oe DOING the limber: River Kings owner and goaltending ‘Prospect Burny Carlsen readies for the ice. River King braintrust | expect more THE ‘PUCK’S about to drop on the Terrace. River Kings’ 4 second season and the team’s owner is confident the first- q year kinks have been worked out. By mid-August last year, Burny Carlsen said he came to the realization he needed to act fast if he wanted to ice ateam in the Central Interior Hockey League. “By September 1 (2004) I needed to have a team name, ~ jerseys made up, secure sponsors and set up a Web site,” said Carlsen, who has split his time and hockey career be- tween here and New Westminster in the Lower Mainland. The team had to wear borrowed jerseys for its first two exhibition games and with all the off-ice preparations, it may ' have been hard to put enough: energy into the on-ice prod- uct... “Tt was tough,” game, a 4-0 loss to Kitimat. - said Carlsen, who started the team’ s first By the time they opened at home with back-to:back games versus Smithers, the team was sporting their new jer-: seys and the city embraced it. © : “The first home game was sold out with over 1,000 peo- ‘ ple,” Carlsen said. “No one had seen the rink full in years.’ In a year, without NHL hockey on TV, the River Kings . capitalized: ‘Out. of. nine total: -home games, Carlsen’ s team. sold out six of them. .6-3, good for third place. The team finished a game above 500 with a record of 7- “Last year, people had us finishing sixth to eighth,” said Carlsen, who’ shared the goaltending duties with Leland Macdonald. “We put that prediction to shame.” The locals earned a playoff berth and lost their. postseason debut in a two-game at the hands of Houston. a That was then and this is now as Carlsen looks toward an. improved 2005-06 season. With startup costs around $10,000, the 34-year-old fin- ished last season “in the hole a bit.” Carlsen, a drywall and construction contractor, said he’s ‘increased the number of team sponsors and with one year under its belt, is hopeful the team will have 500 season tick- ets sold by mid October. “I’m not in it for the money, I’min it for the hockey,” said Carlsen, who suited up for seven games with the Kitimat Ice more business-like. ; Trevor Hendry rio Desjardins, promoted team captain Davey Jones and the | Demons in the 2003-04 campaign. In that vein, the hockey side of the operations is getting ° ‘Player-coach Trevor Hendry is taking on the coaching duties full time. . Carlsen said the 38-year- old coach felt he would have a tough time eaming a: spot - on the team and decided to hang up his skates. “Last year was wonder- : ful,” Hendry said. “It was a learning year and we played with what we had. “This year, we hope to improve .the organizational and the hockey part of it,” added Hendry, who was Signed as a free agent by the NHL’s former Hartford Whalers 20 years ago. ; Hendry will get help from _ a group at the top of the team that includes the injured Ma- _ team’s new manager, Kevin Fletcher. ‘ Organizational improvements include weekly practices and dryland and fitness training. With 10 new. faces, including veteran guys who had moved away, and all but one of 23 players returning from last year’s roster, Hendry said the team looks to be set on ‘defence with only spots at forward open as of last week. “There’s some depth that hasn’t made it out,” Carlsen, of potential players from outside of Terrace, though Hendry said the team will try to keep as local as possible with its selections. A Carlsen said the team carries insurance for 30 players un- " til January, when every team in the league must “card” the 25 players they want to employ through the playoffs, though only 18 skaters and two goalies can dress for each game. Carlsen said getting past league champion Kitimat and runner-up Houston will be tough, though he thinks the team can open up the gap between itself and the other teams. The league has dropped from eight to seven teams with the folding of the Burns Lake Braves and the schedule has expanded from 16 to 20 games. Both Carlsen and Hendry are confident the fans will re- turn, even with the Canucks back on the tube. “You can’t go out and watch good hockey in your living room,” Hendry said. “It’s affordable family entertainment.” It’ll be that much more entertaining if the team can im-- prove on its inaugural year. a said - ‘a net-pushing drill; ‘out scrimmage; Richard ‘it’s “one more kick at the a = Trying for hoc! humbled pretty quickly: in Canada with such an abundance of ice hockey talent wherever you go and Terrace is no different. With average skating, I knew that Thad to impress with hockey smarts, hussle, good positioning and a will- ingness to play physically. After two _ practices to work off the rust, train: . _ ing camp opened Sept. 6 for the first of three one-hour sessions. First tryout, Sept. 