For the first time since 1999, the Power Dodge Estevan Bruins are in the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League final, but for a while the playoffs were suspended as the league dealt with grief from the Humboldt Broncos bus crash that killed 16 people.
The League announced that the final series between the Bruins and the Nipawin Hawks will go Saturday and Sunday in the Centennial Auditorium, and then Tuesday and Wednesday at Affinity Place. The Bruins will help with the fundraising efforts of the families of a pair of former Bruins who died in the crash, head coach and general manager Darcy Haugan and assistant coach Mark Cross.
The Bruins’ original fundraising goal was $50,000, but when the Estevan Dairy Queen raised $23,353 by donating all their proceeds from Wednesday, April 11 to the cause, they changed their overall fundraising goal for the pair of games to $75,000 for an education fund for the families of Haugan and Cross.
“There’s also some merchandise sales that will be available here,” said Bruins president Cory Prokop. “A 100 per cent of the profits from the sales of that… will go to the same cause as well.”
Estevan Meter has guaranteed the Game 3 50-50 on Tuesday night will be $15,000, with the Bruins’ portion of that, plus any potential overages going into their fundraising goal.
Also at Game 3, Greg Hoffort said St. Joseph’s Hospital staff will have people sign up and make their intentions known to be organ donors. Staff will also provide information to help spread that message as well. This will be done in part to honour the memory of Logan Boulet, one of the players who died in the collision last Friday.
“”This young man’s act of heroism, has already saved lives and through the wave of folks he’s inspired to sign their donor cards and make known their intention, he will undoubtedly save thousands,” Hoffort said. “We look forward to many signing donor cards in Logan’s memory.”
Games 3 and 4 will have ceremonies and special guests lined up but neither Prokop nor Lewgood would give any hints as to what that would mean.
“We expect that these games will sell out,” Bruins general manager and head coach Chris Lewgood said. “I believe this will be the first time they’ve sold out for hockey games. With the playoffs trending the way they have, we were close to a sellout in the last game in the semifinal, and we expect to be nearing sellouts for these games. Now in the wake of this tragedy, the human interest has almost assured us sellouts. We want to encourage anybody coming to the game to use the pre-sale option.”
A sellout that would include all the standing room would mean there were 2,662 tickets sold.
Tickets are going to be $17 for adults, $12 for seniors and $7 for children, an increase across the board. There will also be assigned seating for the games instead of the rush seating that has happened for the regular season and first two rounds of the playoffs.
Game 5 if necessary would be Friday, April 20 in Nipawin and Game 6 is scheduled for Sunday, April 22 at Affinity Place. Game 7 would be Tuesday, April 24 in Nipawin.
