With the season just around the corner, there will be some fresh faces with the Prince Albert Mintos.

The Mintos announced some changes to their coaching and operations staff for the upcoming season adding former Raider and Minto Dane Byers as an assistant. Byers enjoyed a long professional career as a player after being a second-round pick of the New York Rangers, 48th overall, in 2004. Byers appeared in the American Hockey League, the Finnish Liiga, the DEL in Germany, the EIHL in England and the National Hockey League.

Mintos head coach Tim Leonard says he is hoping Byer’s work ethic will rub off on the Mintos team.

“We’re excited to get Dane on board. The guy is an example of what hard work will get you. The guy earned everything he got. He was a professional hockey player and has lots of experience to hand down and he is excited about it. I’m excited to bring him aboard.”

Also joining the Mintos staff is Aaron Bergey as the team’s athletic therapist, Kim Jackson will take over as the associate manager of operations and Doug Padget has taken over the role as director of player personnel.

The Prince Albert Mintos have two home exhibition dates scheduled for the month of September. On Sept. 10 at 7 p.m., the Mintos welcome the Warman Wildcats and on Sept. 13, the Mintos take on the Saskatoon Blazers at 1:30pm. Both games take place at the Art Hauser Centre.

The Mintos open their season on Sept 24 at home against the Swift Current Legionnaires.

It was a great experience at the Canada Summer Games for Prince Albert’s Seanna Trumier.

The St. Mary alumnus was a member of the Saskatchewan women’s volleyball team at the Canada Summer Games in Niagara, Ontario. Trumier says it representing her home province at the national level was a great experience.

“It was super cool. There was a core group of us working towards that goal for a long time. To be able to go and get to compete with each other was so cool.”

The Team Sask women’s volleyball team fell just short of the podium in Niagara, as they fell in four sets to eventual silver medalist Alberta and dropped the bronze medal match in three sets to BC. However, Saskatchewan would have never been in that position without a thrilling five set quarterfinal victory over Ontario. Trumier says that win is a memory she will remember for life.

“We had lost to them in Canada Cup in five sets a few weeks before. This time when we played them again, we beat them, and nobody expected us to win. Just coming in as the underdogs and really going for it that game. It was super fun, and the atmosphere was really good. It was definitely something I will remember.”

Throughout the Canada Summer Games, athletes from across the country would get a chance to interact with each other and would often cheer on their provincial teammates in other events. Trumier says she enjoyed the encouragement and the chance to meet many new people.

“It was super sweet. In Team Sask, we were able to stay on the bus and we would be able to chat with a few other athletes and learn stuff about each others sports. It was cool to see them later watching our games or we watched a few of the other Team Sask games. It was super cool to cheer each other on.”

Trumier is entering her second season with the Lakeland College Rustlers of the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC).

It was an eventful summer for Prince Albert Raiders defenceman Landon Kosior, but the 20-year-old is ready for the 2022-2023 WHL season to get underway.

Kosior attended Development Camp this offseason with the Los Angeles Kings. The five day camp took place from July 11-July 15 just outside of LA at the Toyota Sports Performance Center. Kosior was an invitee to the camp that included several of LA’s recent top draft picks, including former 2nd overall selection Quinton Byfield.

Kosior says he loved the opportunity and tried to learn all he could.

“Anytime you get an opportunity to go, especially to a nice place like Los Angeles, you always want to make the most out of it. It’s cool to be able to go down there and skate with all the best players in the world. It’s an exciting time and I just tried to make the most out of it.”

Last season for the Raiders, Kosior scored 18 goals and 45 points in 68 games. Kosior will be one of five overage players heading into Raiders training camp which begins Thursday, September 1st. Kosior says his advice to younger players is to play to their strengths.

“The most important thing is just to play your game. Everyone’s invited here for a reason.You got to play your game and stick to what you are best at. Play your game, stick to what you are good at and you’ll stand out.”

After finishing 8th in the Eastern Conference and a first round playoff exit to the Winnipeg ICE last season, Prince Albert is looking to build off of last season’s success. Kosior says he is looking forward to playing in front of the Hockeytown North crowd for one final season.

“I strongly believe PA has the best fans in the league. And it shows how much support we have. Small community and everyone rallies around us.”

Kosior and the Prince Albert Raiders begin training camp on Thursday, September 1st. The Raiders open the preseason on September 6th against the Saskatoon Blades on Big River First Nation. Prince Albert begins the Western Hockey League regular season on Friday, September 23rd when the Raiders welcome the Saskatoon Blades to the Art Hauser Centre.

It was a beautiful day for golf Friday at the 2022 Junior Northern tournament at Cooke Municipal Golf Course.

Max McDougall took home the tournament crown firing a 77 to win by two strokes. McDougall says he was happy to see his commitment and dedication rewarded.

“It feels pretty good to finally get a win. I worked very hard all summer and it finally paid off.”

It was a family affair in the Junior Northern top three as Max edged out his younger cousin Ronan by two strokes and younger brother Grady by five shots. Max says he is glad to have the family bragging rights and the championship.

