Brooms put on hold for Huskies

Dinos prevent sweep as Canada West looks unpredictable

Huskies forward Marley Ervine, left, battles Dino Iya Gavrilova for a draw.

  The University of Saskatchewan Huskies got a feel for just how unpredictable the Canada West women’s hockey ranks could be this season.

    Hosting the University of Calgary Dinos who limped into a pair of games at the ancient Rutherford Rink with an unexpected 0-2 mark, the Huskies picked up a solid 3-2 win on Friday night, but the Dinos collected their first victory of the season with a 3-2 comeback effort on Saturday.

    In Friday’s encounter, the Dogs led 2-0, 3-1 before holding to a 3-2 victory. Paige Anakaer, Marley Ervine and Hanna McGillvray scored for the Huskies. Chelsea Court and Stephanie Zvonkovic replied for the Dinos.

    Cassidy Hendricks made 18 saves to earn the win in goal for the hosts, while Sarah Murray turned away 27 shots taking the loss in goal for the visitors.

    The Huskies held the advantage in territorial play for lengthy stretches on Friday night and appeared strong. The Dinos didn’t looked like they would get a chance to make a rally until Zvonkovic pulled them to within 3-2 scoring with 63 seconds to play in the third.

    Despite the late goal to cut their edge to one, the hosts shut things down defensively to close out Friday’s victory in solid fashion.

Kori Herner gets set to wire home a goal for the Huskies.

    With having won their first three regular season games, the Huskies got out of the gate slow on Saturday. The Dinos took a 1-0 at the 6:02 mark of the first on a power-play goal from Iya Gavrilova, who was a member of Russia’s team at the 2014 Winter Olympics.

    As the opening 20 minutes came to a close, the Huskies started string together a series of strong back-to-back shifts to turn the tide.

    The hosts came out flying in the second and constantly crashed the Dinos net with solid scoring chances holding a 14-7 in the shots on goal department. Anakaer, who is the Huskies captain, tied things up at 1-1 just past with midway point of the frame with a gritty positive bounce goal.

    Kori Herner put the Dogs up 2-1 late in the second breaking down the left wing into the Calgary zone and wiring a shot past Dinos goaltender Hayley Dowling.

    The Huskies couldn’t hold the momentum as the Dinos answered back with two goals that seemed to come out of nowhere to go up 3-2. Court potted the equalizer at the 5:17 mark and Cheyann Newman picked up the winner at the 11:37 mark.

    The home side tried to push back, but the rally attempt was big time hampered when Huskies star defender Julia Flinton was tagged with a double minor for checking to the head with 5:49 to play in the third. The Huskies killed off the penalties, but couldn’t find the equalizer despite mounting pressure in the Dinos over the contest’s final 90 seconds.

Captain Paige Anakaer, middle, celebrates scoring for the Huskies.

    Jerrica Waltz made 26 stops to get tagged with the loss in the Huskies net, while Dowling turned away 29 shots to earn the win for the Dinos (1-3).

    While Saturday’s setback to the Dinos might have been a bit disappointing, the Huskies have to be happy they are off to a 3-1 start.

    Their next challenge should be an interesting one. This coming Friday and Saturday, they travel to Lethbridge to face the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns, who are off to a surprising 4-0 start with a pair for road sweeps over the University of British Columbia Thunderbirds in Vancouver and the University of Alberta Pandas in Edmonton.

    The Huskies have played fairly sound structurally in their first four outings. Going forward, they just have to keep finding ways to improve on a day-to-day basis, because it appears the Canada West conference is going to be up for the taking.

Sweet opening sweep

Jordon Cooke backstopped the Huskies to a pair of victories.

    The Huskies men’s hockey team seem to like variety when it comes to victory.

    The Dogs opened the regular season on the road in Calgary and swept away the Dinos, who are expected to be a powerhouse this season.

    On Friday, rookie forward Andrew Johnson scored 53 seconds into overtime to lift the Huskies to a 6-5 victory. Zak Stebner, Levi Cable, Michael Sofillas, John Lawrence and Kendall McFaull all netted singles in regulation for the Huskies. Spencer Edwards, Chris Collins, Kevin King, Dylan Walchuk and Elgin Pearce replied with singles for the Dinos.

    Jordon Cooke made 25 stops to earn the win in goal for the Huskies, while Steven Stanford turned away 23 shots taking the loss in the Dinos net.

    The wild affair saw the Dinos lead 2-0 after the first, and the Huskies hold leads of 3-2 and 4-3 in the second. The Dinos took a 5-4 edge in the third, before the Huskies forced overtime.

    On Saturday, Johnson scored a short-handed goal at the 11:36 mark of the second, and that proved to be the difference in a 1-0 victory. Cooke made 27 stops for his second career CIS shutout, while Myles Hovdebo turned away 21 shots taking the setback in the Dinos goal.

    The Huskies open their home schedule this coming Friday and Saturday when they host the Lethbridge Pronghorns (1-1) at 7 p.m. both nights at the Rutherford Rink.

