Kam River Fighting Walleye
Remembering The Humboldt Broncos Bus Crash
April 6th, 2018, a day that changed the hockey world.
Wednesday marks the four year anniversary of a junior hockey team’s trip to a playoff game that ended in tragedy.
Sixteen members of the Humboldt Broncos of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL) were killed, thirteen injured when the northbound coach bus struck a westbound semi-trailer truck near Armley, Saskatchewan.
The semi-trailer was travelling at a speed of approximately 100 km/h.
Ten players, two coaches, a statistician, radio announcer, athletic trainer, and bus driver were killed.
Submitted photo of the tribute involving the SIJHL’s Thief River Falls Norskies and Thunder Bay North Stars (Mike Tallari)
Kam River Fighting Walleye (SIJHL) defenceman Kersey Reich is from Estevan and was taking part in a Fall Camp for Midget ‘AAA’ Hockey.
“Immediately the tone around everything was different,” Reich remembered. “Lots of (my teammates) had friends on the bus and it really affected the whole hockey world. It was a tragedy for sure, especially to happen in my home province.”
Reich also had a specific friend on the bus, who unfortunately passed away in the crash.
“That obviously affected me personally,” Reich noted. “It really put things in perspective as to how lucky we all are to play junior hockey and do things together as a team, like ride a bus.”
The 29-year-old driver of the semi Jaskirat Singh Sidhu pled guilty to sixteen counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing death and 13 counts of dangerous operation of a motor vehicle causing bodily injury.
He was sentenced to 8 years in prison and is still fighting to stay in Canada.
The crash happened just 22 minutes outside of the final destination in Armley, Saskatchewan.
Randy MacLEAN, who was the Vice President for the team at the time recalls the outpouring of support, “A tragedy, while at the same time we witnessed the amazing things that happen when people and communities and the nation pull together to support each other in a crisis situation.”
He added, “The giving and humanity and the compassion, empathy of our fellow citizens within Humboldt, the province of Saskatchewan, the country of Canada and all over the world was something that was an honour to be a part of, an honour to support and an honour to work through such a horrific event,”
The club played their first home game of the 2018–19 season on September 12th against the Nipawin Hawks.
With files from Kevin Jeffrey and Tara Clow.
Centennial Cup Changing Formats This Year
Whoever wins the Bill Salonen Cup will book a trip to Estevan, Saskatchewan.
The Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL), in conjunction with Hockey Canada and the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL), announced a revised format for the 2022 Centennial Cup.
The tournament will begin May 19th and will feature the host Bruins (SJHL), as well as all nine champions of the other leagues.
As a result, traditional CJHL regional championships – including the Dudley-Hewitt Cup, previously scheduled to be hosted by the Red Lake Miners – will not be contested this season.
“We just weren’t sure what the traditional format would look like in this environment,” said SIJHL Commissioner Darrin Nicholas. “With leagues giving indications they weren’t going to be able to participate in regionals this season as a result of the delays in completing their schedules, the CJHL board recognized it needed to find a way to relieve some pressure and uncertainty from the host committees.”
As of now, there is no plan for a 10-team national championship beyond this year, and Red Lake would have the first right-of-refusal to host a rescheduled Dudley-Hewitt Cup in May of 2023.
Superior League Hopes To Resume In February
The local Junior ‘A’ hockey league remains optimistic that they’ll be back on the ice next month.
The province will enter a stay at home order on Thursday morning. In addition to the lockdown announcement on January 7th, Northern Ontario will remain in Code Grey until at least January 23rd. That means hockey facilities are closed and all Hockey Northwestern Ontario programming is paused.
Commissioner Darrin Nicholas says right now the plan is to have the players stay put.
“My vision would be that we keep the players in the community and find a way on a local level to keep them engaged in the season. That way we don’t have to go through [the quarantine process] again,” says Nicholas. “For instance if the restrictions are lifted on February 11th, we can get the players on the ice for a few days and we could be playing games as quickly as February 14th or 15th.”
The Commissioner admits the idea of bubbling up all of the teams in a central location has been floated if and when they get the green light to resume the season.
“If we only have a short window to play games, maybe we can put together two or three showcase events back to back with three games in a day,” adds Nicholas. “Any and all options remain on the table. If there’s a way to give some meaningful hockey to the league and to our players we’ll be committed for that.”