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1995-96 Individual Stats |  Game-by-Game results

PART 3: A cast of characters

With Brian Henry fortifying the blue line, the Warriors turned their holiday momentum into an outright tear. After beating Western on January 4, Waterloo appeared in the national top-10 for the first time that season, ranking 9^th. The victory in London turned out to be the third of nine straight league victories, with another three exhibition wins at the Guelph tournament in between.

But as the Warriors continued to excel on the ice, they were becoming closer off the ice as well. It was apparent that the team's camaraderie was a big part of their growing success, and that these student-athletes were having the times of their lives on broken-down busses and in cramped dressing rooms. Every fairytale story is full of great characters, and this Warriors group was no different.

Ryan Pyette, Sports Reporter, Imprint

I think Joe Harris was either a rookie or in second year. He was a little guy. He was kind of like Grant Fuhr, he'd make those big saves. They'd win 8-4 or something.

Don McKee, Head Coach

He was a junior B goalie out of Listowel; he lived in Dublin, down by Mitchell. But we'd just gone through goalies like Mike Bishop who was an All-Canadian; we had Steve Udvari here. Joe proved he could play at the University level.

Mark Cardiff, Defenceman

I think ol' Stubby Harris was the best goalie in the league.

Joe Harris, Goaltender

I personally don't feel like I had that great of a season. The year before, I was rookie of the year for the university. But in (95-96), even in the games leading up to Christmas, if I'd have played better, we probably would have won more. But everyone embraced each other. I've never been on a team like that ever again. Mark Cardiff was always Santa Claus at Christmas. He'd give out gag gifts to every guy. And he was quite good at it. He was our team comedian.

Mike Chambers, Forward

Cardiff always was a jokester, heckling back and forth between him and Derek Austin. It was a fun group.

Jeff Goldie, Forward

He was a special cat. In my first year, he had a rubber chicken that he carried around everywhere. It had a name, Rusty. And Rusty had his own seat on the bus. You couldn't move Rusty. And Cards walked around with it all the time!

Cards is just a good, lighthearted guy. But super skilled on the ice, an offensive defenceman who could do a lot of stuff with the puck.

Don McKee, Head Coach

We had a Christmas party, and I was living in Plattsville. I had 10 acres out there. Everybody came out, and Cardiff always dressed up as Santa Claus. These guys just loved to be around each other, they didn't want to go home at Christmas.

Mark Cardiff, Defenceman

Donny was a pretty special guy. We had as much fun laughing at him as we did laughing with him. He was a big man for meetings. All he wanted to do was have meetings. Meetings to schedule the next meeting. But he was as dedicated as any coach I ever had.

Ryan Pyette, Sports Reporter, Imprint

I remember, the Imprint handed out the coach of the year, and I made it a big thing, I announced the four nominees, and then I announced Don McKee, and all the hockey players went bananas. It was pretty funny. He was a beauty.

Peter Brearley, Forward

We seemed to click, and that was, in part, (because of) the coaching staff. We had Donny, who's a structured guy. (Assistant coach) Dave (Cressman) was the fun-going, good guy in the good-guy/bad-guy coaching staff. They made it fun for us, and they put together some pretty good lines. You had a quick, agile line with Gilchrist, Chambers and Esdale. Then you had Golds, myself and Smitty. And every line seemed to chip in.

Jeff Goldie, Forward

I was lucky enough that year that I got to play on a fantastic line. We were probably one of the best lines in all of Canadian University Hockey that year, with Steve Smith and Peter Brearley. It was one of those things where we just seemed to click on and off the ice. I lived with Peter in University, I played two years professionally with Peter down in the states, and we were roommates on the road. He was in my wedding party. Sometimes you get lucky to meet guys you play with like that, and our line just seemed to click right away.

Ryan Pyette, Sports Reporter, Imprint

Jeff Goldie was scoring a lot of garbage goals. I'd write off the scoresheet a lot, so I'd call one of the players on the team, and I'd say, "OK, describe the goals for me." They'd say, "Goldie got another garbage one." It became a funny thing, because about 5 games in a row, he'd score these garbage goals. They'd say, "Oh, another one bounced in off his shin pads."

