WHL HEADLINES

Last season, Steven Gillen was a fourth-year Western Hockey League veteran with the Moose Jaw Warriors. Now, the 21-year-old from Kindersley, SK, is getting used to being a rookie all over again. Not just on the ice, but in the classroom as well.
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rAfter graduating from the WHL, having split four seasons between the Warriors and the Spokane Chiefs, Gillen decided to use the WHL Scholarship money he had accumulated, enroll at the University of Saskatchewan and play for the Huskies Men’s hockey team.
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r“I really like the school…it’s a nice campus,” said Gillen, who is in first-year Arts & Sciences at the U of S and one of 20 WHL graduates on the Huskies’ roster. “It’s a bit weird getting back to studying and schoolwork all the time.”
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rOn the ice, Gillen has stepped into the line-up of one of the most formidable teams in the Canada West conference of Canadian Interuniversity Sports. The Huskies are the defending Canada West Champions and have made three consecutive trips to the CIS National Championship University Cup tournament.
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r“I think we look pretty good,” said Gillen, whose Huskies have won their first four Conference games of the season. “Any time you can start 4-0, you can’t be too critical. But, I think we still need to get better to compete with some of the other teams.”
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rAdapting to the CIS level and style of hockey can be a challenge coming out of Major Junior, and getting used to playing against players who are older, stronger and bigger takes some getting used to. However, with two goals in his first two contests for the Huskies, Gillen seems to have fit in well at the University level early on.
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r“It’s quite a bit different up here,” said Gillen, who scored 60 goals and 80 assists in 285 career WHL regular season games. “Things happen much quicker here, and you don’t have nearly as much time with the puck because guys are all over you right away. There are definitely some really good players in this league.
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r“I’m not too thrilled with how I started, but it wasn’t the worst that could have happened, either,” said Gillen. “I never got into any exhibition games, so it was kind of like being thrown right into the fire.”
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rThe Huskies have been an elite team in the Canada West conference for some time. However, coming up empty-handed in three consecutive trips to the University Cup is something that, even as a first-year player, Gillen knows weighs heavily on the team.
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r“We know that if we play our best, on most nights we will win,” said Gillen. “We have a lot of fourth and fifth-year guys that won’t be back next year, and have been to the Championship tournament a few times but haven’t won it.
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r“Our goal is to not just get there again, but win the title this year,” he said.
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rWith such a heavy workload at school coupled with his commitment to playing high-level hockey with the Huskies, Gillen has had to learn to strike a balance between the two.
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r“When you’re here, hockey is not always going to be the number one priority anymore,” said Gillen. “Guys are always studying before and after our games and on the bus rides home. You have to make sure you keep up with it and keep your marks up.”
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r– Jesse Watts,
rwhl.ca
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