“It feels really good. My brother and cousin were the ones pretty close. I’m going to make sure I let them know who won today.”

McDougall will look to build on his win at the Junior Northern into the MJT event in Warman Saturday at the Legends Golf Club. He says the win at the Northern will be a good building block for the MJT tournament.

“Winning this event gives me a lot of confidence going into Warman. Hopefully that goes well, it’s a big tournament. Plenty is up for grabs.”

In the other flight, Cameron Fiddler finished in first place followed by Lochlan McDougall and Dylan Dreaver.

It was a golden summer for the Team Saskatchewan Men’s Volleyball program.

The program took home a pair of gold medals at the Canada Cup and the Canada Summer Games., topping Alberta in the gold medal game in both tournaments.

Ethan Smith, a libero from Prince Albert, says having won in Canada Cup was extra motivation for the rematch against Alberta in the Canada Summer Games.

“We had the X on our backs. It was really exciting to play such a good team and come out on top.”

It was a process for Smith to represent his home province. He says he had trained for years to make the team.

“It’s been a dream of mine to play at Canada Games for a long time. It means a lot to be able to play for Team Sask and to win a gold medal two times this summer this well.”

Smith was not the only player with local connections to be a part of the gold medal winning teams. Outside hitter Brock Tomyn of Prince Albert and setter Noah Opseth of Birch Hills were also on the squad. Opseth says the accomplishment is so special because of the timeframe it took place in.

“It’s a pretty rare experience for any single person. I’ve talked to people who have been to Canada Cup and Canada Games before and it’s almost impossible to go back-to-back to win both. “

Opseth says it felt like an underdog moment straight out of a movie,

“For our team to be able to do it, it’s a huge accomplishment. Especially with the guys we have, we’re all Sask guys, all small town guys. Kind of like a Cinderella story, but we weren’t the Cinderella story really because we were the best team there.”

Both Smith and Opseth red-shirted last season for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies Men’s Volleyball program while Tomyn played for the Lakeland College Rustlers in the Alberta Colleges Athletic Conference (ACAC).

Opseth says the summer of success will provide some huge momentum going into the collegiate season, especially since other U of S teammates were also a part of the gold medal teams.

“I think this just builds confidence for our program for the future. It shows we have the guys that can compete with the best in the nation. It makes us all want to play for each other the entire time.”

The 2022 Canada Summer Games took place in Niagara, Ontario while the Canada Cup took place at the Seven Chiefs Sportsplex on the Tsuut’ina Nation just southwest of Calgary, Alberta.

It took her a long time to make the roster, but the experience was more then worthwhile for Prince Albert’s Kiana Mullner.

The Prince Albert softball player was a part of the women’s softball team representing Saskatchewan at the Canada Summer Games in Niagara, Ontario. It was a goal for Mullner to represent her province at a national level and it took her years to accomplish. She says pursuing her goal helped her grow, more then just as a softball player.

“There was a lot of ups and downs. I had a moment where I thought I did well and then another moment you are really upset because you didn’t show good, and I thought I wasn’t going to make the team. Throughout it all, I learned so much and grew so much as a player and as a person. “

Even though Team Saskatchewan finished just short of the podium finishing fourth in the tournament, Mullner says the team believed they had a shot to advance to the medal round in their game against Ontario.

“All of us really wanted it and believed that we could do it. Losing the game was really, really hard but at the same time, but at the same time the experience and all of it was amazing.”

Saskatchewan held a 3-1 lead after 5 innings, but Ontario scored 4 runs on five hits in the top half of the 6th inning including a two-run single off the bat of first basemen Deanna Grahek and an RBI double from catcher Katie Lorenz.

In the final game of the tournament for Team Sask, Mullner went 1 for 3 recording a single in the 2nd inning and walked and scored a run in the 4th.

The Canada Summer Games marked the end of the summer for Mullner, as she is currently in Hickory, North Carolina to begin her sophomore season with the Catawba Valley Community College Red Hawks. The Carlton alumnus is hoping to commit to a four-year school later this year.

It was a podium finish for Prince Albert’s Krystle Shewchuk at the Canada Summer Games in Niagara, Ontario last weekend.

The 32-year-old finished with a silver medal in the 2.4m Para Mix event, behind Ontario’s Siobhan Macdonald. But the story was the neck and neck competition between Shewchuk and her provincial teammate Paige Butz from Regina.

Going into the final day of racing, Shewchuk and Butz were tied for second place in the event.

Shewchuk won the final race of the event to claim the silver medal, but she says she was extremely thrilled to share the podium with her Saskatchewan teammate.

“I was so happy to share the podium with her. It came up to the last race to see who got it. It’s absolutely amazing to be able to share the podium with her. I was quite happy to have two of us up there. “

Shewchuk says the experience outside of the sailing was just as memorable as the time on the water. When she was not competing, she says she really enjoyed the social aspect of meeting other athletes from across the country.

“It was packed, it was super busy. It was really nice to meet people from all provinces and be able to talk to them. There was a lot of pin sharing going on and trying to collect pins from other provinces. It was a great experience and the whole environment was amazing.”

