Huskies throw back hits to capture Friday night win

The excitement was almost bursting out of Takhini Arena this weekend; there wasn’t a parking spot to be found, and a line up of excited hockey fans wound its way through the parking lot.

The excitement was almost bursting out of Takhini Arena this weekend; there wasn’t a parking spot to be found, and a line up of excited hockey fans wound its way through the parking lot.

The action that took place within seconds of the first puck dropping on the Whitehorse Huskies versus the Powell River Regals proved this wasn’t just any old hockey game – this was something new, well kind of.

In the first ten or so seconds of the game, a Husky player was airborne to kick start the action and the thrills never stopped until the Huskies charged to a 4-2 win over the Regals on home ice for the first time in 16 years. The last time the Huskies hit the ice, they took home the coveted Allan Cup in 1993.

“We came out with great guns on Friday,” said coach Randy Merkel. “We won the first game, that was encouraging.”

Saturday’s game didn’t go as well for the Huskies – they were beaten by the Regals 9-1 after a Friday-night victory that was well fought, but Merkel wasn’t concerned.

“The loss that we took on Saturday, it could be a blessing in disguise,” he said. “It gave us a lot of information.”

Merkel was able to get more insight into individual players and conditioning of the team.

“We got a whole bunch of questions answered,” said Merkel.

The Huskies players, who have been practicing together for only a month, are used to playing rec league, not full contact Triple A league hockey.

“Hitting takes a lot out of you,” said Merkel.

And the hits were plentiful – the Huskies battled back at the Regals like they’d been doing NHL calibre checks for years, but the energy just didn’t keep up for Saturday night.

Merkel has also noticed a few rec hockey quirks he has to work on in practice.

“Our guys playing rec hockey, there’s a lot of habits we have to get rid of,” he said.

All things considered, Merkel is happy with how his team performed and what he can now take to practices.

“We have to be happy with our first weekend,” he said. “We said what we were going to do, and we did.”

Merkel admits the team they faced was tough, and the win was a good one to get.

“They didn’t win three Allan Cups in 10 years for nothing,” he said of the Regals. “It gave the team a real eye opener.”

After the game, Merkel faces a few more questions. He now must work with the all-local team and look into possibly bringing out of down players in to kick the team up to Triple A hockey.

“Our goal in the end of all this is to make it to the end of the year and develop a team that’s going to be competitive at this level,” said Merkel.

And it seems the fans will come. While Merkel would have liked to have seen a full house, he was grateful for those who did attend. An average of 668 people attended each night.

“It was really good to see people in the rink again watching hockey,” he said. “We do need more support but we need to work on that.”

Merkel hopes to build up the fan base as the team improves.

“We are going to go ahead,” Huskies’ GM

The Huskies game wasn’t just a success in building the players, the business side of it all got a huge boost from the attendance and support received over the weekend.

“This was a grand experiment,” said Huskies general manager, Jim King.

“We’re trying to resurrect something from the mists of time,” King laughed.

Those in the Huskies camp had set themselves a goal of 500 people – this was the number they had to achieve to break even after paying the Regal’s way up to Whitehorse. King was more than happy to announce this morning that they shattered that goal.

“It was a success beyond our expectations by quite a lot,” said King.

On Friday and Saturday an average of 668 people walked through the door.

“We have a little bit of money in the bank,” said King. “Not much, but a little bit.”

That little cushion the Huskies have built up will allow them to bring in more teams, and allow them to go out of town to help bring them up to par with other Triple A hockey teams they hope to beat in order to get their hands on the Allan Cup in their first season back.

King says a potential sponsor has emerged after the success of the weekend, and they will be working together in the coming weeks to reach an agreement that may help further supplement the Huskies continued presence in Whitehorse.

An army of 27 people helped make the weekend a success, and King says they all can’t wait for the next one.

“Everybody that I talked to after the second game said, ‘Yes, give us a call, we’ll be back,’” said King.

There were a few things the Huskies camp learned this time around that they will work on for next time.

“It was 19 below, and people were lined up outside. I felt bad,” said King.

Next time around, King says they will make tickets available ahead of time for those who want to stay out of the cold.

“We learned a lot of things,” said King.

Behind the scenes, Huskies captain Clayton Thomas has been negotiating with teams outside of the territory to have some home and Outside games.

King says they hope to have a game in December, but can’t guarantee anything.

“There’s so many twists and turns along the way,” he said.

One thing was for sure, the fans will come.

“We know where we stand with the fans,” said King.

The Huskies are also awaiting the arrival of their own jerseys. For this weekend’s games the Huskies borrowed jerseys from the North Yukon Eagles. The jerseys were leant by North Yukon MLA Darius Elias.

While he can’t confirm a date for the next time the Huskies will hit the ice, King is confident enough to confirm the team’s future; “We are going to go ahead.”

And that is music to a Whitehorse hockey fan’s ears.