Jefferson Hagen / MacEwan Athletics
EDMONTON – A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away … Jake Kohlhauser became friends with two youth hockey teammates named Brett and Tyler.
OK, so it was just in St. Albert ... but the MacEwan Griffins defenceman remembers his second year of Novice well. That's the year he began playing hockey with Brett Smythe and Tyler Mrkonjic on the Aces.
A dozen years later, after the trio were separated by playing in three different junior leagues, they're teammates on the Griffins.
For Kohlhauser, who was playing for Powell River in the BCHL the last two seasons, the decision to attend MacEwan feels like coming home.
"That was a big thing, too, when I was coming to MacEwan is to get to play with Brett and Tyler again and be back home," said the rookie defenceman. "My parents, they moved to Kelowna (from St. Albert), so I was always away from home for a while. Having the opportunity to come play for MacEwan and be back with buddies like Tyler and Brett, it's awesome."
Older brother Devin Kohlhauser was also a big influence; he was a member of the MacEwan men's golf team from 2012-15 and spoke highly of the student-athlete experience.
"When I was making my decision, I was always talking to my brother about it," he said. "He always just had great things to say about MacEwan, about the Athletics department there. It was kind of a no-brainer for me. I wanted to follow in his footsteps and play hockey here for MacEwan. So far, I've really enjoyed it."
So far he has played regular minutes on the Griffins' blueline and turned heads with his steady play. He'll lead them into a weekend home-and-home series at Red Deer College on Friday (7 p.m.) and versus them on Saturday (6 p.m., Downtown Community Arena).
"He's stepped in and is playing an impact role for us right away," said interim head coach Michael Ringrose. "He's willing to be first to pucks – just generally is a calming influence on our back end. He has the ability to move pucks and is just kind of a steady guy back there."
Kohlhauser has a pair of assists in six games this season, which has been a byproduct of his strong defensive play.
"The one thing I like about him is he manages pucks," said Ringrose. "To me, that really calms things down out there. When you have defencemen that aren't making poor decisions and turning pucks over, what you end up with is pucks moving forward all the time. You're not turning them over and you're able to move them up to your forwards and get going on the attack."
Kohlhauser logged 82 games in the Western Hockey League between 2013-15 split between four different teams, including a 25-game stint with the Edmonton Oil Kings during the 2014-15 season. He finished his career with the Powell River Kings of the BCHL where he served as team captain the last two seasons.
He joins a number of former captains on the Griffins where the leadership group is strong.
"It's good for team morale when you've got a locker-room full of leaders," said Kohlhauser. "Everyone's on the same page with what to expect."
Getting on the same page has been a recent goal of the Griffins, who've done nothing but practice through their bye week. They haven't played since a 5-2 loss to NAIT at home on Oct. 21 dropped their ACAC record to 2-4-0.
"NAIT's a good team and I don't want to take anything away from them, but it was not our best weekend the last time out," said Ringrose. "As a group, I think we've been motivated these past two weeks in practice to get things moving in the right direction. Any time there's change, players are asked to learn new systems. There's going to be a learning curve associated with that.
"We're going through that right now, but I think the two weeks of practice certainly helped to get everyone on the same page and pulling in the right direction."
