Sports

Vegreville Rangers Home Opener Well Received by Fans

Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser

Nearly 340 hockey fans were in attendance for the Vegreville Rangers Jr. B opening game of the 2022-’23 season on Sept. 30.

Two of the fans were Doug Hopper and D’Arcy Martin who were all smiles as they cheered on their home town team. Martin said she’s been coming to Rangers games for 20 plus years and was happy to be able to come out and support the players in their first home game in two years.

“It gets me out and it’s a nice outing,” said Martin, who was delighted to catch up with a few of her friends in the stands between periods.

Tracy Ezio said, “It’s great that they’re back playing again.” She said it was nice to see the stands pretty full after the two-year hiatus. Ezio said they try and support all the local teams, including the Vegreville Vipers Jr. A squad.

Ezio’s son, who also plays hockey, was also excited to see his second cousin Zachary Micklich playing for the Rangers. He was also keeping a close eye on #44 Brody Wakaruk during the game.

Even though the Rangers lost by a score of 6-2, fans left the building happy.

Rangers Manager Pete Ling said during a post game interview that it’s great to be back on the ice. Attendance was estimated at 339 people. “We haven’t seen attendance like this in a long time…So, we’re ecstatic the community has supported us and we are thankful for that. It’s good to see.

We had two preseason home games and two away games and attendance has been great. We surpassed it tonight. The buzz around town, the buzz in the building. I’ve seen a lot of people in the last few hours, few weeks, that I haven’t seen in a long time at the rink.”

Ling said he was also happy to see former Ranger players, including Justin Curtis who played four years between the pipes as a goalie. “So, that’s good to see.” Curtis did the honour of dropping the puck during the ceremonial face-off prior to the start of the game.

Ling said the Rangers are considered an expansion team this year. The kids who are over age were rookies

when we last played. So, were starting from scratch. So, we were kind of concerned about what we’d have as far as players coming out and being available to us, but I gotta say the community support us, surrounding communities and players from all over we never thought would be coming. It’s really good.

Ranger Brody Wakaruk moves the puck down ice.

(Michelle Pinon/Photo)

Lots of local of kids for sure. Lavoy, Mannville, Andrew, Pierceland, Saskatchewan. One of our goalies is from Victoria, BC. We’ve got a few from Goodfish Lake and Bonnyville. So, were kind of spread out and that’s good because we need to draw the talent.

At this point we are very happy with the number of players that we have that are committed to be here. We didn’t know if we’d be there, but in the past, even when we were playing here before it was a struggle to get players to play here. So, that’s not a problem this year and we’re fortunate for that.”

They have very few returning players, so Ling said they will have to “gel” a bit. “We’re constantly looking to improve our roster.” They can carry up to a maximum of 25 players until Jan. 10 when they have to narrow it down to 23 players.

“Obviously, everybody wants to win, but our goal right now is we’ve got a young team that needs to gel and we need them to gel and improve on a constant basis. Then we’ll see where we are at the end of season…Everyone wants to have a successful year, but we’re starting from scratch so we’re having to take on this role of building this team back up, so it might take a few years.”

Remarking on Head Coach Trevor Carter, Ling said, “He’s got a good hockey mind. He’s a good communicator. He’s got a really positive outlook.” He believes that will bode well for the team and is looking forward to the season ahead as the Rangers will be playing 16 games at home and 15 games on the road.

The Rangers will be hosting a future prospects game in early January that will feature mini-games with U-9 players from Vegreville Minor Hockey during intermission. He said it was extremely popular when they held it previously and expects it to be the same this season.

Vegreville Vipers Blow Out Barrhead Bombers

Michelle Pinon - News Advertiser

The Vegreville Vipers trounced the Barrhead Bombers by a score of 12-3 in first home game of the regular season on Oct. 2.

General Manager Bryan Brown was happy with the results as well as attendance as approximately 150 fans took in the home opener. The Vipers had plenty of fire power chalking up 60 shots on goal during the game.

L-R: Clint Clark, Lori-Ann Cohoe, Jerrold Lemko and Colton Lebid-Pham.

(Jem’s Snapshots/Submitted Photo)

“There’s some great chemistry between players starting to happen,” said Brown. He was happy with their performance and is looking forward to the season ahead.