With the Cougars' roster for the 2026-27 season now set, the Mount Royal University men's hockey team welcomed two new members of the program, in goaltender Zach Zahara and forward Harry Ahlberg.
 
The Brooks Bandits alumni come to the Cougars with a hard fought championship mentality after winning the BCHL championship to close out the 2025-26 season.
 
Zahara and Ahlberg only spent one season together with the Bandits, but certainly made it a memorable one.
 
With Zahara growing up right here in Alberta and Ahlberg uprooting his life in Sweden to pursue hockey in Canada, the two took very different oaths to Brooks. However, their shared passion for the sport brought them together as Bandits and has now led them to take the next step in their hockey careers as Cougars.
 
Their time with the Bandits brought more than a Championship to both their lives, it taught them the mentality needed to get there.
 
"I would just say bring that winning culture over here," Zahara said. "Obviously, Brooks has that kind of pedigree where either you win or it's a failure type of season. So I feel like bringing that mindset over here and sharing my experiences with winning championships with the guys could go a long way."
 
For Ahlberg, that championship mentality starts long before the playoffs.
 
"How you want to play at the end of the season, you play the whole season through," Ahlberg said. "Because if you don't get the habits early, then you won't have the habits later."
 
It's a lesson the two learned first-hand during their championship run.
 
The Bandits were pushed to the brink of elimination during the postseason before finding a way to rally together. For Zahara, it wasn't just the wins that stood out from the run, but how close the team became when their season was on the line.
 
"I really think it's how tight our group came at the end of that series," Zahara said. "We kind of went through a rough patch in the second round... we were down 3-2 on the brink of elimination, and I just thought the group rallied around each other a lot."
 
That ability to come together carried Brooks into a championship series that featured four straight overtime games.
 
For Ahlberg, one of those overtime periods created a moment he won't soon forget.
 
During game 4 of Brooks' BCHL Championship run the Swedish forward received a late penalty call white the team was down in goals. With fans heckling and his coach making his frustration clear all the way from the Bandits bench, Ahlberg watched as his teammates were able to successfully kill off the penalty.
 
Not long after stepping on the ice, he had his opportunity to make up for it.
 
"I played with a great player, Isaac Johnson, he made a good play and I got a good scoring chance," Ahlberg said. "I was just really happy after that. I feel like you just kind of black out after that."
 
Ahlberg buried the overtime winner, putting Brooks one win away from the BCHL Championship.
 
While it was Ahlberg's first season in Canada, Zahara already knew exactly what it felt like to finish a season on top.
 
The goaltender entered the 2025-26 campaign as a defending champion after backstopping Brooks to a title the year before. But even with one championship already under his belt, Zahara said the second meant even more.
 
"To me, the second one was more special," Zahara said. "The second was definitely harder... everyone was out to get us the entire year, basically."
 
With the Bandits carrying a target on their backs, Zahara said the challenge became ignoring the noise surrounding the team and focusing on their ultimate goal.
 
"There's always a mark on your back," Zahara said. "Just trying to prove everyone wrong and not get too wound up in the media and what people say about Brooks. We're out to win."
 
Zahara's performance between the pipes throughout the postseason earned him playoff MVP honours — an individual accomplishment he is quick to share with the teammates in front of him.
 
"The accolades are nice. It's not everything to me," Zahara said. "I'd say my team helped me out quite a bit there, with bailing me out a couple times in overtime and whatnot."
 
Now, the championship celebrations are behind them and a new challenge has begun.
 
University hockey has already presented a noticeable jump for the two rookies, particularly when it comes to the speed, physicality and attention to detail needed at the U SPORTS level.
 
"Guys are men here," Zahara said. "You kind of have to adjust to that, and the attention to detail is so much higher. The margin for error is slim, so you have to be on your toes all the time."
 
For Ahlberg, the transition to Mount Royal is another step in a hockey journey that has already taken him across the world.
 
After growing up playing in Sweden, Ahlberg made the move directly to Brooks for his first taste of North American hockey. The smaller ice surface and more direct style of play required an adjustment from what he had grown accustomed to back home.
 
"It's more north to south here," Ahlberg said. "In Sweden, we play more of a possession game."
 
After adjusting to Canada alongside the Bandits, the move to Calgary comes with a little more familiarity. Ahlberg already knew several players before arriving at Mount Royal, including his former Brooks teammate.
 
"Coming over to Canada, I think it's really, really nice to know some people before you get here," Ahlberg said. "So that was really comfortable for me."
 
The two now trade their Bandits jerseys for Cougars blue and a junior hockey schedule for the life of a student-athlete.
 
For Zahara, finding success at Mount Royal will mean learning how to balance both sides of that new responsibility.
 
"There's a little bit more things on your plate being a student-athlete," Zahara said. "It's trying to find that balance of school and hockey... making sure that you're dialed in on both ends of the spectrum will go a long way in making sure that you can be the best version of yourself on and off the ice."
 
While their surroundings may be different, the mentality that Zahara and Ahlberg developed in Brooks isn't going anywhere.
 
The championship won't be won in September, but the habits needed to compete for one can start now.
 
"Everything you're doing this time of the year is setting you up for success come March and April," Zahara said. "Making sure details or championship habits are being implemented now, rather than waiting."
 
After finishing their time together in Brooks as champions, Zahara and Ahlberg are ready to see where those habits can take them as Cougars.