    If you want to pass along any comments about this blog post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

The power of Kyle

Canadian soccer heroine Kaylyn Kyle hosted an uplifting camp in Saskatoon.

    For the young players that are heading to Kaylyn Kyle’s soccer camp in Regina, they are in for a treat, if the camp she held in Saskatoon is any indication.

    The Saskatoon product, who is a star on Canada’s national women’s soccer team, is hosting a skills camp on Saturday and Sunday in Regina at Evraz Place. On the weekend of Oct. 3 and 4, the prodigal daughter returned to her home city stomping grounds to host an extremely success event at the SaskTel Sports Centre.

    There were hundreds of youngsters filling out all the spots at the Saskatoon camp in the under-10, under-12, under-14 and under-16 age categories, and some traveled in from centres like Vancouver and Winnipeg. They all wanted to see a Canadian heroine.

    When you look at Kyle, you see an athlete that you feel should be up on a high pedestal for having the complete package like a Tom Brady. She has amazing natural athletic talent, her physical conditioning and fitness level is off the charts, and she is the image of perfect beauty.

Kaylyn Kyle offers words of encouragement to a young player.

    While she has all these incredible traits, her best characteristic is the fact she is human. The players at the Saskatoon camp seemed to be blown away by how personable and down to earth their hero was.

Kyle took on the coaching duties first hand. She did have a number of top rate soccer coaches out to help her, but she took the initiative in ensuring things ran well.

    The Saskatoon camp had five difference skill stations, and Kyle went from station to station demonstrating how things should be done and offering positive words of encouragement. Her comfort level was visibly high.

    It was obvious she was home, and there was a family atmosphere to the event. Helping out were her father, Doug, mother, Pat, and older sister, Courtnee. Due to the fact Kaylyn literally travels and plays all over the world, the soccer camp provided an opportunity for her to have some family time.

Her parents and older sister were outstanding to deal with, and it became easy to tell where Kaylyn, who turned 27 on Tuesday, got her personable side from.

Kaylyn Kyle demonstrates a drill at her Saskatoon soccer camp.

    The soccer star even admitted she couldn’t believe what she was seeing at her hometown camp. Kyle noted that she never had the chance to go to a camp like the one she hosted, and growing up playing soccer in “the Bridge City,” she never dreamed about hosting a skills camp let alone one that was well attended and extremely successful.

    When the sessions ended on the first day of her Saskatoon camp, Kyle held a question and answer session with the players and was pretty charismatic in answering some of the queries that were questions only kids would think about asking.

    She also signed autographs and took pictures with each player, and she never seemed to tire out in continuously have positive energy. Most people would have.

    Anyone that anything to do with Kyle’s camp in Saskatoon would have to conclude they had a great day. It is always cool when your hometown heroes can return, give back, and make people feel genuinely special.

    If you want to pass along any comments about this blog post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

Road destruction bashes Blades

Traffic leading to the SaskTel Centre has seen its share of congestion.

    If you smash it, it will keep the fans away.

    It seems the powers that control the roads leading to the SaskTel Centre are bent on making life difficult for the Saskatoon Blades these days, when it comes to attracting fans to their games. If you’ve tried to attend a WHL game at the rink located on the north end of the Bridge City, it might take you 30 minutes to move from the intersection of Idylwyld Drive and Circle Drive to reach the rink at the worst of times due to the road construction that surrounds the facility. Normally, that trip should take you 10 minutes at its worst and five minutes at its best.

    The biggest construction problem is the overpass located just south of the rink that helps traffic flow down Highway 11 and the Yellowhead Highway has been completely shut down since about the start of August. The maintenance required to fix that overpass is so bad that it is still under construction.

    To make matters worse, the Idylwyld Service road between 60^th Street and Marquis Drive is under construction. Combine that with a handful of other construction projects going on in the north industrial sector makes driving in the area of the SaskTel Centre a nightmare, as traffic congests on the untouched arteries. In another frustrating twist, most of these projects have sprung up during September.

    First, there is no debate the road improvements are needed. With that said, people have to wonder why those in charge with making road construction plans for the City of Saskatoon decided to do so many things at once late in the construction season. If you live on the prairies, you know starting at any time from right now there could be a freak snowfall and full out winter can strike at any time.

    For the Blades, the construction has to be viewed as a big thing that has hurt early regular season attendance. When Mike Priestner and his family took over ownership of the hockey team before the 2013-14 season, the office staff they brought in have been working tirelessly to make going to Blades games a fun experience.

    As the team was rebuilding from hosting the 2013 Memorial Cup and making a big blockbuster trade to land Brayden Schenn for the 2011 post-season run, the Blades management crew knew there were going to be rough times on the ice during a rebuilding phase.

A view of the ripped up overpass just south of the SaskTel Centre.

    They were having success selling the fun aspect of going to games with various in-rink promotions and theme nights. While finishing last overall in the WHL last season, they drew 6,718 spectators to their second last regular season game and 8,929 spectators to their final home date.

In past years, it was common for about 2,300 to attend those final games, if the Blades were out of the playoff picture.

