It wasn’t as big as being part of Team Canada’s gold-medal winning squad at the Hlinka-Gretzky Cup earlier this month, but Kirby Dach has another tournament win under his belt.

       The 17-year-old centre had two goals and an assist as Team Braden Holtby won the Kirkness Cup Monday…capping Saskatoon Blades’ training camp.

“It’s always good to win this cup, especially for Bobby (dressing room attendant Kirkness, for whom the training camp scrimmage trophy is named),” said the Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, product. “He’s been through so much (overcoming cancer two years ago). It teaches us, on a day-to-day basis, what to act and be like. And, he’s such an inspiration for all of us players. It’s a good thing to win it and to see him healthy, it’s an awesome feeling.”

       With the awarding of the Kirkness Cup, Phase One is done…now it’s on to Phase Two for the Bridge City Bunch. The Blue and Gold chopped their roster to less than 40 players going into a seven-game pre-season.

“It’s not kind of like previous years where you kind of knew going in who was going to make the team,” stated general manager Colin Priestner when discussing that the 2018-19 Blades will be a tough team to make. “There’s seven or eight guys right now up front fighting for three spots, I’d say. And, there’s four defencemen fighting for maybe one or two spots, depending on what we keep. And, they’re all legit W-H-L players, I think.”

          Saskatoon plays three exhibition games in as many days, beginning Thursday night in Prince Albert.