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A Raiders game is the big win for minor hockey teams

Jan 15, 2011 | 6:30 AM

For many Saskatchewan towns the local rink is a hub of the community. That notion is what SaskEnergy is using as the driving force behind Hockey Day in Saskatchewan.

Shannon Doka is the community involvement coordinator for SaskEnergy.

She said the event is celebrated by many communities all weekend.

“The cool thing that we added to the Hockey Day in Saskatchewan event last year, was they held a youth contest for minor hockey teams to tell us why they would like to see western hockey league action in their local community.” Doka said.

The Prince Albert Raiders are one of the five WHL teams in the province who will be getting a visit from a couple of Minor Hockey League teams during a game.

“It’s kind of cool. It fills their seats and gets new kids who may not have attended a WHL game before… they can say in the end hey that could be them one day.”

Both the Carrot River and Choiceland minor hockey teams will get free tickets to a Raider game, paid for by SaskEnergy.

“We’re looking forward to it. For some of the kids it will be the first time they’ll get to go to a game like this,” Jared Nicklen, Carrot River’s Minor Hockey Manager said.

“The whole team’s going to go, and were taking a few parents with us.”

Nicklen said, for a small town where there is always something going on at the rink this is a big deal.

sfroese@panews.com