison’s game winner less than 10 minutes into extra time.

“It was just such a surreal moment,” Schutte recalled of his squad’s championship clinching goal. “Everyone froze just watching that puck go in the net and then that rink was just so quiet. The fans in Fort were so loud all game and at that time you could hear a pin drop when the puck went in and then we all just skated to our goalie. It was such a crazy time and it’s a memory I’ll never forget.”

The victory is even more special for Schutte considering how uncertain his year started, but he said that just goes to show that everything happens for a reason.

“I felt like I was playing with a chip on my shoulder throughout the majority of the year,” he said. “I was just kind of trying to prove the guys that didn’t believe in me wrong that we could do it and it definitely added to the win in how rewarding it was to show them that I could do it. It made it all worth it.”

Schutte isn’t the only one who benefited from trusting the process, though, as fellow Manitoban teammate Chase Cochrane also reaped the rewards of a comeback year.

The 19-year-old from Oak Lake began the season elsewhere as well after he earned a roster spot on the Neepawa Titans out of training camp.

Cochrane, albeit on the smaller side at five-foot-nine and 170-pounds, established himself as a strong puck-moving defenceman for Neepawa who always keeps his feet moving and is effective at both ends of the ice, but similar to Schutte, things took a turn for the worst after he suffered an injury.

During one of the Titans’ last pre-season games, Cochrane took a hit up high and it resulted in a concussion and broken nose, which sidelined him for a few weeks.

Cochrane had been no stranger to the injury bug in the past, having separated a shoulder and breaking a wrist during in his second year of U18, but the struggles still don’t get any easier to overcome, especially it being his first year of junior.

His ailments forced him to miss the home opener and once he was able to return, he had trouble earning a spot in the lineup. Soon enough, head coach and GM Ken Pearson had an honest conversation with him and told him it may be best to find a home elsewhere if he wanted to get playing time.

“Things didn’t work out too great there and obviously I was super sad that things didn’t work, but then Matt Valley immediately reached out to me and he thought Thunder Bay would be a great fit for me,” Cochrane said. “I agreed with him and then made the move 10 hours away from home to kind of pursue this opportunity here in Thunder Bay.”

Cochrane headed to Ontario in the middle of October and then drew into the lineup for his junior debut shortly after watching the first pair of games from the stands.

The moment he hit the ice was the moment he realized how much he took the game for granted each and every day.

“Stepping on the ice for my rookie lap was a big thing for me because I hadn’t played hockey in a bit,” Cochrane said. “Just getting the nerves out in my first junior game was pretty huge but I also feel like when you get injured, you realize how much you take for granted when you’re out on the ice.

“Things can change so fast, so I feel like those things happening to me almost pushed me to be better when I came back. Once I got, hurt I was a step behind everybody else just because I was out for so long and I think that really pushed me to put in more work, especially when I came to Thunder Bay.

“The work I put in at the gym and just diet outside of the rink too and at the rink, it just had to be more than I’ve ever put in before if I wanted to get in the lineup because in junior you’re not guaranteed every game.”

Cochrane tallied seven goals and 27 points with Yellowhead last year as minute-munching defender who quarterbacked the top power play, so adjusting to a reduced role in a new style of play came with some expected growing pains, but once he got used to it, he never looked back.

Cochrane managed four goals and seven points through 32 games, but more importantly, earned the trust of the coaching staff thanks to his solid defensive play.

“When you make the jump to junior, you’re not the man anymore, so I feel like just starting at the bottom of the totem pole and just doing the little things right like defence first and just playing as hard as you can, that really helped me make the jump,” he said. “Just focusing on the little things and not trying to do too much to start.”

Cochrane played in nine of Thunder Bay’s post-season tilts and was on the ice in the Game 7 overtime clincher against Fort Frances in the final. He said the memory is ingrained in his mind.

“I just remember me and my partner looked at each other and threw our gloves up and immediately went back to our goalie, so that was pretty surreal for me,” Cochrane recalled. “That’s what every person dreams of, is being out there for game 7 to win a championship, so that’s something I’ll never forget.

“I was obviously super sad at the start of the year and I wasn’t sure where my hockey career was going to go and whether I was going to keep playing hockey or whether I was going to go to school, so taking a chance and believing in my coaches and believing in this team in Thunder Bay and then for it all to end in a championship, just it made it worthwhile for me.

“I really love the game of hockey and just having this great group of guys around our team too just makes it all unbelievable.”

But the journey is far from over.

Cochrane and the North Stars had their week to celebrate and now they know it’s time to get back to business as they will undoubtedly play the biggest games of their careers.

He said while his club’s confidence is high, they will need to be ready for the other nine talented teams in the tournament as well.

“Our opponents are the best teams in Canada so we just kind of want to put up our best fight,” said Cochrane. “Whether we win or not, I think that everybody will be proud of us. The mindset is just go out there have fun and just put out best effort and when you put out your best effort, good things come and hopefully that results in us winning a few games and going farther in the tournament.”

Cochrane, whose dad and grandparents will be in attendance for all four round-robin matches, said he’s looking forward to not only representing his team, but also his family and his home province.

“It really means a lot to me coming from a smaller rural community in Manitoba,” he added. “Even coming from the Yellowhead organization for hockey and stuff like that, not a lot of players get this opportunity, so to be that person that maybe inspires the next person to give it a go means a lot to me.

“My family and friends and lots of people have reached out to me telling me how it’s a once in a lifetime opportunity, so just to enjoy it and you know it’s just a great opportunity to inspire people. It’ll be some big games for me against some competition I’ve never really seen before, so that’ll be a huge boost for me having them in the stands.”

Added Schutte: “To represent Brandon in that way and Yellowhead obviously too, that’s where I played U18 and doing it with Chase (Cochrane), it’s pretty cool. I never thought I’d really be able to make it this far and go to a national tournament like this and to do it with one of my old teammate from U18 and buddies, you just don’t get to do that very often.”

» mdelucataronno@brandonsun.com