The Prince Albert Northern Bears will host the Esso Cup after all. (file photo/paNOW Staff)

By Jeff D'Andrea

Esso Cup

Esso Cup coming to Prince Albert after all in 2021

May 27, 2020 | 5:14 PM

It was heartbreaking news when the Esso Cup destined for Prince Albert this April was cancelled amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, especially for the would-be hosting Prince Albert Northern Bears and all the volunteers that were preparing for the tournament.

But Hockey Canada made an announcement on Wednesday to mend those broken hearts, announcing that the nation’s best Under-18 female hockey teams would meet in Prince Albert after all. The 2021 Esso Cup, Canada’s U18 Women’s Club Championship, will be held at the Art Hauser Centre next season.

Considering the global coronavirus pandemic and the risk it would have caused to hold the tournament this April, hosting committee chair Robin Wildey said this is the best outcome.

“It means a lot to us. We have a great organization that’s been putting in a ton of work to make sure this was a highly professional, elite-level competition and event,” Wildey said. “To be so close to putting it on and having it [cancelled] the way that it was. We understand and we fully support Hockey Canada’s decision but to have the chance to put it on again is going to be awesome. The sponsors stuck by us this whole time, so we want to thank them and pretty much everybody in P.A. that’s been supporting us.”

Pushing back the event one year seems easy at first glance. What made it more complicated was that Lloydminster was slated to host the 2021 Esso Cup right on the Alberta, Saskatchewan border. To make sure that Prince Albert would get to host their tournament as soon as possible, Lloydminster would have to agree to delay its tournament a year as well.

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Wildey said that wasn’t a problem, and received a lot of help from Hockey Canada and from Ryan Sklapsky, the tournament hosting committee co-chair in Lloydminster.

“We all worked together. We all have a great working relationship. Ryan from the Lloyd group was supportive of us having it in 2021,” Wildey said. “Everybody feels like it was the right decision to move forward. There were no hard feelings and it was a smooth transition to get us to 2021. We had to submit what we thought would be the best scenario to Hockey Canada, and they wholeheartedly agreed with us.”

Although Prince Albert will be the hosts for the upcoming Esso Cup still in 2021, organizers still don’t know exactly when that will be. Dates have yet to be set for the tournament, nor have there been guidelines and restrictions set for the how the tournament will look like. It is 11 months away, after all.

Wildey said that will be sorted out well before the tournament gets going, and everything will get moving once Hockey Canada releases its Return to Play plan.

“I believe people are looking for some positive news. We gladly got it,” Wildey said. “I believe with the size of rink we have, if there are any restrictions put in place, we’ll be able to handle it with no issues.”

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Jeff.dandrea@jpbg.ca

On Twitter: @jeff_paNOW