The Richardson Pioneer Wavern Red Wings played their first game in their temporary home last night as they took to the ice in Assiniboia against the visiting Kindersley Klippers.
"When you look at the spirit of community here in Assiniboia and in particular the leadership of Curtis Nelson, this is a wonderful facility, and it's really great to not only have a facility like this for the Red Wings and the community of Weyburn, but also to showcase the SJHL and it's a great venue," said SJHL Commissioner Kyle McIntyre, who made the trek to Assiniboia for the game. "There's a pretty good crowd here tonight, about 500 people. I suspect tomorrow night there will be even more."
The Red Wings showed tribute to the town that has taken them in for the remainder of the month while Crescent Point Place is under repairs in a few ways. One, is they are unofficially the Assiniboia-Weyburn Red Wings. Another way was the team wearing the jerseys of the Assiniboia Rebels of the Notekeu Hockey League for warmups.
"We're pretty excited," said Erin Betson. Her son Blake is the captain of the Red Wings. "It was pretty amazing to think that a town and a community that's a little bit on the small side was able to find places for all of our players and just take them all in. So it was pretty exciting. It was worrisome at first but it's turned out really well."
Any concerns about the facilities were quickly assuaged as things turned out to be fantastic as they hosted an SJHL for the second time this season after the Red Wings had played here earlier this season in a neutral site game against Notre Dame.
"This is a beautiful facility," Betson added. "It's really, really nice. It's great that all of the large crowd tonight. It's looked really good."
Neither team would get onto the board until late in the third period when Ethan Dekay would score on the power play with just under four minutes remaining to give Weyburn a 1-0 lead. From there, Jonah Baird would net his third of this season, with the defenseman hammering in a shot from the point to make it 2-0. Weyburn would then add an empty net goal courtesy of Ashtyn Shields to make it 3-0 which is how the game would end. It would end with a little fireworks, though, with both teams getting a little excited at the outcome.
"I just kind of said to our guys like we stuck with it," commented Red Wings head Coach Cody Mapes after the game. "I didn't think we were great tonight but we never took a step back. We were fairly consistent throughout the night and you know the energy at the end of the game was awesome. I think that's a good little spark to the building for going to do tomorrow's game."
The rough stuff at the end of the game would see all 10 skaters on the ice getting a 10-minute misconduct with one fight breaking out. Wyatt Lacoste dropped the gloves with Alex Mack and Ashtyn Shields got involved as well.
"You know when things are getting tense it's usually me and Lacoste that are getting sent out like we're we're kind of guys that won't back down and we can take a guy or two and you know what like we're gonna answer that bell whenever it comes," said Shields. "That's kind of our role."
At the other end of the ice, Angelo Zol had another outstanding performance for the Red Wings as he made 33 saves to record his second shutout of the season.
"That was good," the netminder said. "It was fun. The crowd was electric. They really brought the energy for us tonight and it was a real real fun atmosphere to play."
"That was awesome," Mapes added about the crowd, which included the contingent from Weyburn that came in on the Red Wings team bus. "It was loud when we scored but it was loud early on too and so it was great to uh great to have a little excitement at the end. I know that uh you know southern Saskatchewan for sure always likes a little excitement at the end."
One of those on the bus was Weyburnite Kailee Bell.
"It was important to come to Assiniboia not only to support the Red Wings but to support the community of Assiniboia for letting the Red Wings come down here and use their facility, bring them in their homes while our facility's down."
With expansion an ever-present conversation around the SJHL, this leads to the question of whether or not Assiniboia could host a team in the future. It's something that Commissioner Kyle McIntyre isn't ruling out quite yet.
"Well, I don't want to never say never, you know," McIntyre offered about the possibility. "I mean, certainly our board of governors would probably love to be in a community like Assiniboia. Personally, I kind of wonder about the level of corporate sponsorship because as you know it takes many activities in a community to keep a team going in the SJHL. It's not cheap and so certainly that would be a concern but in terms of facility and interest and traditional hockey and spirit of community, this would be a great community."
The town of Assiniboia will continue to host the Red Wings for the rest of December with another game tonight against the Klippers and then the Red Wings taking on Yorkton on Tuesday and the Humboldt Broncos on Thursday.