Huskies to open up second-round playoffs at home

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — The Fort St. John Huskies will have home-ice advantage for their second-round playoff series.

The defending Strike Group North West Junior Hockey League (NWJHL) champions will play the North Peace Navigators in the league’s east/west division final starting this weekend.

While the Huskies have had significant games offensively versus the Navigators – including scoring nine goals in two separate contests – the Navigators, second in the division during the regular season, managed to get the better of the Pups thrice this year.

This included two games in the season’s last month – a 4-3 victory on January 2nd and a 6-4 win four weeks later on January 31st.

Navigators head coach Jody Menssa improved his team by six wins from a year ago, taking home NWJHL coach of the year this season.

Offensively, the Navigators are led by Tyson Tokarz. The second-year forward put up big numbers in 2025-26, scoring 37 goals and 40 assists for 77 points, good for third overall in the NWJHL.

He’s backed up by rookie Jacob Bevington and Seth Roy, who had 23 and 20 goals in the regular season respectively.

In net, the Navigators have used the duo of all-star Evan Norman and Zach Mussio en route to a 21-win season.

Huskies head coach Todd Alexander recognizes the challenge his team has to face: not only have North Peace beaten Fort St. John during the year, but they have also had a nine-day break after sweeping the Dawson Creek Kodiaks in the playoffs’ opening round.

“[The Navigators] have played hard all year,” said Alexander. “There are no easy opponents going forward. They will be fired up and ready to take us on. We’re looking forward to the challenge.”

The series starts on Friday, February 20th with game one at the North Peace Arena in Fort St. John, with game two taking place on Saturday evening, February 21st.

The series will then go to the Baytex Energy Centre in Peace River, Alberta for games three and four, on Saturday, February 28th and Sunday, March 1st.

In the event of a long series, game five would be in Fort St. John, while game six would be in Peace River and game seven would take place in Fort St. John.

Game time for this weekend’s contests is 8:30 p.m. More information about the Huskies is available on the team’s Facebook or Instagram pages and website.