“Great moments are born from great opportunities.”
That legendary quote from Herb Brooks, the late United States Men’s National hockey coach who was at the helm of the Miracle on Ice in Lake Placid, New York in 1980 still rings true to this day.
For one Prince George family, it was the chance of a lifetime to not only cheer on Canada at the 2024 World Junior Hockey Championship in Gothenburg, Sweden but to also witness a Cougars player capture a bronze medal in one of the most dramatic ways possible.
Ondrej Becher delivered a performance for the ages for Czechia notching three goals and two assists in an 8-5 come-from-behind victory over Finland.
Jessi Hartwig along with her sister Andrea, brother Eric, father Paul, and mother Suzanne Campbell took in the full experience at the Scandinavium Arena – the first time all five were able to travel overseas together as a family.
All five attended the tournament with a travel group through Destiny Tours where Suzanne signed up for tickets and found out last spring, that they would be spending the holiday season in the Swedish city of 631,000 residents (about half the population of Hawaii).
“It was exciting. It’s the last year before I graduate school and I am going to have a full-time job – this was possibly the last year for a little while where all the family can be together for two weeks over Christmas,” said Jessi to MyPGNow.com.
“My Mom and I have been to England but my brother my dad and my sister have never been to Europe. It was a first and the first going to the World Juniors outside of Canada – it was very exciting to first and foremost cheer on Team Canada but also hopefully get to watch Viliam Kmec and Ondrej Becher of the Prince George Cougars.”
Jessi described the passionate Swedish fanbase as “insane”. She mentioned her entire family are huge hockey fans who have attended countless NHL games as well as the 2019 World Juniors in Vancouver.
However, the host nation took things up a few notches to say the least.
“The Swedish fans were amazing. They were constantly singing, chanting, there was back and forth across the arena – they had flags and pointy fingers – it was very cool to be a part of.”
TSN reported during their telecasts that upwards of 3,000 Canadians made the trek to Sweden to cheer on their home country.
Hartwig and the rest of her family had tickets to all the Pool A games where Canada was placed finishing the round-robin with a 3-0-0-1 record, second only to the host Swedes.
Becher and Czechia were third in Pool B with a mark of 2-0-1-1, good enough for third while Kmec and Slovakia were second earning a record of 3-0-0-1.
Once the preliminary round ended, Canada slotted against Czechia in the quarterfinals where they were eliminated courtesy of a last-second goal from Jakub Stancl, a marker, Becher assisted on.
“Obviously I wanted Canada to win but I knew that if we lost we could continue to have somebody we were specifically cheering for go on in the tournament. It was a very tense game and although Canada didn’t win the outcome was still a positive for us. We were kind of bragging that we have a Cougars player on the team and they started cheering for him. That game was kind of rough but after that it was pretty fun.”
“We started wearing our Cougars jerseys (after Canada got eliminated). We have been going for years, especially the last two as my sister and I have been going to UNBC. We go to as many games as we can, and we get seats right up in the front row of section S and we have gotten to know the players (not personally), on the ice and we were very excited to cheer on Becher.”
After Czechia fell in the semis, Becher still had a chance for a medal if they defeated Finland in the Bronze Medal Game.
Prior to that, Jessi posted an Instagram story showing support for Becher, which caught the eye of the 19-year-old forward and the Cougars brass.
“I had made a post on my Instagram that was then shared by the Cougars and then after the game, Becher himself responded to it thanking me for the support. I was not expecting that at all, and it made me very happy. I was happy to cheer him on and once they won the Bronze Medal, my brother, sister and I went down to the glass and cheered as they were doing their celebration once the team celebrated and got their medals, he separated from the group, skated over to the glass, put his hand on his heart and said thank you very much. That was totally unexpected. He just won a bronze medal, for him to notice us and come over and thanks that was such a classy gesture.”
Czechia was down 2-0 and 5-2 before lighting the lamp six consecutive times – and of course it was Becher who was front and centre in the dramatic comeback.
“A lot of the Canadians around us were cheering for Finland because they are also a very good team. So, every time Czechia scored, we would jump up and cheer. It was a record I believe for the fastest four goals in World Juniors history – Becher of course scored three of those goals and that was amazing. His first one was the breakaway while on the penalty kill. I was ecstatic.”
It’s safe to say for Jessie and her family, seeing Becher shine on the international stage is a memory they won’t forget.
The Cougars are back in action Friday (7pm) and Saturday (6pm) as they welcome the Kelowna Rockets to CN Centre.