After winning the initiation Western Canadian Native Hockey Championship in 2009, the LRD team were at it again at the novice level this year.
The LRD Elite Heat are made up of players from Northwest Saskatchewan, Beardy's, Saskatoon, Kindersley, as well as Manitoba and Alberta. With that wide range of players, the Heat were a dominant team at Westerns earlier this month.
Coaches Cam Foulds of North Battleford and Jason Cameron of Beardy's put in long hours for scouting, recruiting and fundraising, and it paid off, as the Heat won handily in all five of their games.
The Heat beat the Saskatoon Urban Wild 13-0, Manitoba Wolfpack 17-1 and Sweetgrass Wolfpack 22-0 in round robin play. In the semi final, the Heat beat the Sandy Lake Blackhawks 18-0 to advance to the final against the Prince Albert Flyers.
The Flyers fell 10-1 to the Heat and for four of the Heat players it was their second championship in three years.
Keanu Folds of North Battleford, Jake Southgate of Battleford, Ty Bahm of Kinderlsey and Jason Cameron of Beardy's were all members of the 2009 initiation championship team - LRD Little Strikers.
Because of the distance between players, the team didn't have a practice and only played one exhibition game against a Meadow Lake area team, which they won handily, before playing in Westerns.
Mitchell Carey of St. Walburg, Brandon Kelly of Dodsland and Colby Ralston of Unity also played on the championship team. Ten of the Heat's 12 players will now focus on SaskCan novice hockey, which is based out of Saskatoon.
