Former Giants teammates putting memories aside in 2022 WHL Championship
It’s no secret the hockey world can be a small one, but amid years of growth and changing postal codes, relationships remain constant. Weeks, months and years of blood, sweat and tears forge lifetime bonds, even if circumstance dictates friendships be put aside in the heat of the moment.
Take Edmonton Oil Kings forward Justin Sourdif and Seattle Thunderbirds star Lukas Svejkovsky, for example. The pair were teammates during the last WHL Championship Series three years ago with the Vancouver Giants but find themselves on opposite sides of the red line in this year’s final round.
“Sourdif’s one of my best buddies. He’s obviously a great player, he’s one of their top guys,” Svejkovsky told WHL.ca Friday.
“He’s here for a reason, they’re here for a reason, and we’re here for a reason,” he added. “You just gotta put that friendship aside and just go to battle.”
“It’s kind of funny, I hadn’t really seen [Svejkovsky] since he’d been traded from Vancouver [in December of 2019],” Sourdif noted.
“We hadn’t played against each other, this is the first meetup, everything kind of comes full circle,” he added.
Svejkovsky, a fourth-round pick of the Pittsburgh Penguins in 2020, landed in Seattle via trade just after Christmas by way of the Medicine Hat Tigers.
The move has paid off for Seattle; since returning to his home state, the Point Roberts, Wash. product has gone on to lead the Thundebrirds in playoff scoring with 28 points in 22 games.
Sourdif, selected in the third round of the 2020 NHL Draft by the Florida Panthers, spent the first half of the 2021-22 season as Giants captain before a deadline-day move to Edmonton.
Two of Sourdif’s five playoff goals have been game-winners including an overtime decider May 23 versus Winnipeg. He’s chipped in with a pair of short-handed tallies through the post-season too.
Svejkovsky’s Thunderbirds have been in this situation before this spring. Seattle is 5-0 in elimination games during the 2022 WHL Playoffs including rallies from 3-1 and 3-2 series deficits against Portland and Kamloops.
“We’ve been here before, obviously every game is do or die now, but we’re just going to come together as a group and take it one day at a time,” said Svejkovsky.
“We understand Seattle’s going to battle until the end, they’ve already come back from 3-1 and 3-2 deficits; they have some pushback,” Sourdif noted.
Sourdif’s Oil Kings were constructed for series like this one. Consider the Surrey, B.C. product is one of five Edmonton skaters named to Canada’s 2022 IIHF World Junior Championship roster (forward Jakub Demek also skated with Slovakia).
“We’re going to be calm, composed, and feed off the energy of the crowd [Saturday],” said Sourdif.
Age regulations and NHL contracts suggest this series could wind up being a WHL swan song for several players on both sides of the puck, including Sourdif and Svejkovsky.
While both are choosing to live in the moment, it’s more than clear both want to end their time in the League on a happy note.
The 2022 WHL Championship Series continues with Game 5 Saturday, June 11 (7:00 p.m. MT, Rogers Place, TSN4 / Fox13+).
