By Kevin Scott
GREAT FALLS, Mont., June 4, 2015 —The Great Falls Americans, a member of the North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) are pleased to announce the hiring of Clayton Jardine as an Associate Coach and Assistant General Manager for the Junior A hockey team.
Jardine, a native of Lacombe, Alberta, Canada comes to Great Falls after playing at the collegiate level for the Merrimack Warriors, an NCAA Division I school located in North Landover, Massachusetts. He played all four years and led his team to the Hockey East Quarterfinals during the 2014-15 season before falling to Boston University, a top-ranked team who made it to the NCAA Frozen Four this season. Both Boston University and eventual Frozen Four champion, Providence are also members of the Hockey East Association along with the Warriors. They finished this past season with a 16-18-4 record.
Before reaching the hockey quarterfinals, the Warriors swept Northeastern in two games in the opening round of the Hockey East Conference playoffs. Jardine scored three goals and accumulated 18 assists in 109 contests in his four year career at the Massachusetts school.
Prior to this collegiate experience, he played at the junior hockey level for the Camrose Kodiaks from the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) from 2007-2011 and found the back of the net 49 times and racked up 76 assists. His best performance came during his final season with the Kodiaks as he came away with 18 goals and 24 assists in 54 games.
The Canadian forward and Criminology major was a team captain for Camrose in 2011 when the Kodiaks hosted the RBC Cup, which is the Canadian National Junior A Hockey Tournament. The Alberta squad made it to the league final of the Alberta League and an automatic bid to the national tournament where they lost in the semifinals to Pembroke Lumber Kings, who won the tournament.
“I’m looking forward to getting my feet wet (as a first-year coach) and gaining some coaching experience as well as joining a first class organization with the Americans that owner Jim (Keough) and head coach Jeff (Heimel) have placed here,” said the newest member of the Americans coaching staff. “I want to help in any way I can to support this team and see if we can have another fantastic season this year.”
The 2015 graduate of Merrimack College is already in town gearing up for the upcoming 2015-16 season with the Americans.