    Going into the current campaign, there was excitement the Blades were going to see more tangible results from their rebuild on ice being guided by second-year head coach and general manager Bob Woods and assistant coach Dean Brockman. There also had to be expectations that the Blades could carry the draws of the big crowds from last season into the current campaign.

    They drew 4,780 for their regular season opener on Sept. 25, when they dumped the Prince Albert Raiders 7-2.

    Unfortunately, those that live in Saskatoon know how fickle the residents of the city can be, and the hassles caused by road construction will keep people away. Some will note early regular season attendance at Blades games is traditionally low, but the construction projects will play a huge reason to keep people away. Even opposing team bus drivers are finding it cumbersome to navigate their way to the rink.

    Attendance quickly dropped after the opener. Last Friday, the paid attendance for the Blades 3-2 overtime loss to the Medicine Hat Tigers was 3,550. On Sunday, the announced paid attendance was 3,506 for the 5-4 overtime setback to the Vancouver Giants. There were definitely a lot of no shows for the Giants game, because you could almost park right up beside the facility about five minutes before puck drop.

    The Blades are in action again on Wednesday, when they host the Kootenay Ice at 7 p.m. at the SaskTel Centre.

    On the plus side, the Blades have been exciting over their first four games posting a win and three overtime losses to gain five out of a possible eight points in the standings. If they are in the thick of the playoff picture by midseason when all the construction shouldn’t be a worry, they will have a huge chance to attract a lot of curious onlookers.

    Since the Priestners took over, it feels like the Blades have been given a restart. When the first real exciting playoff push comes, it is possible to envision fans jumping on board with big enthusiasm, because everything will feel new again.

WHL hopes new program has big impact on players off ice

    The WHL took a step forward in helping players respond to the day-to-day challenges they face away from the game.

    Working in partnership with the Calgary Police Service, the league launched the WHL Player Impact Program on Monday which will give players new comprehensive training and education in regards to topics like responsible social media use, relationships and consent, drugs and alcohol, gambling, diversity issues and how they looked upon to be positive role models.

    The program will be delivered by a WHL club liaison officer through the WHL Security Network, which was formed last season to provide players guidance with off-ice issues.

    Any steps the league takes to help players away from the rink has to be viewed as a good thing. With the WHL containing players aged from 16 to 20, they are still in a stage where they will encounter a lot of life challenges for the first time, so any type of fallback they can have will be beneficial.

    As far as topics like social media use and diversity issues, it is quite easy for players and people in general in this age group to say something they didn’t mean to be offensive come out accidentally sounding that way. Any help with pitfalls in that area has to be appreciated.

    Here is hoping this program will help players with their lives away from the game.

Catching up with Lazaruk

Les Lazaruk in the press box.

    I caught up with Saskatoon Blades play-by-play voice Les Lazaruk for a Saskatoon Express feature this week.

    Lazaruk has been calling Blades games on the radio since the start of the 1994-95 season. 

    He got his start in media working in print, which saw him hold short stints writing for the Winnipeg Free Press and the defunct Winnipeg Tribune. 

    He is viewed as one of the broadcasters in the league, and he had called 1,584 contests heading into the 2015-16 campaign.

    You can check out the story on Lazaruk right here.

Home sweet home for Hilltops

Evan Kopchynski is back in action for the Hilltops.

    All roads through the Canadian Junior Football League playoffs will lead through Saskatoon.

    The defending CJFL champion Saskatoon Hilltops locked up home field advantage through the 2015 post-season by bombing the Wildcats in Edmonton 41-17 on Sunday. The Toppers improved to 7-0 and will finish first overall in the Prairie Football Conference. The PFC champ will also host the CJFL title game, the Canadian Bowl, this season, so the Hilltops have officially finished off their road schedule.

    Against the Wildcats, quarterback Jared Andreychuk completed 10-of-25 passes for 254 yards and three touchdown passes, while only throwing one interception. Running back Logan Fischer carried the ball 18 times for 153 yards scoring one major.

    Receiver Evan Kopchynski hauled in five passes for 134 yards scoring two touchdowns. Kopchynski had been out of the Saskatoon lineup since Sept. 5, when he injured his knee in a home win over the Regina Thunder.

    Matt Kozun and Blake Adams both had sacks for Saskatoon on the defensive side of the ball. Including action in the regular season and playoffs, the Hilltops have won 15 straight games.

    With one week to play in the PFC regular season, the playoff picture is pretty much set. The Hilltops, Thunder (5-2), Calgary Colts (4-3) and Winnipeg Rifles (3-4) will advance to the post-season. The Wildcats (1-6) and Edmonton Huskies (1-6) are officially out of playoff contention.

    The Hilltops will host one PFC semifinal, and the Thunder, who have locked up second place, will host the other semi. The Colts and Rifles could flip spots for third and fourth place depending on the results of the final week of the regular season.

    The Hilltops will close their regular season schedule this coming Sunday, when they host the Colts at 1 p.m. at Saskatoon Minor Football Field.

Men’s hockey Huskies get going

Matthew Spafford is entering his final season with the Huskies.

