SWIFT CURRENT, Sask. – A contest was held to try and find the most spirited fans in the Canadian Hockey League (CHL). A stay-at-home mom from Saskatchewan won and is now preparing to cheer on some of the country’s best junior hockey player this weekend.
Jennifer Klassen’s husband learned about the “BMO Ultimate CHL Fan Contest” on social media and told her to enter.
In March, BMO Financial Group and the CHL invited people to enter for a chance to be named an ultimate fan for their local team by answering a series of questions on Facebook.
“We try to get to a lot of games, my kids have become die-hard fans of the Broncos so we do what we can to support them and in-turn I think the Broncos have done a really good job supporting minor hockey in Swift Current,” said Klassen.
“Because of that, watching hockey, our kids wanted to play hockey and so now we watch a lot of hockey and it’s fun to watch my kids dream about playing for the Broncos some day.”
BMO says thousands of fans participated in the contest. Three grand prize winners were selected from each CHL league: Western Hockey League (WHL), Ontario Hockey League (OHL) and Quebec Major Junior Hockey League (QMJHL).
Klassen was named the WHL’s winner of the contest.
Her prize consists of an all-expenses paid trip for two to this year’s MasterCard Memorial Cup in Québec City, Que. She leaves Friday to catch the semi-final game and will then watch to see who will be crowned CHL champion Sunday.
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The season may be over for her favourite team, the Swift Current Broncos, but that won’t stop this fan from cheering her heart out this weekend.
“It’s actually convenient for me this year, I grew up in Kelowna, so I’m definitely cheering for the Kelowna Rockets,” said Klassen.
On Tuesday, the Oshawa Generals secured a spot in the national championship game by defeating the WHL’s Kelowna Rockets 2-1. The Rocket’s fate now rests on the outcome of the President Cup final between the Québec Remparts and the Rimouski Océanic Wednesday.
The CHL consists of 52 Canadian and eight American teams and had more than nine million hockey enthusiasts attend games last year.
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