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Express ride nostalgia for throwback game

Coquitlam’s hockey players of the future are going back to the past.
Coquitlam Comets

Coquitlam’s hockey players of the future are going back to the past.

The Coquitlam Express will be honouring the Coquitlam Comets of the old Pacific Coast Junior Hockey League on Sunday by wearing throwback jerseys in their BC Hockey League game against the Langley Rivermen. 

The Comets were a charter team in the Tier II Junior A league that was started by Fred Page in 1974. Other teams included the Chilliwack Bruins, Kerrisdale Couriers, Nor’Wes Caps, Richmond Sockeyes, Surrey Stampeders and the Vancouver Jr. Canucks. The league was a resurrection of the Junior A PCJHL that operated from 1962 to 1967.

The Comets were immediately successful on the ice. The team won 23 games in its first season and won the league championship over the Stampeders. They then advanced to the Mowat Cup championship where they were defeated by the Bellingham Blazers of the old BC Junior Hockey League in two straight games.

After that, the Comets could finish no better than fourth until the league merged into the BCJHL and the team folded.

The Comets returned to the larger league for one season, 1980-81, and won just 11 of its 42 games to finish seventh in the Coastal division. 

The BCJHL, however, prospered as scouts from college teams in the United States began mining its young stars for scholarships. The league, which rebranded as the BC Hockey League in 1990, now has 17 teams across the province, Vancouver Island and even Washington state. An average of 90 to 100 players graduate to NCAA programs each year and several, like former Express star Kyle Turris, who played for the team when it was based in Burnaby, have found success in the National Hockey League.

The Comets, er, Express, take to the ice at Poirier Sports and Leisure Complex on Sunday at 3 p.m. The game will be followed by a public skate with the players.