The Reminder is making its archives back to 2003 available on our website. Please note that, due to technical limitations, archive articles are presented without the usual formatting.
The Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League Coach of the Year is Ed Zawatsky of the Yorkton Terriers. Zawatsky is in his first season as an SJHL Head Coach.ÊIn fact, prior to Zawatsky serving for two years as Don Chesney's assistant, he had no coaching experience whatsoever. Nevertheless, he took a team that graduated nine twenty year-olds from a year ago and led them to within three points of first overall in the SJHL. The Terriers finished the regular season with a 32-15-5-and-3 mark.ÊZawatsky also made a move at the January 10th trade deadline to bring in 20-year-old forward Andrew Skrabek and 20-year-old defenseman Bob Graham from the Flin Flon Bombers.ÊSince that time, the Terries have gone 20-4-2-and-1. Runners-up:Ê Kelvin MacKay of the Estevan Bruins and Blaine Sautner of the Battlefords North Stars. MacKay is in his second season as Head Coach of the Bruins. He had a daunting task to turn around a team that was starting to sit regularly near the bottom of the standings. While the Bruins missed the playoffs a year ago, several important strides were taken. That was shown this year as MacKay's Bruins jumped from worst to first in the Sherwood Conference with a 34-14-6-and-1 record. MacKay and his Director of Player Personnel Rick Oakes managed to also land a couple of big fish at the December 1st and January 10th trade deadlines in the form of forwards Donovan Hall and Bear Trapp. MacKay found a way to get both players into prominent roles without upsetting the core of a team that was already headed in the right direction. Sautner has always had winning teams in Battlefords, but this year may have been his most challenging. See 'Stars' P.# Con't from P.# The Stars, with only three 20-year-olds, got off to a very slow start at 2-8-1-and-1.ÊSautner then orchestrated a trade with Notre Dame to get goalie Dustin MacDonald.ÊHe also brought in an unknown puckstopper in Guillaume Miszczak.ÊOn defense, Jared Mohr returned to the SJHL after a short stint in Fort McMurray, and then Fraser Allan came back from injury layoff.ÊThese factors occurred within a span of a few days and the Stars never looked back.ÊSautner's Stars charged out of the basement and wrapped up first place in the Itech Conference in the final week of the season.4/4/05
