(Image Credit: Red Deer Vipers/Supplied)

By Ian Gustafson

HJHL finals

Red Deer Vipers reflect on successful 2025-26 campaign

Mar 25, 2026 | 2:49 PM

The Red Deer Vipers are disappointed but proud following the end of the Heritage Junior Hockey League (HJHL) season.

The Vipers made it back to the league finals for the first time since 2019 but were swept by the Medicine Cubs in three games.

However, they’re celebrating everything they accomplished in the 2025-26 campaign, including defeating their rival, the Sylvan Lake Wranglers, three games to one in the North Division Final.

Vipers Director of Hockey Operations, Brady Sim, said whenever you don’t win the last game of the season, it’s disappointing.

“That’s what we play for, you play to win the last one, but I think in the final series we just couldn’t get back to an emotional intensity level we had versus Sylvan Lake,” Sim said. “They had our number for so long, and that’s our big rival. When we won that series, it was such an emotional sort of blowoff that it was hard to get back to that intensity in the final… Ultimately, it cost us in the end.”

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The Vipers also finished on top of the division standings at the end of the regular season with a 26-0-8-2 record.

Forward Mason Hastings led the team with 32 goals and 22 assists for 54 points in 35 games, which was fourth best in the league.

Forward Evan Lemke wasn’t too far behind with 14 goals and 27 assists for 41 points in 32 games. Lemke had a team-leading 11 points in 11 playoff games.

In net, goaltender Meyer Gaume suited up in 25 games for the Vipers, posting a .918 save percentage and a 2.47 GAA. In the playoffs, he recorded a .906 save percentage and a 3.20 GAA in 11 games.

Sim said, despite the result, the season as a whole was a success because of the progress made. The Vipers missed the 2024 postseason and have slowly built a contender since then.

“There’s a lot to be proud of and a lot of building blocks that we can take forward into next year with the way our team is constructed,” he said, adding he hopes his team uses the loss as fuel. “We know we’re going to be competitive for next year and for years to come.”

Sim said the coaching staff is set to return, and 20 of 24 members of this season’s roster will be eligible to return.

However, they’ll lose some very important pieces with the overagers who are set to move on, including Gaume, Lemke, Kieran Armitage, and captain Keaton Mackenzie-Clermont.

“They are big parts of what we did this past year, and they’ll be missed, but we are in a strong position to hopefully replace that and bring in some younger kids,” he said.

“Our goal next year is going to be back in the finals, and we’ll have the team for it.”