Snowfall cancels NWJHL contests featuring Huskies and Kodiaks

FORT ST. JOHN, B.C. — If it were a hockey game, count the score as Mother Nature 1 – Strike Group North West Junior Hockey League (NWJHL) 0.

With snowfall warnings in effect throughout the Peace Region, the NWJHL cancelled games featuring northeast B.C.’s two hockey clubs, the Dawson Creek Kodiaks and Fort St. John Huskies.

Both Dawson Creek and Fort St. John were expected to see between 20 and 30 centimetres of snowfall throughout the weekend.

First, road conditions brought the Kodiaks scheduled tilt against the Fairview Flyers to a screeching halt on Saturday, September 13th, according to an announcement on the Flyers’ Facebook page.

The next night, the Kodiaks’ scheduled game against the Sexsmith Vipers was postponed due to the weather conditions. 

It was the second postponed game this month involving the Vipers, after a game against Fort St. John was axed earlier this month.

Kodiaks general manager Colby Wagar told Energeticcity.ca that “safety is the number one concern, for players, coaching staff and everyone involved.”

Off the ice, Wagar is a manager at both Roberts Towing and Recovery towing services business and Golden Bear Transport heavy hauling company.

“I run a towing company and a heavy haul company. We were pulling trucks off the road because the roads were bad [on Friday],” said Wagar. “I made a call to the league and talked it out with the other team. We just decided it was not best for us to travel on Friday. Saturday [versus Sexsmith], it was the same thing.

“It is not always the travel there, it’s getting home. Games are done at 10:30 p.m., [and] you are trying to be gone by 11 p.m. You are on the road going through snowstorms and white-outs, it’s not ideal.”

The Huskies, meanwhile, had alumni nights planned celebrating the team’s 60th anniversary on December 13th and 14th, with home dates at the North Peace Arena.

However, snowfall stalled the plans. Former Huskies’ players Brandon Modde, Darwin Pimm and Kurtis Lee were scheduled to participate in festivities before games against the Beaverlodge Blades and North Peace Navigators, respectively.

Huskies general manager Jeremy Clothier said the makeup games – which will now number three in total – will be “a bit of a grind” with just a month left in the regular season.

“[We’re talking] to the other clubs and the league to find the best fit for everything,” said Clothier. “It is going to be tight, the one nice thing is all the games are here, so we won’t have to travel, but it’s going to be a grind.”

No makeup dates for the games have been scheduled as of this writing.