    The University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team officially start their regular season this coming weekend.

    They travel to Calgary this coming Friday and Saturday to face the University of Calgary Dinos. The Huskies first two appearances at home come Oct. 16 and 17, when they host the University of Lethbridge Pronghorns at 7 p.m. on both nights at the ancient Rutherford Rink.

    The Dogs will lean a bit more on the young side this year as forward Matthew Spafford and defenceman Zak Stebner are the only two players in their fifth year of eligibility. Both are strong character guys who will provide a lot of leadership in the dressing room. The team also includes only two fourth-year players in forward Jesse Ross and goaltender Blake Voth, who returns after taking a season off.

    U of S brings in 10 first year player, and the class include a number of former WHL players including Kohl Bauml, who potted 30 goals for the Everett Silvertips last season, and Levi Cable, who netted 28 goals last season for the Kootenay Ice.

    The Huskies women’s hockey team is back in action this weekend looking to build on their 2-0 record. They host the Dinos this Friday and Saturday at the Rutherford Rink at 7 p.m. on both nights.

So you want to go into media?

    If you want to enter the Canadian media industry, be warned that it is quite a battle where you seem to be constantly trying to survive in the short term.

    The other day I was checking over the list of names from my 25-person graduation class from the University of Regina’s School of Journalism and Communications as it was then known. I officially received my degree in the year 2000.

    Out of the 25-person graduation class, I know of nine people who are still in the mainstream media. There are five people who have moved on to other walks of life not media related. There are 10 others I don’t know what fate has sent their way, but if they are like me, they are no longer in the mainstream media or in the media at all.

    The most famous names from my class are Ken Wiebe, who is the Winnipeg Jets beat writer for the Winnipeg Sun, and Bonnie Allen, who is a standout with CBC.

    Most media programs try to create their literature that says you can have a career like Wiebe and Allen have had, but that is far from the case. Both of them are the rare exception of the fact they are extremely talented, and the doors often opened for them in a timely fashion.

    With the way the media industry in Canada is these days, you chances of getting a real break to be in a position to make an impact that matters shrinks by the day. When you are on the journey to get that break, you have to be lucky enough to avoid the pitfalls you have no control over that will see you fall out of the industry.

    If you are just getting into the industry, I predict you will you will be out of it in five years. If someone was looking to start a media career in Canada, I would advise them to do something else, but if you do follow the path, find something else to do if you don’t become “The Golden Person” type star within five years.

    I just wanted to throw my two cents into the picture as food for thought on that subject.

Happy birthday Enner

    Leaving off on high note, I want to wish a big happy 26^th birthday to former Medicine Hat Tigers forward and current member of the NHL’s Buffalo Sabres Tyler Ennis.

    Ennis once scored six goals in one night, when the Tigers downed the Prince Albert Raiders 6-2 at     The Arena in Medicine Hat. Those highlights are always cool to look at, and with the legendary Bob Ridley making the call, they can be found by clicking here.

    If you want to pass along any comments about this blog post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

Sweet homecoming for Molleken

Lorne Molleken (centre) mans the Vancouver Giants bench.

    Lorne Molleken emerged from the Vancouver Giants dressing room and had to immediately start hugging SaskTel Centre staffers who saw him.

    It was pretty easy to see the 59-year-old Regina product, who is the Giants head coach, spent 14 seasons in the Bridge City with the Saskatoon Blades as either the team’s head coach, general manager or holding both titles. Besides meeting building staffers after the Giants 5-4 overtime victory on Sunday over the host Blades, Molleken had a large number of family and friends waiting to see him including former Blades owner Jack Brodsky. Brodsky was waiting for his long-time pal outside the Giants dressing room in a golf shirt and jeans as opposed to the suit and tie he usually wore to games as the top boss of “the Bridge City Bunch.”

    Molleken admitted it was different being on the visitor’s bench at the SaskTel Centre, but he said he had been around so long a familiar feeling would come back no matter where he was in the building noting there was a time the current visitor’s bench was the Blades bench.

    “For a long time, we used this dressing room as our home dressing room back in the early 90s,” said Molleken, who is the Blades all-time career leader in coaching victories at 539 and winning percentage at .591. “This city has always treated myself and our family extremely well, especially the Brodsky family that I worked for, for a long, long time.

    “To sort of comeback and walk through the doors of this building, it is special, because I’ve got lots of great memories here with this rink.”

    The veteran bench boss was with the Blades during two stints from 1991-95 and 2004-2014. For most of the second stint, Molleken was both the club’s head coach and general manager, but he gave up the head coaching role following the 2012-13 campaign, when the Blades hosted the Memorial Cup.
    During the 2013 off-season, the team was sold by the Brodsky family to the Priestner family, and Molleken stayed on for one last campaign before mutually parting ways with the new ownership group, who wanted to go in another direction with management and coaching.

    After a year out of the major junior ranks, Molleken became the head coach of the Giants this past off-season. While he arrived at the SaskTel Centre with a different team, Molleken said being in the Blades long-time home brought back a lot of good memories of the quality players and people he coached.

