Saints look to wrap up pre-season with win over Eastern Washington Sunday

The Selkirk College Saints Men’s Hockey program will see its 2012/13 preseason draw to a close

on Sunday afternoon

Dylan Smith of the Selkirk Saints (right) slides the puck past Thompson Rivers goalie Adrien Hervillard to give the Saints a 3-2 lead in the second period of Friday's game.

Dylan Smith of the Selkirk Saints (right) slides the puck past Thompson Rivers goalie Adrien Hervillard to give the Saints a 3-2 lead in the second period of Friday's game.

The Selkirk College Saints Men’s Hockey program will see its 2012/13 preseason draw to a close

on Sunday afternoon when the Eastern Washington University Eagles visit the Castlegar Recreation Complex for a 2:00 PM faceoff.

 

The match-up represents the third and final exhibition tune-up for the

Saints, who have posted back-to-back victories over the KIJHL’s Beaver

Valley Nitehawks (by an 8-2 score) and their BCIHL rivals from Thompson

Rivers University (4-3).

 

A pair of key players will make their preseason debuts against the

Eagles, as second-year defenceman Justin Sotkowy (Victoria, B.C.) and

first-year goaltender Alex Sirard (Calgary, AB) will both draw into the

line-up. Sotkowy’s 23 points last season placed him third in scoring

amongst BCIHL blueliners, while Sirard brings experience with the WHL’s

Swift Current Broncos and SJHL’s Melville Millionaires.

 

“Sunday’s game against EWU is a great opportunity to gauge where we’re

at as a group and fine-tune some aspects of our play,” says Saints head

coach Jeff Dubois. “We’ve had two good performances in exhibition so far

and we’ll expect to build on that momentum as we prepare for a very

challenging weekend at UVic to open our regular season at the start of

October.”

 

The Eagles line-up features a number of new faces that will be familiar

to local hockey fans, including former Trail Smoke Eaters forward Uriah

Machuga. The 20-year old forward was amongst the KIJHL’s scoring leaders

last season with 78 points in 51 games for the Spokane Braves. 2011/12

Braves captain Nick Redding and former NCAA blueliner Zach Maxwell are

also among Eastern’s seven new recruits.

 

Tickets for Sunday’s game are available at the door for $5.00 and Season

Pass information is available at the team’s website — www.GoSaints.ca.

 

Castlegar News