Covering first hockey game in over eight months felt good

The Stars and Bears tangle at the SaskTel Centre on Sunday.

I admit I set my expectations very low for the 2020-21 hockey campaign due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

For the longest time, I didn’t think I would cover a single game live during the current season. That changed on Sunday when I was able to make it to the SaskTel Centre to cover the Saskatoon Stars 7-2 SFU18AAAHL regular season home opening victory over their traditional rivals the Prince Albert Northern Bears.

I expected COVID-19 restrictions to be at the point that games during the 2020-21 hockey season would be played without fans and media would have to cover and even do play-by-play broadcasts of contests over a computer monitor as the game ran over a streaming service.

Jocelyn Fiala controls the puck for the Stars.

Of course with the COVID-19 restrictions in place in Saskatchewan at the moment, crowds for sporting events have to be capped at 150 persons. Still, games are being played, and some people are able to go to them.

Sunday marked the first hockey game I’ve covered live since March 12, when the Saskatoon Contacts fell 5-3 to the Moose Jaw Warriors in Game 3 of a best-of-five SMAAAHL semifinal series at Merlis Belsher Place. The Warriors swept that series 3-0.

Just about a couple of hours before that game was played, it was announced the rest of the minor hockey season for 2019-20 governed under the Hockey Canada umbrella would be cancelled the next day due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Brooklin Fry controls the puck at the point for the Bears.

Back on March 15, I took one last walk through Merlis Belsher Place as it was hosting a University of Saskatchewan Campus Recreation hockey tournament. Merlis Belsher Place was slated to close the next day, and that tour felt like a naval captain making a final walk around his ship before entering a battle where you expected the ship to get sunk.

Of course, Merlis Belsher Place in now a COVID-19 field hospital in waiting, and no one knows when it will be used as a sports facility again.

When I went to cover the clash between the Stars and Bears on Sunday, I planned on making the exercise as straightforward as possible and allow me to get my feet wet with working a game again. I went to the rink with a camera to shoot pictures of the game and a notepad to track developments in the contest.

Makena Kushniruk (#20) and Sydney Mercier (#20) jet up ice.

Since it was the first game I would cover in a little over eight months, I planned on writing a column on the contest and decided to not do any interviews at this point in time.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic hit, I would usually be bringing a laptop too, and I would have a work station set up in the press box.

On this trip to the SaskTel Centre, I sat in an assigned seat in the stands, which was set up fairly well for shooting pictures of the game. I was in the top row of the lower bowl.

Normally on trips to the SaskTel Centre, I would work games from the press box in the catwalk and cycle down to ice level to take pictures from the two shooting ports. Actually, I have usually shot pictures from all sorts of different points from the SaskTel Centre.

Paris Oleksyn works in the offensive zone for the Bears.

In these COVID-19 times, that would mean staff would have to sanitize everywhere I went. As a result, I was fine with picture taking being limited to one spot.

Over the years, I’ve gotten to know a few staffers at the SaskTel Centre, and I know they have to deal with a tonne of things they don’t normally deal with due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Of course, the obvious reminder that it was a different time on Sunday was the fact that everyone in the building wore facemasks as one of the COVID-19 public health protocols.

When the contest itself started and got going, my mind got back into the regular routine of covering a hockey game. I felt locked in to the ebbs and flows of the clash.

Kalli Hiebert starts a rush up ice for the Stars.

I covered a number of encounters between the Stars and Bears since moving to Saskatoon in the summer of 2014, so good memories of the past also went through my head as the game went on.

I thought Stars captain Makena Kushniruk and 17-year-old veteran forward Sydney Mercier had great games.

A lot of the players on the Stars had really good games, and I believed that 15-year-old rookie defender Jocelyn Fiala was really solid on the back end.

As strange as this sound, the Bears played a lot better than the 7-2 final score in the Stars favour would indicate. I thought their veterans like captain Paris Oleksyn and 16-year-old defender Paige Dawson were solid.

Paige Dawson controls the puck at the point for the Bears.

Brooklin Fry, who is a rookie 15-year-old defender, showed real well. Outside of hockey, Fry is the defending Saskatchewan junior women’s and amateur women’s golf champion.

Bears 15-year-old rookie goalie Brooke Archer was making her first career regular season start, and I think jitters and nerves might have affected her game. As she goes forward in her career, I think she will be a lot better and Sunday’s game will be something Archer can laugh about at some point in time.

While it was good to be at a live hockey game again, it was also fun to mingle with some of the people in the stands. Everyone was spaced out with the assigned seating and there was no hanging around on the concourse.

Stars F Kieanna Higgs, left, tries to get by Bears F Jasmine Kohl.

Mingling was restricted to who you could talk to from your seat. 

For me, that included talking to Steve Kook, who is the head coach of the University of Saskatchewan Huskies women’s hockey team, and Dave Westbury, who is the equipment manager of the Huskies women’s hockey team.

I got to visit with Julie Fiala and Evan Fiala as well. Julie, is Jocelyn’s mom and Evan is Jocelyn’s older brother. 

The Stars enjoyed the bulk of the goal celebrations on Sunday.

Evan used to be the captain of the WHL’s Saskatoon Blades and now plays defence for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies men’s hockey team.

My social bubble was pretty much limited to that foursome, but it was great to see them. I hadn’t seen any of them since March 12.

Since my last tour of Merlis Belsher Place, I had only been inside a hockey rink twice before going to the SaskTel Centre for Sunday’s game.

I had actually only seen a handful of people live in person from the hockey community before making Sunday’s game between the Stars and Bears.

In these COVID-19 times, there are no guarantees that upcoming games on any hockey schedule will be played. That thought crossed my mind on Sunday.

All set from my SaskTel Centre perch for Sunday’s game. 

Still, it was great to enjoy being at the rink and figures are crossed that won’t be the only venture to the rink this hockey season.

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

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