Jets Alumni to gather for Friday night game

By Étienne Thevou

Morinville – The San Jose Sharks may be taking on the Edmonton Oilers at Rexall Place Saturday night, but the real hockey action is set to take place at the Ray McDonald Sports Centre Friday night with back-to-back Jets games, all part of the Junior B club’s annual Alumni Game weekend.

Event organizer and former Morinville Jet Roland Blackburn said the alumni game was conceived as a way to rekindle relationships among former Morinville Jets, while creating a bond between the alumni and the current players, both veterans and rookies. “It gives them an opportunity to come back to Morinville, put on a Jets’ jersey, and just play a fun hockey game to reminisce and rekindle old friendships,” Blackburn said, adding that the fans also like to see the familiar faces. “Many of the fans that are here today were around when these players were playing, so they remember what it was like, and it brings back all those memories from the days when these players were playing for the Jets.”

The Alumni game, which will put former players on opposite sides of the ice in home and away jerseys, will consist of three fifteen-minute periods of solid inter club and inter generational rivalry, something Blackburn is sure will get the fans cheering and warmed up for the club’s regular season game against the North Edmonton Red Wings later in the evening.

Blackburn said the evening’s activities raise money for the Junior B club because each of the alumni players who take to the ice pay $65 to do so. In past years the alumni game has run in conjunction with a silent auction; however, a lack of volunteers in the Jets camp this season has forced the team to forgo with the fundraising auction to concentrate on putting on an evening of top notch hockey.

The puck drop for the alumni game is 5:45 p.m. and the CJHL regular season game starts at 8:30 p.m. Admission for more than five-hours of Jets’ hockey entertainment is free.

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