    The list of players he worked with included the likes of Norm Maracle, Rhett Warrener, David Struch, the late Wade Belak, Frank Banham and Andy MacIntyre in his first stint to Devin Setoguchi, Derek Hulak, Braden Holtby, Connor Cox, Darren Dietz and Nelson Nogier in his second stint. That list of names could obviously be much more lengthy.

The scrum occurs in front of the Giants net.

    “I look back and I look up in the rafters and teams that I’ve coached, we have some banners up there,” said Molleken, who guided the Blades to Game 7 setbacks in the 1992 and 1994 WHL championship finals. “I look back, and I had a chance to visit Daryl Lubiniecki before the game. He was a great general manager here (during Molleken’s stint in the 1990s).

    “He provided us with a lot of real character hard working players. That is the way our team played here for a lot of years, and it was very successful.”

    Molleken admitted the big pain from those years was the fact the Blades never won the league title and the Memorial Cup. His second stint guiding the team was littered with first and second round playoff exits.

    While the big trophies were never won, those looking in from an objective standpoint would have to conclude Molleken put in a true and honest effort to build a team in Saskatoon that went all the way. He knows that in the world of sports ultimate victory might not be achieved, even if you put in the honest effort.

    Even knowing that, Molleken said those ultimate victories of winning a league title and a Memorial Cup, which never came, feel like those missing things.

    “For the city and the Brodsky family, it would have put the icing on the cake,” said Molleken. “Winning in this league is very difficult.

    “The disappointing part was when we had some teams that we thought that we could be real successful with, (and) we didn’t have any success in the playoffs. That is the disappointing part when I look back, and I know how disappointed our fans were also.”

    On Sunday, Molleken’s current team and former team battled in a back-and-forth contest, where each side carried play for lengthy stretches before 3,506 spectators. At the 1:50 mark of overtime, Giants left-winger Jakob Stukel potted the winning goal on a beauty of an individual effort.

    Carter Popoff, Matt Barberis, Dakota Odgers and Ty Ronning netted singles for the Giants in regulation. Lukas MacKenzie, Jake Kustra, Cameron Hebig and Ryan Graham replied with singles for the Blades. MacKenzie and Kustra potted their first career WHL goals, and Graham scored the equalizer that sent the contest to overtime with 20.8 seconds to play in the third.

    Cody Porter made 39 stops to earn the win in goal for the Giants, while Brock Hamm turned away 32 shots to take the overtime setback for the Blades (1-0-3).

    The Giants were 1-for-4 with the power play, while the Blades were 2-for-8 with the man advantage.

    Vancouver improved to 3-0-1 with the win, and Molleken’s career regular season coaching record including time spent with the Moose Jaw Warriors and Regina Pats grew to 606-391-73. His win total is the second highest in WHL history trailing only the 742 victories put up by Ken Hodge, who guided the original Edmonton Oil Kings/Portland Winterhawks franchise.

The Giants celebrate their OT winning goal against the Blades.

    During his career, Molleken developed a reputation for being one of the classiest persons in the league, who always gave a solid and accurate post-game interview win or lose that often recognized that fact two teams were out there trying to win a game. That characteristic was on display again following Sunday’s clash between the Giants and Blades.

    “It was an exciting afternoon, obviously,” said Molleken, who was given a video tribute by the Blades early in the contest. “We win the hockey game, but more so, I thought that our guys played pretty well five on five.

    “We took some penalties tonight that hurt us, (but) give Saskatoon a lot of credit. They are team that kept battling and battling and battling. We were fortunate to find a way to win a hockey game.”

    If you have any comments you want to pass along about this blog post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

New and old power Huskies sweep

The Huskies celebrate a goal from Marley Ervine (#9) on Saturday.

    It seemed like everyone had a part in bringing out the brooms, when the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team opened their Canada West regular season.

    The Huskies swept a two-game series against the visiting Mount Royal University Cougars on Friday and Saturday night at the ancient Rutherford Rink and the contributions of both rookies and veterans were key to the early success. That will be a theme the Huskies hope to build upon as the 2015-16 campaign progresses due to the fact their roster contains nine rookies along with a large contingent of holdovers from the 2013-14 Canada West championship winning team.

    Friday’s 2-1 victory was aided by the efforts of the newcomers. Before the Huskies rookies could come through with big moments, Maggie Shykula-Ross gave the Cougars an early 1-0 edge.

    The hosts answered back before the opening 20 minutes expired. Rookie defender Morgan Willoughby, who was the former captain of the Prince Albert A & W Bears midget AAA team, potted a goal on a Huskies power play to tie things up at 1-1 going into the first intermission.

Jerrica Waltz earned her first shutout victory for the Huskies on Saturday.

    After a scoreless second, rookie forward Brooklyn Haubrich, who is a graduate of the Swift Current Wildcats midget AAA squad, netted the winner for the Huskies on another power-play chance.

    Fourth-year veteran goaltender Cassidy Hendricks made 23 stops to up her Huskies team record for career victories to 35. Jess Ross turned away 27 shots to take the setback in the Cougars net.

