(Taken from the Notre Dame Hounds chapter of ‘the Heart and Soul of the SJHL’ book, by Jamie Neugebauer. Book compiled by Rod Pedersen)
Clint Mylymok, an Ontario-born, California-raised ex-goalie who, with his brother Jeremy, attended Notre Dame as students and players in the late 1980s, was hired as the Hounds head coach and general manager in the summer of 2014. Clint had spent time as the head coach of the Dryden Ice Dogs of the Superior International Junior Hockey League between 2009 and 2011 and as an assistant to ND bench boss Kevin White in 2011-12, and when the job came open, he jumped at it.
He inherited a club that had just clipped the Nipawin Hawks in the first round and, despite an inconsistent regular season and another quarter-final loss to the Yorkton Terriers, seemed primed to turn results around. Under Mylymok’s tutelage in 2014-15, they produced a year the club won’t soon forget.
Backstopped by the talented former ND AA Argos goaltender Alexi Thibaudeau and a rock-solid defence-corps led by future Holy Cross (NCAA Division I) blue liner Spencer Trapp – another man who had worked his way up from the Notre Dame AA prep program – the Hounds gave up the second-fewest goals in the league during the regular season. It was a score-by-committee offence, with future University of Prince Edward Island forward Sam Aulie and Manhattanville College centreman Cory Anderson chipping in with enough offence to support Thibaudeau and company.
That regular season also saw the first of 124 Notre Dame Junior A appearances for Saskatoon native Kaleb Dahlgren, one of the survivors of the Humboldt Broncos bus crash of Apr. 6, 2018. Dahlgren’s character and talent earned him a spot with York University in Toronto for the 2018-19 season.
The Hounds earned the No. 4 seed entering the playoffs, finishing only two points off the Kramer Division-winning Kindersley Klippers, which meant a survivor-round bye and a quarter-final match-up with home-ice advantage against the Flin Flon Bombers. ND did things the hard way, needing a Game 7 overtime winner from depth winger Carter Hikichi, a Kelowna native who had scored only once during the regular campaign, to advance past the Manitobans. Mylymok’s men avenged Kindersley in Round 2, parlaying an offensive explosion from veteran winger Jared Martin and the Trapp above into a triumph in the conference final. In another overtime-clinching contest, the former scored the winner at the Duncan McNeill Arena on Apr. 5, 2015, to topple the Klippers in six games.
Notre Dame thus reached the SJHL final for the first time since they won it in 1988, and though the result was forgettable – a four-game sweep at the hands of a loaded Melfort Mustangs squad – the Hounds had shown what a club that fully bought into Mylymok’s system could do.
And while the platitudes of the Notre Dame man are at the forefront of what the Hounds Junior ‘A’ team is trying to accomplish, Mylymok knows that results and development have to be built hand-in-hand.
“Certainly, we’re here to develop great young men, as the Notre Dame man suggests, but we want to develop people and win,” says Mylymok.
“Alumni mostly feel the pressure since we don’t have the TV or local newspaper questioning our every move, so it is a different type of pressure than the other teams in the league. They want to ensure we’re competitive and moving people on to the next level, and they want to see the top players from our midget program get a chance to play for our Junior ‘A’ program. We find that we are an excellent fit for guys who plan on playing hockey at the collegiate level, and the Canadian and American schools love it because everything is right here: the weight room, the skill centre, the dorms; their life is pretty simple here, and that’s what schools like to hear.
Mylymok moved on from the school in 2018 and was followed by Phil Roy and finally Brett Pilkington, but there is little doubt he did much to fully modernize the Hounds Jr ‘A’ as an organization.
“They must always think about the great tradition,” he adds proudly.
“They will always want the guys to be aware of the great past and the foundation laid by Pere Murray. Over the years, we have proven that Notre Dame is a special place to launch you upward and onward if you treat it properly.”
