For Battlefords North Stars defenceman Levi Kleiboer, the realization that he had won a gold medal with Canada West at the World Junior A Challenge didn’t hit him until he began his journey back to his hometown of Martensville.
“I think it set in for everyone when we are all at the airport waiting for our flights,” Kleiboer said.
“The first half of guys on the team said their goodbyes to the other half of the team, and that’s when it really sunk in about what our group was able to do.”
Canada West won their fifth tournament title, and their first since 2015, on Saturday in Truro, N.S. as they picked up a 5-1 win over the United States.
Kleiboer, 19, helped get the team rolling on offence during a first period penalty kill as he made a perfect breakout pass to Langley Rivermen forward Brendan Budy, who raced down the ice to score a shorthanded breakaway goal.
“I had a lot more time on that play than I thought I did originally,” said Kleiboer, who spent the majority of the tournament paired up with Seth Barton of the Trail Smoke Eaters.
“At first I was going to shoot the puck down the ice, then I heard Brendan calling my name so I made the pass to him and it worked out really well for us.”
From that point on, Canada West controlled the championship contest, even though the United States outshot them by a 36-19 margin.
“Once we got that first goal, our main focus was trying to get the next one,” Kleiboer said.
“Even though we had a 3-0 lead at one point, we weren’t getting too high emotionally as we knew there was lots of time left in the game and the United States could come back at any time. We stayed focused on the task at hand and that approach worked out for us.”
The start of the tournament was a challenging one for Canada West, which was made up of players from the Alberta Junior Hockey League, British Columbia Hockey League, Manitoba Junior Hockey League and Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League.
They finished their round-robin slate with an 0-2 record and a third place finish in Group B after losing 5-1 to the Czech Republic and dropping a narrow 2-1 affair to the United States.
“We weren’t pleased at all with how we played against the Czech Republic,” Kleiboer said.
“We had a hard practice after that one and had a much better effort against the United States, but we had an unlucky bounce in the last 30 seconds that gave them the win.”
Canada West’s run to the gold medal began in the quarter-final as they picked up a 4-3 overtime win over a Canada East squad that featured players from the Central Canada Hockey League, Maritime Hockey League, Ontario Junior Hockey League and Quebec Junior Hockey League.
“We got off to a great start and went up 2-0, then we had a couple of bad breaks and found ourselves down 3-2 with eight minutes to go,” Kleiboer said.
“There were some anxious moments for a little bit there, but we rallied together and got a bit of a lucky goal to tie it up before we won it in overtime.”
Canada West followed that performance up a day later with a 5-1 triumph over the Czech Republic in the semifinal.
“We had some momentum on our side after our overtime win and we wanted some redemption after what happened in the round-robin,” Kleiboer said.
Kleiboer’s trip to the World Junior A Challenge was an historic one for the North Stars organization, as he became the first player in team history to compete at the event.
“Levi deserves everything that he gets,” North Stars head coach and general manager Brandon Heck said.
“He’s such a great kid and a hard worker. I know all of the guys on our team were really happy for him and they were sending him a bunch of texts after the game.”
There was a familiar face on the bench for Kleiboer at the tournament as Flin Flon Bombers head coach and general manager Mike Reagan was in charge of the Canada West team.
“He reminds me quite a bit of [former North Stars head coach and general manager] Kevin Hasselberg,” Kleiboer said. “They are both diehard coaches who are all about winning, and you can see that with what he [Reagan] has been able to do in bringing Flin Flon to two straight league finals.”
Reagan became the first SJHL head coach to lead Canada West to a tournament title, while Bombers forward Chrystopher Collin joined Kleiboer in becoming the first players from the league to win a gold medal since former Humboldt Broncos forward Riley Kieser in 2011.
“Everyone on the team caught the end of the game on our trip to North Battleford, so there was a ton of noise going on as everyone reacted on the bus,” Bombers assistant coach Garry Childerhose said.
“It’s really a good thing not just for the Bombers, but for the entire league as well with Chrystopher, Levi and Mike all on the team. We’re all really happy for them.”
Kleiboer plans to take a number of different things away from the experience at the World Junior A Challenge, especially as he looks to make the jump up to the NCAA’s Maine Black Bears next year.
“The level of play there is at a really quick pace and it’s bit higher than what I saw last year at the Western Canada Cup, as you are playing against all of the top guys from the Junior A leagues in Canada along with the players from the United States Hockey League on the American team,” Kleiboer said.
“I had a chance to talk to a few guys there who told me that it was a pretty similar pace to what I’ll see in the NCAA, so I think that will help me a lot. I just need to keep playing my own game and keep things simple out on the ice.”
He is expected to be back in the North Stars lineup on Friday, Dec. 29 when they host the Kindersley Klippers at the Civic Centre.
