INSIDE THE SJHL

By: Dan O’Connor – Voice of the North Stars

The SJHL trade deadline has come and gone and much like the AJHL there was nothing earth shattering to report.

The Humboldt Broncos added a veteran goaltender (Matt Larochelle) and a play-making defenceman (Joel Belair) and Melville added an extra goalie, forward and d-man to their fold too. Other than that, none of the big-names tossed around last week were dealt. Rylan Schwartz and Tommy Brown are still with their respective teams which means that the playoffs could proove to be quite exciting.

One team that I'm looking forward to watching is the Estevan Bruins. Don't let their fifth place position in the Sherwood Conference fool you. This team has strong goaltending with Tommy Legault, maybe the best offensive depth in the Sherwood Conference, and an underrated coach and recruiter in Kerry Biette. The only thing hindering Estevan is their defence.


*** Quick Story ***

Saturday night I called a game in Estevan where the Bruins cruised to a 4-1 win over the North Stars. The lone Stars goal came with less than two minutes to go in the third period off the stick of tough guy Tony Oak. Oak stole the puck away from Bruins d-man Mike Dopko and scored.

During the broadcast I happened to say something like, "Wow. What was Dopko thinking! That was an awful give away."

24 hours later I returned home to the Battlefords and saw that I had a new voice-mail.

Apparently Mike Dopko's father listened to my broadcast from Makwa, SK and thought it would be a good idea to call my house and berate me for calling out his kid. He told me how, "His son is a local who's had to proove a lot of people wrong and that upon hearing my comments he was demoralized and hurt."

Here's a thought.

Next time you're team has a 4-0 lead in the third period, don't blindly throw the puck up the middle in your own defensive zone!

Mr. Dopko than proceeded to call me a few hours later. Not only did he wake me up from a splendid sleep but he then repeated himself verbatim from his voice mail.

In the end we parted on good terms and he actually had some pretty positive things to say about my broadcasting. But I find the situation hilarious!


Who does that?!? Your son's team won 4-1, and yet you still feel the need to protect the family name by calling the radio announcer at his home?

At least I know that people are listening.


Upset of the Week:

A big surprise this week was the Melfort Mustangs, who came back from a 3-2 deficit to defeat the Humboldt Broncos in a shootout on Wednesday. The Mustangs are battling it out with the Nipawin Hawks for third place in the Itech Conference, and heading into the weekend only one point separates the two teams in the standings.

In the Battlefords things are intensifying as the home-stretch of the regular season draws near. The Stars are winless in their past six games, and still remain just three points ahead of the La Ronge Ice Wolves.

We could end up having a situation where a 12 win team makes it to the post-season in the Itech (North Stars), and a 26 win team down South does not advance (Notre Dame Hounds).

That's it for this week, I'm on vacation next week in Vancouver so you can expect another update in two weeks.