Fergus Whalers rally after overturned goal to win Schmalz Cup

FERGUS – Helmets and gloves flying, the bench emptied onto the ice as the home team scored in overtime at the Fergus sportsplex on May 10.

But the elation was short-lived.

The Fergus Whalers believed they had secured the Clarence Schmalz Cup – but the goal was waived off after a referee ruled the puck did not cross the goal line.

The team regrouped to make the next one count.

It was game five of the Provincial Junior Hockey League (PJHL) final against the Tavistock Braves this past Sunday.

The Braves’ Marc Dionne scored in the first with Joey Martin tying it up early in the second for the Whalers.

Tavistock's Nolan Miller put the Braves ahead once again minutes later. But Jacob Lesser answered with two of his own and Fergus headed into the third period leading 3-2.

Tavistock’s Yann Raskin erased Fergus’ lead with a goal in the third, sending the game into overtime tied 3-3.

Fergus rallied after the disallowed goal for their second chance.

Martin passed to Lesser, who fed Ryan Forwell in the slot for a one-timer that left no doubt.

The team again spilled over the boards, equipment flying, as the horn blared and fans hammered on the glass.

Nine minutes into overtime, the Whalers had clinched the Schmalz Cup, the young franchise’s first provincial Junior C championship, with a 4-3 win.

“It was pretty electric,” captain Tyler Ewald told the Advertiser.

Ewald, a Chatham-Kent native studying accounting in Guelph, said the team was “relentless” in the second and third, firing 21 shots across the two periods.

“We had all the pressure,” Ewald said of the overtime rally. “We just worked them and they ran out of gas.”

Had the Braves scored in overtime, the Whalers would have had to travel to Tavistock for game six of the best-of-seven series.

“The momentum really swings,” Ewald said. “It was really refreshing to get it done in game five.”

That an expansion club managed to win the championship just three years after forming is no small feat.

“We just kept winning – the boys, the players, everybody just bought in and it was quite a ride,” said head coach Ryan Black.

The Fergus Whalers, whose logo and green and blue colours borrow heavily from former NHL franchise the Hartford Whalers, launched in the 2023-24 season.

The team made it to the North Pollock Division finals in 2024-25, but lost to Hanover, which eventually won the Schmalz Cup.

“We reloaded for [this season],” Black said, “the year we wanted to win the Pollock.”

The team finished first in the Pollock Division with 34 wins and seven losses.

It had a remarkable 14-game winning streak heading into the playoffs, and had a 16–2 record in the post-season heading into the Schmalz Cup.

“We were on a big run,” Black said.

“After Christmas, we set some goals, some short-term goals to see if we could pull it off and the guys just bought in. The more games we won, the stronger we got, the more confident we got.”

The Whalers finished the regular season with the third-best record among 63 PJHL teams across the province.

The team then won playoff series against Kincardine, Hanover, Stayner, Frankford and Tavistock, for a combined overall record of 54–10 for the season.

“The Schmalz Cup is the furthest you can go, that’s the ultimate pinnacle,” said Whalers owner Jason Baier.

“To do it in three years is quite an accomplishment.”

This season’s lineup, Baier said, was a “determined and dedicated group that really had a great culture in the room” and became like a family.

“That just cultivated to winning on the ice.”

The majority of the team is made up of University of Guelph students, with just four from Wellington County.

Baier, a Stratford business owner, has coached AAA and Junior B hockey for 20 years, and was a director for the Mitchell Hawks during their 2021-22 Pollock Division win.

He said he was approached by the PJHL about bringing junior hockey back to Centre Wellington nine years after the Fergus Devils folded in 2014-15.

“Coming to Fergus was very exciting for us. We knew it was a hotbed for sports and to be able to bring CW junior hockey back was something that we felt was very exciting,” Baier said.

While the team was finding its footing during its inaugural 2023-24 season, it was lucky to draw 100 fans, according to Baier.

That’s a far cry from the 1,200-plus fans that Baier said attended recent home games – and over 10,000 spectators combined who attended playoff games.

“It’s catapulted within the community and with our players,” Baier said, adding the team is looking to embed itself more deeply in the community off the ice.

Baier expressed gratitude to fans, families and sponsors, including the team’s mainstay, Kitchener-based Coops Drywall.

In the coming weeks, the team will be recognized for its championship win at Queen’s Park by sports minister Neil Lumsden and Wellington-Halton Hills MPP Joseph Racinsky.

Black said staff plans to “reload” the team at its spring camp in Waterloo at the end of the month.

Ewald, who turned 22 during the playoff run and ages out of junior hockey this year, said there’s a strong core of players on the team.

“They’re going to want to continue to try and win it again next year,” Ewald said.