While the rookies accounted for the big moments in Friday’s win, the veterans came through in Saturday’s 2-0 follow up victory.

    The Huskies opened up the scoring in Saturday’s win with their third power-play goal of the weekend. Marley Ervine and Kaitlin Willoughby combined to set up fourth-year forward Rachel Johnson for her first goal of the season at the 13:58 mark of the opening frame. The tally was a big one for Johnson, who missed most of the second half of last season with an anterior cruciate ligament tear in her knee.

    Ervine, who is in her fifth year of eligibility, fired home an insurance goal in the second roofing a shot top corner on Cougars goaltender Emma Pincott, who turned away 27 shots taking the loss in the Mount Royal net.

Huskies captain Paige Anakaer (#11) tries to poke a puck home.

    Early in the third period, Cougars forward Rachel Piitz almost got her team back in the game wiring a shot off the post. The was the closest the visitors came to beating Huskies sophomore netminder Jerrica Waltz, who made 25 saves to earn her first career Canadian Interuniversity Sport regular season shutout.

    Overall on Saturday, the Huskies played good structural game, but they did go through the odd stretches where they were pinned in their own zone.

    The Dogs couldn’t have asked for any better results from their special teams. They were 3-for-6 on the power play and killed off all four shorthanded situations they faced over two games.

    The Huskies return to action this coming Friday and Saturday, when they host the University of Calgary Dinos (0-2) at 7 p.m. on both nights at the Rutherford Rink.

    If you have any comments to pass along about this blog post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

Owre redemption equals Tigers victory

The Medicine Hat Tigers celebrate Steven Owre's overtime winner.

    Steven Owre went from goat to hero in a matter of minutes for the Medicine Hat Tigers.

    The 19-year Rocklin, California, product had what appeared to be a costly interference penalty in the final seconds of third period, with his club locked in a 2-2 draw in a WHL clash with the host Saskatoon Blades on Friday night. The infraction also wiped out the final seconds of a Medicine Hat power play.

    As the two clubs went into overtime, Owre had to wait for 97 seconds in the sin bin, as his team killed off a Blades four-on-three man advantage.

    Right after his penalty expired, the Tigers gained possession of the puck in their own zone. On a breakout, Ty Stanton and Cole Sandford teamed up to spring Owre into the Blades zone, and he slipped home a backhand shot to give the Tabbies a 3-2 victory before 3,550 spectators at the SaskTel Centre.

    Owre’s first goal of the season put a damper on a spectacular outing by Blades goaltender Brock Hamm, who made 35 saves in the setback. Hamm’s play was extremely key in getting the Blades to overtime, as he turned away 13-of-14 shots in the third period as the hosts found themselves pinned in their own zone for lengthy stretches.

Brock Hamm made 35 saves for the Blades.

    Saskatoon jumped out to a 2-0 in the first. Russian left-winger Nikita Soshnin netted his first of the season potting a power-play goal off a rebound from a Libor Hajek shot to give the Blades a 1-0 edge. With 1:33 to play in the opening frame, the Blades centre Cameron Hebig forced a turnover in the centre ice zone creating a two on nothing break into the Medicine Hat end. He fed a pass overtime linemate Ryan Graham, who put the host side up 2-0.

    The Tigers, who have made the WHL playoffs for 13 straight years and have advanced to at least the second round in 12 of those campaigns, began the rally in the second. They got on the scoreboard just past the midway point of the frame, when centre Matt Bradley slipped a pass across the front of the Saskatoon goal to linemate Chad Butcher, who fired the puck into an empty cage to cut the Blades lead to 2-1.

    After a fairly even first 40 minutes, the Tigers took over territorial play in the third outshooting the Blades 14-3 in the third. Just 2:32 into the third, 17-year-old centre Mason Shaw potted the equalizer for the Tigers deflecting home a pass from Max Gerlach to lock the contest into a 2-2 draw.

    Medicine Hat continued to press for the go-ahead goal, but couldn’t get the winner past Hamm until overtime.

Blades winger Ryan Graham tries to screen Tigers goalie Nick Schneider.

    During a four-on-three penalty kill in overtime, the Tigers did a strong job collapsing around their net preventing the Blades from getting a decent shot on goal.

    Nick Schneider made 20 saves to earn the win for the Tigers, who improved to 2-1. The Blades record moved to 1-0-2.

    The Tigers return to action Saturday, when they travel to Prince Albert to face the Raiders (7 p.m., Art Hauser Centre). The Blades host the Vancouver Giants on Sunday (2 p.m., SaskTel Centre).

    If you have any comments to pass along about this blog post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.

The Sermon over a year old and still going

Me just out relaxing and enjoying the day.

    Like your typical guy, I am bad at observing anniversaries.

    I almost forgot to mark the creation day of this blog. The first post on Stanks’ Sermon blog came back on Aug. 29, 2014, and it marked my thoughts about settling down in Saskatoon. I am just over a month late in recognizing the one-year anniversary for this site, but it is better late than never.

