Although Travis Ulliac’s season with the Sherwood Park Knights hockey team is over, the local goaltender will always be able to remember being part of a truly amazing winning streak.
Ulliac, who is from Lac La Biche, played goal for the Knight’s amazing 25-game winning streak this Capital Junior Hockey League (CJHL) season — the NHL record for most consecutive wins is 17, by the 1993 Pittsburgh Penguins. That’s 25 straight games without an unlucky loss or even a tie.
Ulliac, who alternated games with fellow goalie Brett Lewis throughout the season, was undoubtedly a big part of the Knight’s other-worldly success.
“Travis won us a couple of games this year that we probably shouldn’t have,” said Brandon Lynch, the team manager. “We could always count on him.”
Growing up, Ulliac played 10 years of minor hockey in Plamondon and one in Lac La Biche before joining the Leduc Riggers Junior B team. For the least three season he’s played for the Sherwood Park Knights, and was named the team’s co-MVP last season — and played in the CJHL all-star game.
In all his years of hockey, Ulliac said the 25-game win streak is one of his most memorable experiences.
“It was pretty special,” he said. “Every game is so much more intense because you’re on this streak. And the pressure escalates because every team wants to knock you off.”
And the 21-year-old fourth-year accounting student at the University of Alberta has already had his share of hockey glory. The Sherwood Park Knights, despite being huge underdogs, won a silver medal at last year’s Western Canadian Junior B Championships. Ulliac led all goalies in the tournament in both goals against average and save percentage.
Lynch said that although the Knights have yet to pick the team MVP for this season — which ended when they were knocked out of the second round of the CJHL playoffs in late February — he expects that Ulliac will likely be named team MVP yet again.
“(Travis) is just a huge character guy,” the team manager said. “A great guy to have in the locker room … and he had another really good year — there’s no doubt he’s one of the top goalies in the league.”
The CJHL has 14 teams from Alberta’s capital region near Edmonton.
