It's game week for the Kindersley Jr. Klippers.
Players arrived in Kindersley last week for the team's annual golf tournament, as the offseason officially came to an end this past weekend with hopefuls hitting the ice for camp. Now the team is practicing before hitting the road to Drumheller for a game on Friday, before going to Lloydminster on holiday Monday.
Skill skates took place all last week until Friday at 5:30 when main camp hit the ice to kick off three days of scrimmages.
Three teams of players led by guest coaches cycled through straight time games.
Friday's opening day of camp started at 5:30 with the action running for a few hours, and then Saturday saw the same schedule firing up a little earlier at four, things continuing Sunday from 1-5 PM as players earned their last looks. Camp looked a little different this year with no 'Kimmer Cup' being awarded, but players still earned their looks across three days of action.
The skates and scrimmages were the first chance for new Klippers head coach Kyle Schneider to watch his team live, perched atop the action doing evaluations with newly promoted GM Ryan Gibson.
That duo will split the duties left behind by outgoing Klippers Head Coach and GM Clayton Jardine who accepted an assistant coaching job with the Red Deer Rebels prior to the season.
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While the team continues their pre-season work this week, some players will also be helping out with the Klippers Hockey School.
It's running all week-long Monday to Friday as three groups of young campers will on the ice for over two hours each day. Each day will end around 4:00 PM, leading into a Klippers captain skate at 4:15 PM as the group tries to log as many minutes together as possible before Friday's opener.
The hockey school will end early on Friday at 11:00 AM as the team prepares to hit the road for a 7:00 PM start in Drumheller. After that one the Klippers will stay in Alberta and travel to Lloydminster for a holiday Monday matchup against the Bobcats at 2:30 PM.
Following that matinee the Klippers will hit the road back home to Kindersley for a quick turnaround on Tuesday, as one week from today the Klippers will welcome in the Humboldt Broncos for their first home-game of the pre-season, the first of a home-and-home as Kindersley will be in Humboldt on September 8 for their fourth pre-season game. After that the team has an off day, before a September 10 home rematch against Drumheller.
The pre-season finale will then lead the Klippers front office into making their final cuts ahead of the regular season. Once the roster is finalized the team will have a solid week of practice before going to North Battleford on September 19 for the season opener and hopefully pick up a win before the September 20 home opener against the North Stars, on as always as part of Goose Festival Weekend.