On September 4, the Prince George Cougars faced off against the Edmonton Oil Kings here in Tumbler Ridge, marking the first time that teams from the Western Hockey League (WHL) have played here.
While this might seem like something that was inspired by the Kraft Hockeyville run-up earlier in the year, Mayor Darryl Krakowka says this has been in the works for almost two years. “The Prince George Cougars advertised two years ago that they were going to Quesnel to play an expedition game,” says Krakowka. “I thought ‘we’re a hockey community. Our children and youth and adults love watching hockey.’ I thought it would be a great idea to try and bring the WHL here.”
So Krakowka contacted the Cougars’ Director of Business Taylor Dakers about 18 months ago to see if the team would be interested in playing in Tumbler Ridge. “We’ve been working on this for some quite time to see what it would look like to bring the WHL here for an exhibition game, and making sure I understood what would be needed to do this. Yes, I’m the mayor, but I also own a business and I live in this community and I didn’t do it as mayor, I did it as a resident. I reached out, talked to them and asked how would it work?”
Of course, while Krakowka wasn’t wearing his mayor’s hat at the time, he knew that this would be something that would have to be done in conjunction with the District. “I set up a meeting with CAO Lisa Scott, explaining what I was looking at doing and asked what the town would need.”
The ball really started to roll in mid-January of 2026. “We knew we would see the Prince George Cougars coming sometime in September for exhibition game without knowing who the visiting team would be. So we started having conversations.”
Krakowka says the biggest ask from the Cougars was that the game would be a fundraiser for a not-for-profit. “I started looking at that. Who did we need to involve? How does it work?”
Even though he knew in January, Krakowka says he couldn’t mention it. “I had to wait for them to find a team that would come to Tumbler Ridge to play.”
In February, the whole thing was put on the backburner after the tragedy. When Krakowka finally reached back out to the Cougars in April, he found out that the Edmonton Oil Kings had said they would be willing to play here.
As a die-hard Edmonton Oilers fan, this was great news for Krakowka, who went to Edmonton to meet with Kevin Radomski, Director of Business Operations for the Oil Kings. “I went to a Oil Kings game with my grandsons and was able to meet with Kevin personally and talk to him and find out what they would be looking for.”
But Krakowka couldn’t do it on his own, so he pulled together a committee with members from minor hockey, figure skating, and the old-timers, as well as the curling club and the District. “We started having meetings and discussions. But we still couldn’t talk about it. We had to wait for the official announcement to come.”
On June 22, that announcement came. “The committee was already meeting, but we definitely had to speed up how frequently we got together and how it would all work out.”
The District covered the cost of the ice time for the games and practice, and the four volunteer groups took on different tasks—from crowd control to selling 50/50 tickets—with a portion of the revenue generated going to those four clubs.
And, despite some small issues, the games were spectacular, with fans from across the Peace Region and as far away as Prince George coming to watch the games. “The stands were full,” says Krakowka. “There were lots of young children running around and youth and adults watching the games. What a great event. What a great weekend to have for Tumbler Ridge.”
In addition to the games, the teams also showed up to the fall fair to do autographs for the fans. “I think that showed partnerships from the WHL committee, the local committee, the teams and the Tumbler Ridge Days Society. It was so great they opened up their arms and adding that to their event.”
To reduce the cost on the local planning committee, both teams agreed they would cover their own travel costs getting to town, though the committee still had to cover accommodations and food for the teams while they were here.
“We had some sponsors, the Tumbler Ridge Community Forest, Freshmart, West Moberley Alliance, Grizzly Valley Storage and more. There was multiple organizations that donated money to help offset costs. Conuma covered the cost of the rooms at the Trend Mountain Hotel, which was a big cost offset.”
Because the event was a fundraiser for the four groups, they get to keep everything that was raised at the doors, as well as from the basket draws, the 50-50s and the beer gardens. “Our only cost was hotels and foods,” says Krakowka. “The teams didn’t want any money for coming here. As I said, they covered their own travel costs. They even covered the cost for WHL referees, so both teams were sponsors as well.”
When the teams arrived, he says, a bunch of the teens from both minor hockey and figure skating showed up to help unload the busses. “We had their bus and cargo van unloaded in about ten minutes. We couldn’t have done it without the youth that came down to help.”
While Krakowka is a fan of both teams, when push comes to shove, his heart remains with Edmonton. But, while that team won both games (6–0 on Friday and 9–1 on Sunday), Krakowka says the real winner was the community. “It was about our youth and our children and our adults. We’re a big hockey community. That’s why I really wanted to see the WHL come here. We saw some NHL alumni come up during Kraft Hockeyville—and I think there’s still some opportunities to work with NHL as well—but this was an opportunity to bring some high caliber hockey here.”
The other winners? The four groups that helped organized the events. “Hats off to all of them, because without their organizations stepping in and supplying volunteers—to run the time clock, to do scorekeeping, announcing, to do security, to run the raffle draws—it wouldn’t have happened. I wouldn’t have been able to do it by myself.”
The first time, they say, is always the hardest, and Krakowka says he already has had conversations with both teams before they left the community to see if they want to do it again in the future. Will it happen in 2027? He’s not sure. “Both teams also want to support other communities around their cities,” he says. “I’d like to see us sign on for a couple more years.”
How that might look, he says, he doesn’t know. Maybe the teams will come here every other year. “I think it was important for our community. I think we’ve seen how well it went. The committee now has one weekend underneath their belts. After the first game, we changed and tweaked a few things for Sunday. We met Saturday afternoon to talk.”
Still, it’s a big job, says Krakowka. “I’ve never organized something like this. Fortunately, we had great people on the committee who threw out great ideas. Now that we have a weekend under our belts, I think there’s more we can do as a committee. There’s things we’ve learned and I think it would just be even a bigger success. It was an amazing weekend.”
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.
