A team of players from Flin Flon and The Pas is Manitoba’s top rural Bantam A hockey club.
The Huskies won the Bantam A Provincials in Elkhorn, Manitoba, on Sunday, March 6. The tournament was open to all Bantam A teams in Manitoba, except those in Winnipeg, which has its own tournament.
The Huskies carried seven Flin Flon area players in Jordan Pfoh, Blake Lahonen, Morgan Beauchamp, Brycen Francouer, Carson Ledoux, Derek Kovisto and Evan Madarash.
In September, it was unclear if The Pas or Flin Flon would have a Bantam team as neither community had enough players for one.
Despite also being the coach of the Atom A team in The Pas, Darryl Assailly put in many hours working out the details to allow both communities to combine players and jointly form a team called the Huskies.
Throughout the winter, Flin Flon players travelled to The Pas on Thursday nights so the boys could practice together. The Pas players travelled to Flin Flon when ice was available there on the weekends.
Throughout the winter, they travelled to five tournaments in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. They had some success, winning the B side final in Prince Albert, and bringing home silver from Portage la Prairie.
The Huskies then travelled to Elkhorn for provincials. Their first game was against Dauphin. Scoring for the Huskies were Cliff Salisbury (Jordan Pfoh, Luc Kostyk); Cole Assailly (Hudson Yaremko, Easton Assailly); Luc Kostyk (Blake Lahonen, Branden Hill); and Derek Kovisto (Yaremko). Netminder Braxton Kuba-Constant earned a shutout.
Next the Huskies defeated the Neepawa Natives 1-0. Scoring for the Huskies was Brycen Francouer (Kovisto, Cole Assailly). Once again Kuba-Constant earned a shutout.
Both Swan River and the Huskies had two wins in the round-robin. After much deliberation and checking the tie-breaking rules, it came down to the number of penalty minutes each team had. It was decided that Swan River was in first place and the Huskies in second, earning both teams a bye to the semi-finals.
The Huskies went up against the Virden Oil Caps. Scoring for the Huskies were Blake Lahonen (unassisted); Kovisto (Easton Assailly); Kostyk (Lahonen, Salisbury); Kovisto (Salisbury); and Kostyk (Salisbury). This game was sent to overtime after coach Devin Salisbury pulled Kuba-Constant for the extra attacker and Kovisto scored his second of the game.
The Huskies took on Swan River in their final game. They had played Swan twice throughout the season, losing 4-0 and 3-0, so they knew it would not be an easy game.
Both teams had great chances early on, but also took quite a few penalties. The Huskies won 5-1. Scoring for them were Draydon Jobb (Carson Ledoux, Morgan Beauchamp); Kovisto (Cole Assailly, Hill); Carson Ledoux (Beauchamp, Jobb); Cole Assailly (Yaremko); and Jobb (Beauchamp).
– Compiled from an article submitted by Jolene Salisbury
