The Red Deer Vipers are fully aware of the significance of being the last team to play for a provincial title in the Red Deer Arena.
The Vipers will host the Alberta junior B hockey championship March 31 to April 3 in the Arena, which is scheduled for demolition shortly after.
“For us, it’s really exciting to have the chance to host the provincials especially with it being the year the building will close,” Vipers general manager Wade Krusky said Tuesday at the Arena, following a Hockey Alberta press conference to announce a new title sponsor and most of the provincial hosts sites for the 2015-16 season.
“We’re just really excited to be a part of it. There’s a lot of memories in this building. My son played minor hockey here his whole life and if you go back 30 to 40 years there’s been a lot of real big names who have played in and won championships in this arena.”
Vipers player Mitch Morrison reiterated Krusky’s sentiments.
“It’s really exciting to be hosting provincials, it’s the last year for the arena and there’s a lot of history here,” he said. “It’s been 10 years since this team won provincials and westerns and hopefully we can win a championship in this building.”
In a perfect world, the Vipers would go into the provincials as Heritage Junior League champions, or at least as one of the league finalists. Red Deer currently sits third in the league’s Northern Division with a 15-6-3 record.
“That is always the goal and it’s a goal we set at the start of the season — that we don’t want to go in just as the host, that we want to earn our way there,” said Krusky.
“So far the season has gone fairly well. We’re struggling right now with injuries, but that happens every year and we know that come February and March we’re going to be at our best.”
The new title sponsor for the 2016 Hockey Alberta provincials is ATB Financial.
“As an Alberta-based company we do our research and we found that 89 per cent of Canadians have an affiliation with hockey,” said ATB vice-president of community initiatives John Windwick.
“We’re a proud community partner and we couldn’t be happier to be part of the Hockey Alberta provincials, primarily because this is the time for kids to reach long-time dreams.”
ATB Financial also works with NHL players and the Alberta-based Western Hockey League teams.
• Four other Central Alberta communities will host provincial championships in March.
The midget female A provincials will be held March 10-13 at Olds, while Rimbey will host the peewee C championship during the same time frame.
From March 17-20, the atom A provincials will be staged at Lacombe and the atom female tournament will be held at Innisfail.