Sabres leave camp with banging core in place

The Fort Frances Jr. Sabres wrapped up their final camp Sunday, leaving with a 17-man roster that will serve as the template for the SIJHL expansion franchise’s first season.
Head coach Wayne Strachan said he’s “a lot happier now than after the last camp,” when his out-of-town veterans had yet to arrive and the overall level of conditioning was not up to his standard.
“We’re heading in the right direction,” he remarked.
“We got a start,” he added. “We got a pretty good core of players to build around.”
It was Strachan’s first look at some of his signees, such as Ray Pressacco and Kyle Traynor, as well as Quinn Amiel and MacKenzie York—two players who were picked up just before the weekend.
He said he was “very impressed with the leadership” of York and Amiel, and hoped they would become locker-room cornerstones of the team.
With the frame for the Sabres now on paper, Strachan speculated about how the team will perform.
“The strength right off the bat—I think we’ll be strong defensively,” he said. “We’re a big team, so I think we’ll be physical and aggressive.”
He cautioned that putting the puck in the net could be an issue, but added that “there’s a couple kids who can rise to that occasion.”
While the split-squad games saw enough scoring, they also saw plenty of the physical and aggressive play Strachan talked about. Hitting abounded and fights broke out routinely—drawing cheers from the crowd scattered throughout the seats at the Ice for Kids Arena.
One physical play the crowd didn’t approve of came late in the Sunday game when York had a false tooth knocked out due to an errant stick by fellow signee Kyle Turgeon, to which York responded by repeatedly hitting Turgeon on the ice.
The play drew mostly silence, punctuated by a couple of boos and cat calls.
After the game, York—whose two front teeth are both false and cemented in place—kept the crown in his pocket. He said the two had been battling throughout the weekend and Turgeon was reckless, possibly because he has less to fear wearing a full cage mask.
“You don’t hit guys like that,” he said. “That’s maturity, I guess.”
The Edmonton native wasn’t exactly apologetic, but expressed an interest in leaving the incident in the past.
“I’d like to maybe help him [Turgeon] learn stuff,” York said. “If I taught him something, that’s good.”
“He’s a competitor,” Strachan said. “You know, maybe it wasn’t right to do, but it sometimes happens in a game.”
The Sabres’ roster includes four Fort Frances natives—a pair of forwards in Turgeon and Mitch Cain, defenceman Shaun Egan, and goalie Ryan Faragher, who was signed shortly before camp broke.
Signed out of camp was forward Mike Wilson of International Falls, who said he was “really glad” he made the team.
“It’s good to be at home and playing across the border,” he remarked.
The team held its first practice this morning and now is preparing for their first exhibition game next Friday here against the Dryden Ice Dogs.
New Sabres’ forward Colin Spencer, a Dryden native, already is looking forward to being a centrepiece in the rivalry—having come to the Sabres in a trade from the Fort William North Stars for future considerations late last week.
“I’m very excited. I get to go back home and play the hometown team,” he said. “When I moved to Thunder Bay last year, a lot of people kinda hated me for that.
“I figured I might as well move to another rival, stir the pot some more. . . .
“I was a hometown favourite and I kind of upset a lot of people by leaving, but that’s the way it goes,” Spencer added. “I make no apologies about the way I play, either.”