    This will be the 121^st unique entry to Stanks’ Sermon, and I just passed 25,000 page views in total, which includes views from a number of high ranking officials from various sports teams. The fact I would make that many entries or attract that many page views were both unexpected. I figured this might be a side project, but it seems to be turning into a focus.

    When I moved to Saskatoon to be closer to family, I figured I would basically be retired from covering sports after leaving the Medicine Hat News. I expected to arrive in Saskatoon, get a communications, public relations or an office administrative position with a company like Cameco or PotashCorp and disappear into the background of real life as an ordinary person not in the public view.

    I know a lot of my friends from the media field figured I would end up in the communications and public relations field upon my arrival to Saskatoon. From there, I would figure out how I would be involved in the sports community.

    In real life, plans don’t work out as cookie cutter like that. Since arriving in The Bridge City, I have applied for numerous communications positions in town with various organizations. Going back to the start of August of 2014, I have had only three career related job interviews. Of those three career related interviews, one was with an organization in another centre.

    While talking to about three friends similar to myself who are trying to land a position in the communications and public relations field, they also seem to be running into the same roadblocks. Those positions seem to be used by organizations or companies to satisfy unwritten equal opportunity employment ratio numbers. In other words, you need to be from a visible minority group or female to even be considered for such work.

    If you are a Caucasian male in your later 30s, it seems like you shouldn’t even try to apply. I have even had the odd bud from football joke I should look into becoming like Caitlyn Jenner to get work in the communications and public relations field.

    From there, I naturally moved to find freelance work with various entities as a writer and a photographer. Becoming a freelance journalist was something that wasn’t in the plans.

    I did kick tires sending resumes to various local media outlets to see if they needed a writer or a photographer. Even broadcast outlets have former print reporters managing website content, but in the media’s budget cut era, I wasn’t expecting too much, even with the fact I have been in media in some form since 1996.

    I sent resumes to, in no particular order, the StarPhoenix, CTV Saskatoon, Global Saskatoon, the Saskatoon Media Group, CBC Saskatoon, 650 CKOM, Planet S and the Verb Magazine. Outside of getting an email from a StarPhoenix human resources representative in June, I didn’t get a sniff from any of them. As I was living with family, I figured I put myself in position to work under the hometown discount, which would help my employment chances in the media’s budget cut era.

    I have friends who ended up with positions in mainstream media outlets in Calgary and Edmonton due to the fact they moved there before applying or they already lived there.

    My disappointment on that front wasn’t too large. I know how stressed the media situation is in Canada, and I know a lot of great people work at the Saskatoon based outlets.

    The coolest thing that happened to me on the media front was reconnecting with Cam Hutchinson, who is the editor of the Saskatoon Express weekly publication. He was the long-time managing editor at the StarPhoenix, which included the period I worked there on an internship. I became a regular contributor to the Express.

    The Express contains a number of former StarPhoenix staffers, and they are spectacular when it comes to looking at my copy.

    Hutchinson had also gone public with his battles with anxiety, and he became a great person to talk to on that front. I have also long gone public with my battles regarding issues with anxiety, which started due to workplace mental health issues that arose during my final years at the Medicine Hat News.

    Hutchinson has been one of two people in the media industry that I feel have really understood what I have gone through. The other has been Gregg Drinnan in Kamloops, who is the ultimate veteran when it comes to covering the WHL and regularly tries to shed light on mental health issues in his Taking Note blog.

    In Hutchinson’s case, he has been great when it comes to offering reassuring words. It is also great to have someone in town you can go out for a coffee with to talk about mental health issues.

    The fact I have come forward with my mental health battles does kind of stick somewhat in the back of my mind of being the reason I don’t get interviewed for communications and public relations positions. I have often been told by people dealing with their mental health battles that it is a career and job killer to talk about these issues, due to the stigma that surrounds mental health issues.

    That actually jumped to the forefront of my mind during one of my career related interviews. Back in February, I interviewed for a media position with the department of Advancement and Community Engagement at the University of Saskatchewan.

Me checking out action at Saskatoon Minor Football Field.

    Going into the interview, I had this plan all figured out for the question, “What was the biggest change you ever faced in your career?”

    I had a strategy to talk about what I encountered on the mental health front in the workplace, and how that it was a big thing for me to find a way to overcome that challenge. I had a very minimal idea or education what to do on the mental health front just four years earlier.

    During the interview, a question came up regarding how do I deal with times that are extremely busy. When I heard that question, I figured that wasn’t much of a question. If anyone could see a video of my time at the News, they could see that every shift was hyper busy during my last two years there and that dealing with the world is caving in scenario got to the point it was an ordinary, everyday thing.

    I decided in my mind let’s stop daintily dancing around the soft question and get to the hard one. I said that being busy wasn’t a problem for me, because life was always busy at the News. I then said the biggest challenge I faced came on the mental health front.

    After I said what had happened to me, the four woman panel that interviewed me gave me this stunned, shocked look. My first reaction to that was I should have never brought up my mental health story.

