Warriors prep for CRJHL campaign

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This article was published 02/10/2020 (2073 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With safety first being front and centre for the St. Malo Junior Warriors training camp, the Warriors are getting set to drop the puck on the 2020-21 Capital Region Junior Hockey League season (CRJHL) next weekend.

The St. Malo Arena will only have their ice ready for play in mid-October, so the Warriors will play their first four games of the season on the road. They will open the season Oct. 10 at Selkirk in a 7:30 p.m. puck drop against the Fishermen, their perennial rivals.

In addition to St. Malo and Selkirk, the CRJHL will again be comprised of five teams along with the Arborg Ice Dawgs, Lundar Falcons and the North Winnipeg Satelites.

The Warriors have already been skating for three weeks as they had training camp sessions and tryouts at Ste. Agathe and Morris.

Ralph Collette, head coach and GM of the Warriors for the past three decades or so, is again at the helm of the hockey club.

Monday night in Morris the group of 25 skaters on hand went through a spirited up tempo workout in anticipation of the season opener next weekend. Collette says because of COVID, Hockey Manitoba is allowing teams to carry 25 players this year.

Collette says although they again expect to be very competitive and hopefully in the running at season’s end, he says the team this year will be younger.

That is due to the fact that five high school age players from St. Malo that would have been playing for the Morris Mavericks high school team will instead spend the season with the Warriors.

Although there is a strong group of 12 returning players, that will not include the high-scoring trio of Max Collette, Alex Murray and Christian Hince who have all moved on, including Collette, who will suit up with the Winkler Flyers this year. Collette led the league in scoring last season with 61 points in 32 games including a league-best 36 goals.

The first home game for the Warriors will be Oct. 30 at 8:00 p.m. at St. Malo vs. North Winnipeg. The Warriors will again play all their home games on Friday and Saturday night`s this season.

Collette says they are being extremely cautious with the players due to COVID concerns during camp. “It is our responsibility to protect our players. All our players wear their masks in the dressing room.”

Although initially the league will be kicking off a 32-game schedule, there are also contingency plans that would include a 24-game schedule and other scenarios should COVID surface in the league.