With the Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy hanging over it, the Allan Cup, Canadian AAA Senior Men’s Championship tournament begins Monday afternoon in Rosetown.
The host Red Wings are one of six teams taking part in the six-day event.
“(The Humboldt Broncos bus tragedy) hits home for a lot of hockey players across Saskatchewan. (The Red Wings) have several guys that are from the Humboldt community and one of them was a former Humboldt Bronco (defenceman David Stumborg), “Our hearts are breaking at this time, but we do hope that in some small fashion that we can help to start the province heal through our little national hockey tournament in Rosetown, Saskatchewan this week.”
In addition to the Red Wings, the Lorne Molleken-coached Bethune Bulldogs and four other teams from outside Saskatchewan are taking part.
“We have a very explosive hockey club,” explained McAvoy with regards to expectations being high for the host Rosetown team. “We feel that we’ve done everything we can to prepare for the tournament. It’s just about execution now. Fortunately, we are playing at home and we’re going to have large crowd support for us each and every night. And, I hope that our team is going to be able to feed off of some of that energy.”
The first game at 4 o’clock has Bethune taking on the South East, Manitoba, Prairie Thunder. The 8 o’clock tilt has the Red Wings meeting the Stoney Creek, Ontario, Generals. Prior to the evening game’s faceoff, a ceremony to honour the victims of the Humboldt bus crash will be held. The six teams are split into two pools of three teams for round-robin play, followed by playoffs with the final on Saturday.
