Family ties crossed junior hockey leagues last weekend at the Hub, as cousins from different cities caught up with each other before their respective games in Lloydminster.
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Adryan Bugiera of the junior B Lloydminster Bandits chatted with his second cousin, Owen Hutzul of the junior A Olds Grizzlys, who lost to the Lloydminster Bobcats in an Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) game Saturday night.
The next evening, on the same Hub ice surface, Bugiera and the Bandits defeated the Killam Wheat Kings to advance to the Northeastern Alberta Junior B Hockey League final against the Vermilion Tigers.
Lloyd’s Bugiera — the Bandits’ regular-season scoring champion — and Edmonton’s Hutzul are both in their 19-year-old seasons.
“I had a good chat with him yesterday,” Bugiera said Sunday after his Bandits’ victory. “We’re cousins on my mom’s side. He’s one of my mom’s cousin’s kids.”
The cousins — summertime golfing buddies — used to play hockey against each other at the U18 AAA and younger levels provincially.
Bugiera is now in his sophomore season as a high-scoring forward with the Bandits, while Hutzul is in his second AJHL year after a December trade brought the smooth-skating defenceman to Olds from the Grande Prairie Storm.
When those cousins gather for family reunions or the like, the gatherings usually include Bugiera’s older brother Kayden and Hutzul’s younger brother Charlie. Kayden, a former Bandit, now is 23 and plays senior hockey with the Hillmond Hitmen of the Sask-Alta league. Charlie, 16, is an up-and-coming golfer who’s already part of the Northern Alberta Xtreme high-performance golf team in Edmonton.
“Adryan and Kayden are my second cousins, but we have a really good relationship,” Owen Hutzul said Saturday after the Grizzlys-Bobcats game. “It’s my dad’s cousin’s kids.
“They love to golf. In the summer, we golf and it’s a good time. Adryan is a really good golfer. I’ve been trying to work on my game and learn some things.
“It was nice to see Adryan today and catch up with him.”
Hockey and golf have been common links for the sports-minded cousins.
“Hockey runs in the family,” Hutzul said about his bond with the Bugiera boys. “They’re good athletes.”
The hockey season is in its final days for Hutzul, because his young Grizzlys didn’t qualify for the AJHL playoffs. Last year, as part of Grande Prairie, he went all the way to the AJHL final and a berth in the Centennial Cup national championship.
JUNIOR B BANDITS’ TOP SCORER
Bugiera is involved in a playoff run with the Bandits, who host the Alberta junior B championship tournament April 1-5 at the Hub.
The Bandits’ top scorer was fourth in league scoring during the regular season, with 28 goals and 53 points in 36 games.
On Saturday evening, he went to Vermilion to watch the Tigers finish off the Wainwright Bisons in their junior B semifinal.
Earlier in the day, Bugiera and his girlfriend watched her best friend, Skylar Heinrichs, play her final playoff game as captain of the U18 AAA Lloydminster Steelers. While at the ever-busy Hub, they had a chance to speak with Hutzul.
Selected as the Grizzlys’ player of the game Saturday, Hutzul set up 16-year-old WHL prospect Jordin St. Louis’ short-handed goal in Olds’ 5-2 loss to the playoff-bound Bobcats.
Grande Prairie traded Hutzul to Olds earlier this year in exchange for forward Braeden Veldhuizan.
“Honestly, it was a little surprising,” Hutzul said. “I was maybe a little caught off guard. But I talked to Tyson (coach Soloski) and Moe (Jamal), the GM here, and they said a lot of great things. I was honestly super pumped to get here. I can’t say enough good things about the things that have happened to me here. There’s a great group of guys, a great coaching staff, and I’m super happy.
“Here, I feel like I get a lot of opportunity. I’m on the ice a lot. Ultimately, you want to be winning, but from a personal standpoint, it’s really helped me develop my game. I’m really just happy. I think we’re building towards something big in the future.”
Olds’ season ends this weekend, so his immediate future includes searching for a summer job back home in Edmonton. Not to mention more golfing.
“My grandparents have a cabin out in Pigeon Lake, and myself and my cousins, we spend a lot of time out there, do a lot of golfing,” he said. “So, it’s really exciting.”
Bugiera, already in the workforce, recalled just how much golf the cousins play during their summer get-togethers in the Edmonton area.
“They usually have a family reunion up there around the end of August, so we’ll go up there and golf pretty much every day,” he said. “The family reunion is good. We go up there and see some family that we never see (otherwise).
“They’re from Edmonton, but they’re always over there (Pigeon Lake) in the summer. Black Bull is the course there, so we golfed there I think five times in three days. We were with them for a while.
“My brother (Kayden) lives with their family in Edmonton when he goes to school.”
Adryan Bugiera and Owen Hutzul both say the sports lineage in the family is in good hands with young Charlie Hutzul swinging forward in golf.
“He’s really good,” Bugiera said. “When he’s in his early 20s, he’s going to be something.”
Big brother Hutzul said he could learn a thing or two on the course from Charlie.
“My brother is a big golfer. He plays tournaments all the time. He beats me up all the time.”
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