Kinistino Senior Tigers (Ben Tompkins/northeastNOW Staff)

By Ben Tompkins

HDIS

Hockey Day in Saskatchewan wraps up in Kinistino

Jan 22, 2024 | 5:26 PM

An event-filled week for the Town of Kinistino is now complete, as Hockey Day in Saskatchewan wrapped up on Sunday night.

The Kinistino Sr. Tigers were the last ticket of the festivities, as they pulled off a 6-4 win over the Nipawin Knights.

“Just a fantastic experience for everybody involved. It’s really been about the community and I think a lot of people took pride in that we all came together,” explained Hockey Day in Saskatchewan co-chair, Kris Babbings.

“We had great crowds all throughout. Everybody came on to support all the games, and we saw a lot of people at the rink that we don’t often see. That’s where the community really came together to support.”

The week began Tuesday night, as a hockey game featuring local teams and players, played out Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday night.

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Friday then featured a banquet and cabaret, with special guest Jay Onrait, before the official Hockey Day in Saskatchewan took place on Saturday, which was highlighted by the La Ronge Ice Wolves and the Nipawin Hawks.

“I think we’ve had just nothing but great comments about how that went overall, Jay Onrait is a professional entertainer and he delivered. He was here because he genuinely loved it and when you got to talk to him, you understood that he’s kind of one of us,” Babbings added.

“As for the game, it was great, it went to the fifth round of a shootout, so everybody got their money’s worth. The two teams were happy to be here, they wanted to be here, we were happy to have them. They put out a heck of a show for us and we’re grateful for that.”

The main theme of Hockey Day was to promote the game of hockey, build community spirit by making the arena the focal point of activity, and celebrate the many volunteers who assist in keeping local hockey active in their community.

The day also hoped to provide the host community with a fundraising platform to assist in the financing of local rink improvements or a new facility.

“We’ll have to figure out kind of where we come out at the end financially, given the cost of everything right now, we probably didn’t fix the needs that we have, but we’ve got a really good start and that’s all you can do,” Babbings told northeastNOW.

“We made the most out of the opportunity that Hockey Saskatchewan gave us and we of course want to thank them for that.”

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Ben.Tompkins@pattisonmedia.com

On X @BenTompkins_8