    My mind then drifted into thoughts about educated stereotypes. My mind started thinking if a four woman panel interviewing me for a position at a major university can give me this look I am really screwed, because women traditionally are a little more caring and emotional than men and major universities are supposed to be forward thinking places.

    In evaluating that whole interview, I felt I didn’t perform well enough on an overall standard. I believe I was good, but I needed to be great, spectacular or impressive. One of my former media colleagues from another centre got that position, and I do have to conclude that was an extremely good hire.

    Even with that in mind, the reaction to when I brought up the mental health issues sticks in my mind. Looking back, I just should have answered the question about how I deal with being busy.

    To supplement the income from freelancing and money that comes in from this blog, I have been working temporary contract positions through Kelly Services. I started off with mainly office work, but have doing more warehouse assignments lately, which means I have put on steel toed footwear for the first time in about 19 years.

    All the work environments I have encountered through Kelly Services have been positive ones, which have been big in helping me. Since my mental health problems started due to troubles in the work environment, it was important for me to regain the experience of feeling safe leaving my place of residence and going to a work site.

    In these positions, I also met a number of other people who dealt with troubles in other work environments where employers hired outright street creatures to letting unthinkable things get overlooked like personal theft between employees or theft from the company as two examples. They were happy to find a better environment as well. On a side note, I applied to some of the companies my temporary co-workers talked about, posted the highest score on an employee assessment one company had ever seen, but still didn’t land a job.

    During my ups and downs on those fronts and feeling like I am being left behind in the game of life compared to my friends, I always had this blog. I used it to document cool stuff regarding in random order the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, the Saskatoon Hilltops, the Saskatoon Blades, the Saskatoon Valkyries, a UFC card and a couple of NHL exhibition games.

    It would be cool if creating this blog could become a full-time thing, and with that said, I eventually need to put in work on the advertising front. Actually, if I averaged getting a dollar for every page view that occurred, I could get away with writing this blog and relying on freelance work for income.

    The highlight moment with this blog so far has been writing about the Saskatoon Stars of the Saskatchewan Female Midget AAA Hockey League, whose roster contains my young cousin Danielle Nogier. Nogier’s presence on the team is honestly the only reason I discovered the Stars and their talented young and energetic bunch. Last season, they won the female title at the Mac’s tournament, their first SFMAAAHL title and bronze at the Esso Cup national championship tournament.

    During my life, I would consider myself not to be the greatest family guy. Heck, I lived 13 straight years in centres that didn’t contain family before moving to Saskatoon.

    I was able to be at the Agriplace Arena the night the Stars won the league title, and the big personal highlight was getting to snap a picture of my cousin skating around the ice with the championship banner. I have covered and lived through a number of highlight moments in sports, but I can count on one hand the number of times those moments included family members. As sports is my passion, it was cool, special and different in a very good way for me to see one of Danielle’s big moments.

    One of the reason’s I came to Saskatoon was to experience a moment like the Stars winning a league title, even if I didn’t know that when I made the move here.

    I have to remember I arrived with the goal to live in Saskatoon. I believe I am a community minded person, which comes from the influence of former University of Regina Rams head coach Frank McCrystal, and my university days involved with the teams at the University of Regina. Thinking about those years and the old rivalry between Regina and Saskatoon, I don’t think McCrystal could imagine anyone going to Saskatoon to try and have a positive impact there. Lol.

    While my living is a modest one since arriving in the Bridge City, I have been able to buy my own $1,000 ticket to the One Voice Fundraiser, attend the Dogs’ Breakfast, take part in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge, give to the Canadian Cancer Society, donate money to the late Cody Smuk in his battle with cancer, support the scholarship fund for the U of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team, attend the Saskatoon Hilltops PotashCorp Pitchfork Fondue and pass money on to the Hilltops scholarship fund.

My young cousin Danielle Nogier and the SFMAAAHL title banner.

    On the out of town front due to longstanding links I have made, I have made small donations to Dorothy Drinnan’s participation in the Kidney Walk in Kamloops and to Medicine Hat News sports editor Sean Rooney for his participation in the Extra Life fundraiser in Medicine Hat to supports children’s hospitals nationally. Of course, I am still making donations to the Rams scholarship fund, which is something I have been doing since leaving Regina in 2001.

    The One Voice Fundraiser to support the Neural Health Project at the U of Saskatchewan, which looks to find a more complete approach to treat mental illnesses, was the one big night I felt like I was an on top superstar again. I wrote a blog post to advance that fundraiser telling my mental health story, and I felt from the people I met that night it was really well received. The warm feeling I had at TCU Place that night was something I wish I could constantly carry with me.

    I thank all of those who have invested in me in some way and have followed this blog, so that I can give back.

    My goal is to remain in Saskatoon, and hopefully, continue to be more of a positive influence. For now, this blog isn’t going away and neither am I.

    I hope you will continue to follow what I write. I enjoy writing stories mainly from the sports side of this community, and I will continue on as long as there is an audience that checks out what I do.

    If you have any comments you want to pass on about this blog post, feel free to email them to stankssports@gmail.com.