Shewchuk has previously competed in the 2017 Canada Summer Games in sailing, in where she did not medal. In 2019, she competed in the Canada Winter Games in cross-country skiing where she finished with a bronze medal.

It’s been a long time away on the road, but the trip was worth it for two Prince Albert softball players who returned home with a pair of bronze medals.

Prince Albert’s Ryan Bicknell and Troy Preymack have spent most of the month of August in Ontario competing in the U23 Men’s Softball Nationals in Carp, Ontario and the 2022 Canada Summer Games in Niagara, Ontario.

Bicknell says it was an honor to compete in two national tournaments.

“Both tournaments were fun and enjoyable, it was a lot of time spent there. It was worth going to and I’d definitely do both again if the opportunity happened again.”

Bicknell played all over the outfield for Team Saskatchewan in both tournaments, making appearances in all three outfield positions. He says he was hoping for more then a bronze in the Canada Summer games after taking home the third-place hardware in the U23 Nationals.

“We’re glad to get a medal, but obviously we wanted a gold. Especially after nationals two weeks prior, getting a bronze medal there too, so that kind of hurt a little bit. But at the end of the day, I’m grateful to get a medal and have that opportunity.”

For Preymack, he says he enjoyed the opportunity to represent Saskatchewan, but it meant even more to him to be able to able to have a friend from his hometown to share the experience with.

“Being able to train all the time and practice together in our hometown and then actually get to go represent Prince Albert, even though we are not playing for a PA team, but we are playing for Saskatchewan. Just being able to have the opportunity to go with a friend, it helps to have each other’s back the whole way and pick each other up when we need. It’s great to have a teammate like that.”

Preymack and Bicknell both play for the Delisle Fort Protection Pride.

Team Saskatchewan entered the Canada Summer Games softball otournament knockout stage in fourth place with a 5-3 record. A 5-4 victory over Newfoundland in the third place versus fourth place game set up a showdown against Team Ontario, where the winner would head to the gold medal game and the loser would get the bronze medal.

Saskatchewan took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third when Ethan Sommerfeld walked, advanced to second on a sac fly, then scored on Bicknell’s RBI single. However, the lead was short-lived. Ontario responded with a pair of runs in the bottom of the inning to go up 2-1, then scored two more in the fourth to lead 4-1.

Saskatchewan got one run back in the sixth thanks to Kobey Clarke’s RBI triple, but Ontario scored again in the bottom half of the inning to make it 5-2.

Ontario advanced to the gold medal game for a rematch with Nova Scotia—a team they’d already lost to twice in the tournament. Nova Scotia jumped out to a 1-0 lead, but Ontario rallied for six straight runs to win 6-3.

It was a busy day on the North Saskatchewan River on Saturday as the qualification time trials began for the North American Indigenous Games.

Competitors from all over Saskatchewan made their way to Prince Albert for a chance to be a part of Team Saskatchewan at the 2023 North American Indigenous Games being held in Halifax, Nova Scotia. This is the second time trial being held with the first taking place in La Ronge last month.

Rossel Marion, the organizer of the event, says he expects to see a bigger turnout in PA compared to La Ronge.

“We had 47 competitors in La Ronge, today I’m estimating around 60. It’s a growth in numbers.”

One of the competitors at the canoe racing Saturday was 14 year old Memphis Sunchild. Sunchild recently picked up canoe racing earlier this year. He says it means a lot to compete for the chance to represent his home province.

“I think its really cool that we get to do this. It means a lot to get to represent my province and my nation and where we come from.”

Sunchild is representing the Thunderchild First Nation northeast of the Battlefords.

It was a bit of a different offseason than usual for Prince Albert Raiders’ goaltender Tikhon Chaika.

The Belarusian netminder spent the offseason with a billet family in Calgary rather then returning home to Minsk. Chaika said he enjoyed the summer but missed the opportunity to see his family.

“It was tough to be honest. I was in Calgary for three months. I found some great billets, so it was kind of easy to live in. It’s tough to not see my parents for the whole year.”

Last season was Chaika’s first experience playing North American hockey. The Minsk, Belarus backstop posted a .904 save percentage and a 2.79 goals against average in 51 games and saw himself become the number one goaltender for the Raiders’ by the end of the season. Chaika says he worked hard to improve his game this offseason. 

“I tried to improve everything. Of course, my compete (level), be faster on the ice but most of all I was just working in the gym for my speed and my flexibility.”

Chaika’s offseason was spent doing more than just improving his game. The Raider goaltender appeared as a guest coach in several minor hockey camps. That includes the NorSask Hockey Development Camp currently running at the Art Hauser Centre, where he joined fellow Belorussian Import Vladislav Shilo in helping out.

Chaika says he enjoyed the experience of getting to coach and give back to the Prince Albert hockey community.

“This was really awesome. It’s always an honor to be a coach, it’s a new experience for me. I always welcome to give some experience for younger goalies, especially from PA.”

Training camp for the Prince Albert Raiders’ opens on September 1st. The first Raiders’ preseason game at the Art Hauser Centre is September 9th when the Regina Pats roll into town.