Dave Leaderhouse
Special to the Herald
The auditions are over and now it is time to roll up the sleeves and get down to work for real as the Prince Albert Timberjaks completed their Prairie Junior Hockey League pre-season on the weekend and open the regular campaign on Wednesday with a trip to Saskatoon to take on the Royals.
“I think our structure is our biggest improvement,” stated Timberjaks head coach Tim Leonard following a 5-3 victory over the Saskatoon Quakers on Saturday at the Northern Regional Recreational Centre. “We started working on that last year and it is getting better all the time.”
“We got behind early (on Saturday), but they battled back,” added Leonard. “We are playing with a lot of confidence now.”
The Timberjaks fell behind 2-0 early in Saturday’s game, but goals by Brody Anderson, Keethan Isbister and Ryan Pidborochynski brought the club on even terms at 3-3 by the end of the opening frame. Pidborochynski would net the winner on a power-play in the middle stanza with Evan Malenfant adding an insurance marker in the final 20 minutes.
“So far things have been going good,” said Leonard. “There were some penalties called last night that I disagreed with, but that’s hockey – you don’t get all the calls and sometimes the bounces don’t go your way.”
“We are a resilient group; we kept battling back,” he added.
The Timberjaks won both of their pre-season games as Saturday’s win came on the heels of a convincing 9-0 decision over the Carrot River Outback Thunder earlier in the week. The club still has 26 players in camp with another couple still away auditioning for Junior “A” teams so Leonard says there will be a couple of moves made this week in advance of the season opener in Saskatoon on Wednesday.
This is the fourth season for the current incarnation of Prince Albert’s entry in the PJHL and in the three previous years the club has failed to win more than 15 games in a season. Those performances have resulted in the team fighting just to get a spot into a Survivor Series match-up in the opening round of the playoffs so Leonard is excited to see where they stand when they take on the Royals this week.
“They are probably the cream of the crop so it will be a good test,” says Leonard.
Following Wednesday’s game in Saskatoon the Timberjaks will return home for their home opener on Saturday against the Royals. Game time for that match-up is 7:30 p.m. at the NRRC. The Timberjaks will complete a busy opening week with a trip to Martensville on Sunday for an afternoon date with the Chiefs.
Off the ice, plans are now in place to honour the memory of long-time director of player development Mark Odnokon, who passed away in May after a short battle with cancer. Team president Ken Malenfant says that the game on Nov. 28 against Pilot Butte will be preceeded by a ceremony featuring Odnokon’s family members participating in the opening face-off. Any former Junior “B” player from the city, whether it was with the Ice Hawks, Titans or even as far back as the North Stars, will be admitted to the game free of charge.