6 The perceptible change on day one was the eerie pre-skate silence in the room and the increase in in- tensity on the ice. And what would a camp be with- out skating drills? More than 10 years removed from minor hockey and‘any form of an organized tryout, it was a painful reacquaintance. = * I had put a visor — mandatory in the CIHL — on my helmet that night to get used to using it should I make the team: As I laboured through the crossover and line skating drills, the visibility continued to lessen through Trading pad and pen for stick and skates _ Report by Dustin Quezada ¢ photos by Sarah A. Zimmerman the fogged up shield. Note to self: visor off next time. The scrimmage on carved-up, . snowy ice was a disappointment -for all. Neither the pucks nor the . hopefuls moved fast. As it goes in tryouts, especially such brief ones, good impressions are critical and “everyone wanted to push forward to score, so everyone had turns’at for- ward and defence, also contributing to disjointed play. I managed to put my own rebound in for a goal. Note to coach: scrimmage first on fresh ice before the skating drills next time. Second tryout, Sept. 9 That’s exactly what happened, as the group was slimmed by four skat- ers. This scrimmage was much more Spirited, featuring several big. hits, two fights and“a better display of speed and skills. -Most men’s leagues are ‘non-hit- ting to reduce inevitable shenani- gans that working people simply don’t want to have to deal with. But it’s such a great part of the game, if not tiring. Having .been crunched on a questionable hit, I took a couple of runs at the player a _ couple of shifts later. Energy sapped, off for a change. With defencemen and forwards ~at their respective positions, order was restored. The Terrace Standard, Wednesday, September 21, 2005 - A5 SARE BBE aise: TERRACE Standard reporter and hockey hopeful Dustin Quezada unwinds after the second River Kings tryout Sept. Qat Terrace Arena. I felt comfortable playing most | of my shifts at centre, where I have | long played and set uP a couple of. goals. — ‘I felt my goals. of playing smart and well positionally, hussling and taking the body had been met. - We capped the night with ‘more ‘skating. Again, I tried to make up | for my skating shortfall with effort, doing well (I thought) to show my. conditioning. Players were notified to meet with head coach Trevor Hendry af-. terward and word spread through the arena hallways that further cuts were. being made. Needing extra time to ask some questions myself, I waited for the last spot. “Your skating could use some work but we like your hands,” Hen- dry, joined by other team braintrust, bluntly said. . They .wanted me back ‘fora "practice on Sept. 12 with a group ’ slimmed down by eight skaters. The group divulged that there » were basically:two forward spots up for grabs and that some skilled hope- fuls had yet to make it out. The head coach made it clearthat . I would get'a shot. I was encouraged to make the second round of cuts, but getting an accurate and honest reading of where I stood was sober- ing. I kept my camera away from the.” gs spot Fishing fora River Kin CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: Team cap-. tain Davey Jones takes a breather to watch his team,. after his. stint in Re- turning defence hopefuls Toby Mitchell. (left) and Tim Lepp talk things over on the bench during a try- Lindstrom, at 39, is one of the older guys looking for a roster spot. He says can.”; Gary Kerbrat, in his second. River Kings camp, shows another use for his stick as he stretch- es during the second try- out Sept. 9. al tink because I wanted to show ‘the | team’s executive’ was serious about’ ~ playing, that I-wasn’t just there for m the novelty of the story. Third tryout, Sept. 12 Practice drills — good for play- ers and good evaluators for coaches. And due to numbers, some . play- ers have to do more watching than’ participating. 1 was one‘of ‘the two doing more spectating and learning from the bench. At practice’s end, Hendry listed the players that would play Friday, Sept. 16’s exhibition in. Kitimat versus the league champion Ice De- mons. My name wasn’t called. _ “Quezada” wasn’t uttered until 20 minutes later when I heard it typ- ically butchered from the hallway. Could I play Friday?-Yes. a It was a blast, even. though we were bombed 10-2. You can never be happy in team sports with such a result but when you’re trying to. make a team, your own play counts.’ My line was even in the +/- cate-_ “gory, which is the only way a fourth line can operate. _ After the game, Hendry said he, would be calling players with good 7 or bad news this past weekend. So, ’ at print time I didn’t know my fate. « Before leaving, the coach stopped short of saying my performance had ~’ pleasantly surprised him: . That’s all a player can do.