YORKTON - The Yorkton Junior Terriers are celebrating 50 years in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League this season.
To mark the milestone Yorkton This Week is digging into its archives and pulling out a random Terrier-related article from the past five decades of reporting on the team, and will be running one each week, just as it originally appeared.
This feature will appear weekly over the entire season in the pages of The Marketplace.
Week #5 comes from Nov. 1 2006.
Local fans attending the World Junior Hockey Challenge in Yorkton will have a familiar face to cheer for on Team Canada West.
Chad Nehring, in his third year with the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League Yorkton Terriers is among the 22 players selected to the team.
The gritty forward said as of last Thursday, the feeling of excitement for the tournament was really starting to build.
“It starts today,” he said during an interview at Harvest Pizza in the city. “I don’t have to think about Terrier games now, so my focus switches over to Canada.”
A night earlier Nehring scored the game opening goal in a 5-4 Terrier shootout win over Notre Dame. He will miss the next seven Terrier games as he battles with Team Canada West.
Nehring said making the Team West roster was a big moment, one of several the 19-year-old has already enjoyed as a Junior player.
It was a feeling of excitement Nehring quickly shared with his parents in his nearby hometown of Springside, SK..
“When I called, mom was freaking out like normal,” he said with a smile. “Dad said he was proud of me for making this, especially with it being in Yorkton, where he can get to watch.”
Nehring said he recognizes how special playing in front of hometown fans, friends and family will be, “even though I didn’t get to fly anywhere,” he added with another smile. “Definitely, it will be fun playing in front of family and friends.”
Playing in the SJHL city should also help the six players selected from the league to Team West, said Nehring, because five of them have played in the Farrell Agencies Arena before so are familiar with it. Only Estevan goaltender Guillaume Perusse, in his first year in the league, has not played in Yorkton.
For Nehring the WJHC will add to an already impressive Junior hockey resume including being a member of the back to back Credential Cup Championship Terrier teams the last two seasons. This May he was also with the Terriers as they attended the Royal Bank Cup Tournament in Brampton, ON., where the team lost in the final.
Nehring was also a participant in the inaugural Canadian Junior ‘A’ Hockey League Prospects game which was held in Yorkton Dec. 7, 2005.
This summer Nehring was also part of Team North America which took part in the 2006 InterSport Cup in Ljungvy, Sweden in August. Upon his return from the tournament Nehring told Yorkton This Week, it “was really, really different. It was just like the stereotype of European play. They were good skaters and stick handlers, but not really into the grinding kind of game.”
The experiences Nehring has enjoyed are a big reason he has been selected to wear one of the Assistant Captain ‘A’s for Team West. He said it’s an honour to be among the captains on a team where 14 players wear letters with their league teams. In talking to the coaches about the decision he said they felt winning back-to-back championships with the Terriers suggested he would “know how to lead.”
Nehring said he believes his experiences will be an asset in helping to fill a role on Team Canada West.
“It’s going to be more of a (competitive) game than the prospects game,” said Nehring, “That game was more individuals to show what they can do.”
As for playing in Europe this summer, Nehring said, “I think that will help out a lot knowing their style of play – most European teams are the same.”
With Canadian pride on the line in the upcoming tournament Nehring said, “more guys will get into their roles.”
While he has talked to team coaches, the Terrier forward admitted he hasn’t been told what role he will be expected to fill. “I assume I’ll be checking against the top lines, providing some energy.”
The top two Team West lines are likely to be the scoring units, with the three and four lines “crashing their ‘D’ and hitting. We want to make them not want to go back for the puck. That will open ice for our goal scorers,” said Nehring.
Offensively, Nehring may chip in a few points too. Last season in the SJHL he scored 28 goals and 29 assists for 57 points in 55 games. Forty-eight of his 57 points came at even strength, making him one of the top five-on-five players in the SJHL. He continued his consistent play into the post season when he tallied 18 points on 18 games.
Whatever the role he is handed, Nehring said he’s ready for it, adding there is only one goal – winning a gold medal “to be part of something special with Team Canada.”
The moment would be even sweeter for Nehring accomplishing the feat on home ice. “Definitely there will be a good atmosphere if our team can get to the final and win it,” he said. “It would be pretty special.”
