With the lone goal scored by Lyndon Ochs, the Wilkie Outlaws celebrate a 1-0 win in Game 3 and a Provincial B Championship over the Balcarres Broncs. (Image Credit: Facebook/Wilkie Outlaws)

By Nick Nielsen

Senior B Provincials

Outlaws secure sixth provincial championship in 12 years

Mar 24, 2026 | 5:26 PM

For the sixth time in the last twelve seasons, the Wilkie Outlaws senior hockey team is a provincial champion.

Over the course of the weekend, the Outlaws won two straight games over the Balcarres Broncs to clinch the 2026 Provincial B title.

Former ECHL defenceman Derek Keller has been the Outlaws player/coach since the 2013-14 season, the year the Outlaws won their first provincial championship. He said there is a core group of players that have been on a long and special run together.

“I think that puts us at 15 now for the core group of the team. We’ve just been really, really lucky. We’ve had a good group of locals, we’ve had really committed imports over the years, really good executives, and of course the talent supporting us and our wives letting us continue to play as long as they let us play. So it’s been a really nice run. It’s been a lot of fun, made a lot of good memories, and hopefully it’s not over just yet,” Keller said.

Nine members of the Outlaws team from 2013-14 are still playing with the team: Derek Keller, Rick Cey, Dustin Glackin, Brett Schell, and Mike Sittler, goaltenders Jared Herle and Curtis Sander, and imports Will Rathje and Rory Gregoire. 

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Some of those players have taken a year or two away from the team in that time, but Keller said that knowing a run like this can’t last forever is what keeps bringing this group back together.  

“It’s just a lot of pride in our hometown. I think any senior hockey team that is successful, its got to start with the locals, right? You need those good locals that care and they want to win for your town, they want to win for each other, and then you can kind of augment that with good imports. We’ve been incredibly lucky.” 

This year in particular was a battle. Representing the northern side of the Provincial B bracket, the Outlaws lost the first game of all four rounds they played against the Dinsmore Dynamos, the Eston Ramblers, the Canora Cobras in the provincial semi-final, and the final series with the Balcarres Broncs. 

In that final series with Balcarres, Wilkie lost the first game on the road 3-2 in double overtime. Returning home for Game 2, the Outlaws came back from a late two goal deficit to win 4-3, again in overtime, forcing Game 3 back to Balcarres the following night. 

In Game 3, it was one of the newest Outlaws that scored the only goal of the game that gave the team their sixth provincial championship in 12 years.

“Linden Ochs scored the goal, a young kid. I think it’s his second or third year with the Outlaws, local kid, scored probably one of the biggest goals of his career, and I don’t think anybody had a 1-0 win on their bingo card. But that was the way the game went, just two evenly matched teams that were going toe-to-toe.” 

Keller spent three seasons in the ECHL with the South Carolina Stingrays after a successful college and junior career. He’s the only player on the Outlaws to reach that level of hockey. Now, however, the luxury of pre-game skates, naps and days off after games have been replaced with a regular 9-5 job and coaching his own kids the following day. 

The rest of the Outlaws roster is a mix of players that have played Junior, or never played hockey higher than their house league team as a kid, or senior hockey as an adult. When game time comes, and the opportunity to represent the proud hockey heritage in Wilkie is on the line, everyone finds a way to step up into the moment. 

“A lot of the guys on our team, we all have two, three, four kids, so it throws another wrench into your game day. Honestly, the hardest part is getting to the rink. Once you get to the rink, it’s all the same rate. It’s a little bit of a grind. There’s some nights where the energy levels aren’t certainly where they used to be, and you just got to try to find a way to get through it. But when you get to this time of year, you get to playoffs, you get to provincials, typically you can do what you need to do to make sure you’re ready to go.” 

Right now, the Outlaws are one game away from securing a seventh Sask West Hockey League championship. They face the Edam 3 Stars in Edam Wednesday night. It’s a series that fans of the Battlefords North Stars should have some interest in, since between the two teams, there are at least 14 North Stars alumni playing in the action, along with former pro and WHL players. 

“They’re always hard-fought games in that rink, it gets physical…you’re going to war, so we’ll have to get mentally prepared for that, and hopefully we can close it out there. If not, we’ll have them for Game 5 in Wilkie on Sunday. They’re a really good team, I think they’ve got 14 or 15 guys that played junior hockey, so there’s just no holes in that lineup. They come at you in waves, and we have to be at our best if we want to get the ‘W’ tomorrow night.” 

The Outlaws have a 2-1 series lead over the 3 Stars in the five-game series heading into Wednesday’s game in Edam. If necessary, Game 5 is set for Sunday, March 29 in Wilkie. 

Of the six provincial championships the Outlaws have won since 2014, three have come in the Senior B bracket (2016, 2019, 2026), and three have been in Senior C (2014, 2015, 2024). 

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nick.nielsen@pattisonmedia.com