Sioux Valley comes together for NHL final

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This article was published 09/06/2023 (1094 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

Tim Whitecloud shared an unimaginably neat experience with about 100 of his closest friends and family in Sioux Valley Dakota Nation on Thursday evening.

Whitecloud, the father of Vegas Golden Knights defenceman Zach of the same last name, watched Game 3 of the National Hockey League final against the Florida Panthers at the community’s multi-purpose community facility, the Wichozoni Centre.

The event was organized by Sioux Valley Chief Jennifer Bone and intergovernmental relations and implementation department director Tricia Hayward, with some of the public works staff getting the hall ready.

“It’s been awesome,” Whitecloud said during the first intermission. “I wanted to be present at the hall for a couple of periods and thank everybody for coming out and the support that they’ve been giving. I’ve been on the road and on the plane for the past three weeks travelling to Edmonton and Vegas and back and forth. I’ve been busy.”

He watched the third period and overtime at home as Florida rallied to win 3-2.Vegas now leads the series 2-1.

Zach, who is 26, is in his third full NHL season, and now has 186 regular season games and 58 playoff contests under his belt.

The six-foot-two, 207-pound defenceman is one of four connections between Brandon and this season’s Golden Knights. The others are general manager Kelly McCrimmon — the former player, head coach, general manager and owner of the Brandon Wheat Kings — former Wheat Kings captain Mark Stone and former goaltending star Logan Thompson.

The latter was having a spectacular rookie season with the team prior to suffering a lower-body injury on Feb. 9 against the Minnesota Wild. He has played once after getting hurt, on March 23, and hasn’t seen action since.

Needless to say, Sioux Valley suddenly has a lot of Golden Knights fans. A previous watch party drew closer to 150 people, but an event was also cancelled when tragedy struck.

“They decided to try one again but there have been a few deaths in the community, so we have to work around funeral services,” Whitecloud said. “When there are funerals, they don’t hold a watch party. One got cancelled last week.”

Zach knows about the watch parties — they told him last week — and he’s also received texts from other family members, although no one is sure if he looks at them during the playoffs. There are also smaller watch parties at homes, and Zach’s grandmother Joyce Cullen never misses a minute of the action.

“I’ve been feeling lots of pride,” Whitecloud said. “I’m a fairly calm and composed guy but it’s been nerve-wracking. I try not to show it but just anticipating the game this afternoon, there are lots of nerves. Once the game gets going, I kind of settle in. I just like to see the first 10 minutes and how Florida and Vegas are going to respond.”

He’ll have a lot of former teammates watching as well. He played with the Vincent Massey Vikings high school team and later found a spot with the 2013-14 under-18 AAA Brandon Wheat Kings. He spent two seasons with the Manitoba Junior Hockey League’s Virden Oil Capitals before heading to Bemidji State University, and after two seasons there, signed with Vegas and started his professional career late in the 2017-18 season.

Zach made his NHL debut with Vegas on April 5, 2018.

“It’s been a long journey but he’s worked hard to get there,” Whitecloud said. “You never anticipate him making it there, but the stars aligned, as someone told me the other day, for him to make it to the Stanley Cup final and be such an important member of the hockey team.”

While no one likes to plan the parade before the fourth victory is earned, the possibility of a visit to the community by Zach and the Stanley Cup is almost too much to imagine. But it’s also been the fervent hope of the community since his NHL journey began.

“It’s something they thought could become reality when he made it to the NHL, and then we had a reception for him during our annual powwow and that’s what the announcer was saying,” Whitecloud said. “He said ‘One day, we could possibly have the Stanley Cup come to our community with Zach now playing in the NHL.’

“The success that Vegas has had in the playoffs — that’s five out of six years now — I was thinking after the announcer said that it’s a really good possibility it might come to fruition.

“It’s been an amazing ride.”

» pbergson@brandonsun.com

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