The Medicine Hat Cubs did a little redecorating inside the Kinplex with an addition years in the waiting.
The Cubs unveiled their 2025-26 HJHL championship banner Friday night ahead of the season opener against the High River Flyers. The banner, hanging proudly on the Cubs side of the rink, honours the franchise’s first title in the Heritage Junior Hockey League and first title since 2001 in the International Junior Hockey League.
For general manager Randy Wong, the banner unveiling was seven years in the making and worth every mile, he says.
“I knew it wasn’t going to be easy and it was just kind of a process of sticking with it and building the program, giving it a new identity and that’s paid off in that banner, hopefully that’s the first of many to come,” Wong said.
The Cubs went on an historic run in 2025-26, finishing with a 24-9-3 record, setting a franchise-record 14-game win streak en route to a first-round bye in the playoffs. They faced a familiar foe, the Okotoks Bisons, in the second round and outlasted the perennial thorn in a five-game series. The Cubs swept the Cochrane Generals to capture the South Division title and kept out the brooms, sweeping the Red Deer Vipers in the championship to finally reach the mountain top.
They fell just short in Jr. B provincials, losing to the La Crete Lumber Barons in the provincial final held in Lloydminster.
Graduated captain Kyle Woolridge was joined Friday night by Ethan Burgeon, Makhi Carriere, Kenyan Cairns and Austin Derzaph, members of the 2026 title team on hand for the ceremony. Woolridge holds the franchise record in career games played with 147, and the goals record of 134, sitting second in points with 222. Come the playoffs, he holds the Cubs’ career playoff points record (53) and goals (36).
Woolridge played four years in the orange and black, seeing the banner hang at the Kinplex brought him back to the long road it took to make it happen.
“All the hard work the whole team’s put in, you play four years and one year pays off, but it’s just awesome,” Woolridge said. “Even seeing the trophies just around they’re still present, it reminds you how hard you worked, what everyone did and everyone bought in, played a role and it’s just awesome.”
The Cubs also had three members of the 2001 IJHL title-winning team on hand for the ceremony, with Derrick Lillaco, Cody Church and Jason Timke taking part in the ceremony.
Timko also played for the Cubs the following year, their first in the HJHL. He didn’t think it would take 25 years to see another banner dress the walls but he is happy to see the growth of the franchise.
“I thought for sure they would have done it somewhere in between there, but it was a great time, there’s lots of changes, they have merchandise, they have tons of fanage and they have a a lot of support, heck, they got names on their jerseys, we didn’t have that but it was a good experience,” Timke said. “The IJHL was a tough league before we joined the Heritage League, it was the jungle and it just slowly deteriorated and ended up being a four-team league, but we had still some really good hockey players that managed to carry forward.
“… It’s nice to go down memory lane a little bit and you know share some of our experiences.”
Timke says the Cubs have gotten rid of the illusory monkey on the back and he doesn’t expect it to take another 25 years before the next title is won. In Woolridge’s eyes, having gotten close but falling short before the ever-lasting win in May, winning comes down to working hard and finding roles.
His advice to this year’s Cubs team, commit to being your best for one another.
“Everyone’s gotta find the roles, that’s a championship team, you play good defence and offence comes,” Woolridge said. “Last year we were able to figure that out, we had a 14-game win streak, in the playoffs we swept series, it came down to defence first.”
The Cubs capped the evening in style, topping High River 5-3. The Cubs are back in action on Saturday when they host the Mountainview Colts for a 7:30 p.m. contest at the Kinplex.
Story and photo courtesy of: jtubb@medicinehatnews.com @ReporterTubb
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