By Peter Watts /

More than 400,000 tickets for the 33-game World Junior Hockey Championship went on sale across Saskatchewan on Nov. 8 through Ticketmaster.

Tickets are available online at Ticketmaster, by phone at 1-800-970-SEAT (7328) or at any Ticketmaster outlet.

Only full ticket packages are available at the moment.  Twenty-one of the games, including the full medal round will be played at Credit Union Arena in Saskatoon.

Regina gets 12 games, including two pre-tournament games featuring Team Canada.

“One of the things we’ve done is to set up a payment plan for the packages over a 12-month period,” says Jack Brodsky, president of the organizing committee. “We all know this tournament has grown into a really popular event.

“Tickets for the 2006 event in Vancouver and this year’s tournament in Ottawa sold out a year in advance.

“So we know they’ll be popular and we want to give people a chance to spread the payments out over a period of time, if that’s what they need, to purchase a package.”

Saskatoon Blades’ season ticket holders got first crack at the tournament packages before the public sale got underway.

Brodsky said there was a pretty good buy-in by the club’s 3,000 season ticket holders.

“We’re also pleased about the upgrades to Credit Union Arena,” he said.

“The provincial government has stepped up to help us add about 3,000 seats in the building, which will complete the upper bowl and make it a really special setting for hockey.

“We’ll be able to seat just under 15,000 for tournament games.”

There are seven or eight exhibition games involving international teams still to be scheduled. That will be done following this year’s tournament in Ottawa, once national team demands are known.

“We’ll ask for interest from other communities around the province,” Brodsky said. “I’ve already had some calls and I think there’ll be a fair bit of interest. We want to make the tournament a truly provincial event and moving these pre-tournament games around the province is one way we can do that.”

ON THE MOVE
Meantime, there are positive signs for the season for both the men’s and women’s hockey programs at the University of Saskatchewan.

The men’s team picked up consecutive wins at UBC by scores of 2-0 and 4-2 on Nov. 7-8.

Former Kootenay Ice star Steve DaSilva and Steve Gillen, who played last year for the Moose Jaw Warriors, have added considerable firepower to coach Dave Adolph’s arsenal.

The two are one-two in team scoring in the early going. The Huskies next start is in Regina on Nov. 21.

Sophomore Breanne George and fourth-year player, Shaye Christianson are doing similar work for the women’s hockey program.

“Our skill level and competitiveness is better,” Christianson said. “Chelsea Purcell plays centre for Breanne and I and we’ve become a pretty good scoring unit.

“The coaches put us together last season and we just gelled. We’re starting to see other teams pay more attention to us, which is a challenge, but we’re working through that.

“We’ve added defenceman Madison Duffin and forward Jacqueline Tait who played together in Alberta to our roster this season. We also added forwards Danny Stone and Terri Baker from the Saskatchewan AAA women’s league and they’ve all helped make us a better team.

“Our league is interesting so far this season. Manitoba is on top and Alberta, which has been the powerhouse in our conference, recently lost two games to the Bisons in Winnipeg. And next year we understand Calgary is coming back into Canada West and I know Danielle Goyette is building a good program there. So it’s a good conference and we want to keep getting stronger within it.”