So I called Goldie and I said, "I want to do a story on your hot streak." We needed a picture of him, and I said, well the guys are bugging you about how many garbage goals you're scoring, so why don't you hold up this garbage can, and I have my hockey stick here. We ran it, and he's holding the garbage can, and we said something like, "Goldie's Garbage is saving the Warriors" or something like that. So we had a lot of fun.

Steve Smith, Forward

Both of those guys I played with could score. Jeff was one of those guys that you couldn't knock over in front of the net. He'd get his stick on it, and he didn't have to skate very far to get his goals. But he'd put them in. And then there was Brearley, who was a big dude, but he could really skate. He was a guy you could hit with some stretch passes too.

Jeff Goldie, Forward

If you don't add a guy like Peter Brearley, we don't know where that team would be.He was the big catch for Donny. He was a Kitchener boy, who played in London and Kitchener, and they got him to come here. Western was after him too. And he chose Waterloo. He didn't come in with a big major junior attitude, He just came in, fit in the room so great, everyone loved him, and we became real close friends. But yeah, he had a monster year.

Joe Harris, Goaltender

I think if anyone were to tell you that they expected that kind of firepower, I think they'd be lying. The line of Brearley, Smitty and Goldie, you know, those were 2 guys that were good-to-average OHL players, then put Goldie in there who was really just a natural goal scorer.

We had three guys over 40 points, and one or two others had over 30. Mike Chambers, his line with Greg Esdale and Sheldon Gilchrist. They'd score goals, and then just completely shut down the other team.

Sheldon Gilchrist, Forward

Playing with Chambers and Esdale, they were pretty good players to play with; two very smart hockey players. Their hockey IQ was really good. I think we just connected as a line. Our job was to go out there and score goals and not get scored against, so we were decent at both ends of the ice.

Mark Cardiff, Defenceman

We played in 5-man units back then, that's how Donny ran it. And Esdale was on my five-man unit with Chambers and Gilchrist. And Greg Esdale was probably one of the most underrated hockey players I've ever played with. He was a quiet guy – I don't think he said five words the whole year. But he just came in and was as effective as any guy on the team.

Don McKee, Head Coach

I always said if you put the three of those guys together on a weigh scale, you couldn't get to 400 pounds. They were all small guys. Chambers was so quick. Esdale had a great shot and release, and very smart with the puck, and Cookie (Gilchrist) was a right winger, and he just had a great eye for upper corners. So together, they really brought a lot.

Mike Chambers, Forward

I don't know that we were the most exceptionally talented group; we had talent there, but it was a team where everyone accepted their role, and accepted their job, and took pride in that. I think that's what made all the difference.

Chris Kraemer, Forward

There was a genuine blue collar atmosphere around the team, too. I think that the ongoing thread of the season was that we had to be the hardest working team, and it was really a workmanlike group.

Don McKee, Head Coach

I came here in 1985-86, and it took me a year to understand that I could not get the top hockey players from the OHL. They were more interested in going down to the east coast. They had lots to offer them. And secondly, a lot of those players did not have the capabilities to meet the requirements and standards of this University, so it was really tough. Finally, at the end of the first year, I felt that, no longer am I going to waste my time on players like that. My first avenue is going to be to get players that are interested in coming, and who have the academics to get in, and then support them and build from that. Sometimes, a good Junior B player is better than a fourth-line guy that's played that role all his life in the OHL.

John Wynne, Defenceman

The work ethic that Donny put in to us, it was just constant work. We had to be like that, we had to do that right from the beginning of the season, from first day of training camp. We had to work for everything that was given to us.

Mark Cardiff, Defenceman

I think we had 5 OHLers and the rest were junior B guys, and maybe even some junior C guys. We didn't have, on paper, anything close to what our success was. We were just the greatest group of overachievers you could ever be a part of. It was like the Miracle on Ice met the Bad News Bears. We played for each other and we loved each other.

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