Imagine a hockey game featuring the likes of Jamie and Jordan Benn and the Dallas Stars versus the Vancouver Canucks. And then imagine it taking place in your own back yard.
That’s the vision of some of the people behind the effort to see Panorama Recreation Centre’s Arena B win the 2015 Kraft Hockeyville contest. Pete Zubersky, coach and governor of the Peninsula Panthers Junior B hockey team, says the fact the arena is in the top 10 — and in the running for the $100,000 and pre-season NHL game grand prize — is only the beginning. That top 10 placing has already earned Panorama $25,000 for upgrade work.
This Saturday night, on Hockey Night in Canada, the voting will officially begin. Zubersky said that’s at around 8 p.m. — or the second intermission. At that time, he and others, like Jason Fletcher who actually nominated Panorama this year, will be urging people on the Saanich Peninsula, Greater Victoria and the entire Island to vote for the North Saanich rink. In fact, they’ve been Tweeting and networking already, to let as many people in their social circles as possible know about the contest.
“I really want to get it out there,” Zubersky said.
The top two rinks across Canada will be chosen out of this voting — one from the west and one from the east. Each wins $100,000 to go toward arena upgrades and then voting resumes to see which community becomes this year’s Hockeyville.
Voting happens online at khv2015.ca.
