How will the focus on league imports affect the teams? Which teams are back in and which one's are out? Will the Hawks be able to defend their title?
Those are just a few of the questions surrounding the North Saskatchewan River Hockey League, as action started on the weekend with one game on the schedule.
Saturday, Wilkie took 16 players to Meadow Lake and won 5-2. Mike Sittler and Barrett Penner had two goals each while Rick Cey scored Wilkie's first goal. Will Rathje had three assists Bruce Yockey and Cey had two and Ryan Schaefer, Mark Lorenz and Lorne Nielsen had single helpers.
For Meadow Lake, Darren Caron scored from Darin Hansen and Jordan Oystick in the second period and Matt Luster scored from Brent Pevach and Dustin Gorst in the third.
The winning goalie was Nick Pernitsky while Rick Dallyn suffered the loss.
Most other teams will get their first regular season action this week.
Wednesday, Edam was scheduled to play in Wilkie. Friday, St. Walburg will be in Turtleford and Edam heads to Paradise Hill. Saturday night, Turtleford will play in Paradise Hill and St. Walburg travels to Meadow Lake.
The league dropped from 10 to eight teams this season with two divisions. In one division will be Edam, Wilkie, Turtleford and Maidstone. The other division will consists of Paradise Hill, St. Walburg, Meadow Lake and Spiritwood.
Each team will play 20 games this season with a home-and-home against every team in the four teams in the other division and two home-and-homes with the remaining three teams in their own division. The playoff format is the same with eight teams in the playoffs and five, five and seven game series.
As for the teams gone from the league, Neilburg join an Alberta league, Maymont joined the new Saskatchewan Prairie Hockey League and Mid-Sask is on the schedule under the Spiritwood title.
The league also changed the import rule from six concession players to four imports and there is a league committee to help police imports in the league.
Let us let the games begin.
