By Peter Watts /

“Hello, Blaine.

“This is the CIS national office calling. We’re sending a hockey team to Harbin, China in mid-February to play in the FISU Winter Games.

“It’s the turn of the Canada West conference to represent this country. We’d like you to be one of the coaches. You’ll be assisting Milan Dragicevic from UBC who will be the head coach. You’ll also have Eric Thurston from Alberta who will be an assistant and will also act as team manager.

“All you have to do is assemble the 22 players in Vancouver on Sunday, Feb. 15. A lot of the players will be playing for their University teams on Friday and Saturday nights. Maybe, there’ll be time for one practice in Vancouver on Sunday evening. You leave Monday morning for Harbin. By the time you get there, it will be Tuesday Feb. 17.  You’ll have a couple of practices on the 18th and 19th and play your first game against the host Chinese on the 20th.

“Oh, by the way:  Canada’s the defending champion.  A team from the Atlantic conference won the gold medal at the 2007 Games in Torino, Italy.  So try and keep it going, will you?”

There’s nothing like a little challenge to inspire Canadian hockey people.

This one is no different.

The process to select the players has been going on through the first half of the conference schedule.

All of the league’s coaches participated in the selection of the first 14 players. Sautner, Dragicevic, and Thurston then had a conference call to go over the eligibility lists and select the final eight players. Two of the players are from Sautner’s University of Regina Cougars team.

“Brant Hilton has been outstanding in goal for us since he joined our program at the start of last season,” Sautner said. “He holds the school record for the best goals-against average in a season with a 2.26. He made the CIS all rookie team last season. And he’s picked up right where he left off this season.

“Kyle Ross has played all the way up through the hockey season in Regina from minor hockey to the Regina Pats to our program. His four years with the Pats was really good preparation for our team and he’s carried on to be one of our top offensive players.”

The Cougars find themselves in fifth place in Canada West at the break, just ahead of Calgary and UBC.

“We started off 3-1 and showing some promise,” said Sautner. “But then we lost first-line right-winger Dylan Johnstone and our fifth-year defenceman, Cody Thoring, to injuries.

“Without Johnstone, some of our other players have had to pick up the slack and play more minutes in key situations than we had expected. And Cody is a former captain in Everett in the WHL, and we really miss his experience and leadership on the blueline.”

“We hope to have them both back in the lineup after Christmas. We’re headed to Calgary to play in the SAIT tournament just after the new year. We’ll play Lethbridge and Alberta in the round robin, so it will give us a good taste of what to expect in the second half of the schedule.”

Sautner played his own university career at Brandon.

“In our first season, we went to Switzerland for about 10 days to play some games,” he said. “So I’ve had a little taste of international play. But this will be completely different.”
Switzerland or Harbin?

Hmmm. But throw in the jersey, the anthem, and the flag, and it will make the China trip a special experience indeed.