Elks split opening weekend

The Elk Point Sr Men’s Elks team split a pair of games to open their season with the SaskAlta Senior Men’s Hockey League. The team welcomed the Wainwright Rustlers to town on Friday night to a 7-4 loss and traveled to Vermilion for Saturday, beating the Rock 5-2. Coach Murray Cochrane says both games were crowd pleasers.

Friday’s game was the first of the season, for the Elks, at the AG Ross Arena, in Elk Point. The crowd came out to cheer on the boys, who unfortunately fell 7-4 in front of the home crowd. “It was a really fast game,” Coachrane says the game against Wainwright could’ve went either way with the amount of switch overs and bounces, “it was a matter of a few bounces. They got some lucky bounces and we didn’t”. The Elks will get an opportunity to meet the Rustlers again next weekend, in Wainwright. On Saturday the team traveled to Vermilion, where the Elks took down the Rock with a healthy 5-2 win.

The team has a few returning players that’ll help guide the club during the season, including team captain Jason Kalynchuk, Mark Brodbin, Sean Joly , Scott Dallaire and Paul Boulianne in net.

“We’ve picked up quite a few new guys,” Cochrane says the club has grown this year with additions from Cameron Ballas, Jordan Wozniak and Riley Wozniak.

The team will also see a new face behind the bench, Jordan “Krank” Krankowsky, “he’s one of the biggest additions for the team,” the new assistant coach, Krankowsky brings with him a lot of hockey knowledge. He’s a former Bonnyville Jr A Pontiac and NAIT Ook. “He’s teaching the guys systems and they want to play. I think once we get those systems down, we’ll be hard to beat.” Cochrane is really hopeful for the season with an asset like Krankowsky on the bench with him.

The Elks are on the road this weekend and return home for a huge game against the Dewberry Mustangs on November 10th. Guaranteed to be a barn burner, puck drops at 8:30 pm on November 10th, at the AG Ross Arena.