Sabres to open with four-game homestand

The Fort Frances Jr. Sabres will open their second season in the SIJHL with four-straight home games, according to the league schedule released last week.
The puck drops Friday, Sept. 19 at the Ice for Kids Arena with the Jr. Sabres hosting the new Thunder Bay Bearcats, who merged with the Thunder Bay Bulldogs during the off-season in order to bring together a larger talent pool with a bigger fan base.
The two teams will face off again Saturday, Sept. 20 before the defending champion Dryden Ice Dogs come to town on Tuesday, Sept. 23.
The team’s four-game homestand then concludes Friday, Sept. 26 with a match-up against the Fort William North Stars, who went to the league final a year ago.
The start of the season will be a good test to see where Jr. Sabres stand against some of the stiffest competition the SIJHL has to offer.
“In the middle of our schedule, fans won’t see us for a month again the same as last season, but it is due to other team’s ice availability,” Jr. Sabres head coach Wayne Strachan noted.
“In January and February, our home-and-away is fairly equal, and before playoffs, we are home again for six in a row over a two-week period.”
The Sabres’ first road game will be in Sioux Lookout on Oct. 1 for a meeting with the expansion Flyers.
“I think it is great that Sioux Lookout has a team,” Strachan enthused. “It helps us financially for road trips, as well as [gives us] another rival in the west part of our league.
“It’s definitely going to be exciting to see what type of crowd and how energetic their rink will be,” Strachan added. “They say they can jam 600-700 fans in the arena up there and it will be loud, so it should be fun for our players.”
In all, the Sabres’ schedule will feature 50 games—evenly split between home and away.
In related news, the Dudley Hewitt Cup will be hosted by league rival Schreiber this spring, meaning two SIJHL teams will be vying to win the provincial tournament in order to be the “Central” rep at the Canadian Junior ‘A’ Hockey League’s Royal Bank Cup.
“From day one [Aug. 21 training camp] until the last roster deadline [Jan. 10, 2009], we will be building and playing to reach the Dudley Hewitt Ontario Junior ‘A’ championships,” Strachan vowed.
“Players that come to our main camp better be ready to compete and work hard for eight months of the season because we would like to achieve all of our goals,” he stressed.