The Dresden Jr. Kings got a lesson in sledge hockey on Friday, January 15, thanks to the Sarnia Ice Hawks.
Ron Rivait, manager of the Ice Hawks, said his team was excited to head down to Dresden and show off their skills.
“One of our long time players Joey Demars lives in Dresden and he’s a huge Jr. Kings fan… he is out at all those games,” Rivait said. “He wanted to share a little bit of his hockey experience with the Jr. Kings and that’s how things sort of came together. We were excited to go down and support Joey and have a great time with the Kings, which we did.”
Rivait said the whole experience was a blast.
“Let me sum it up in just a couple of words… we thumped them,” he said.
“No no… it wasn’t about that. It was a great time for everyone. Our team varies in ages. We have some players who are a co-ed team we go from about 12 years of age up to late 20’s. On Friday is was a combination of our two teams because we have a Jr. development team and we have an intermediate team. It was primarily our Jr. team that was out there the other night with a couple players from our intermediate team who we could get out.”
Rivait said they did put the Kings in a little bit of a disadvantage.
“They had only had one previous game with the sleds and some of the players they probably had never been in them before,” he said. “It was a lot of fun. They wanted to give it a shot. Usually when we do something like this, we go out between periods and we do an exhibition for everyone to see. This is the first time we actually sat down with a Jr. team and played. I think it opened up a new appreciation for the Jr. Kings on what our players do and our teams just had an absolute riot. It was so fun.”
The Sarnia-based squad has players from all over the Lambton-Kent area.
“We have players from Grand Bend, from Sarnia to Dresden and we have had some interest shown from Wallaceburg,” he said. “We are trying to entice a few players in from Chatham as well. We have had some communications and we do realize there is a bit of a drive, but it does offer an excellent opportunity for anyone that wants to play hockey, but can’t play traditional hockey.
If anyone is interested in learning more about the Sarnia Ice Hawks give Rivait a call at 519-332-8342 or visit them online at http://www.sdlambton.ca/.
Here are some photos taken by Jocelyn McLaughlin:
– Photo credit: Jocelyn McLaughlin
