With the season about half done, the Sundre Minor Hockey Association's president said the Huskies have enjoyed some close games.
"The kids are playing very competitive hockey," Dorothy Thengs told the Round Up last week.
Win or lose, the spread is generally fairly tight within a few points and there generally are no runaway victories, she said, adding the teams are having lots of fun along the way.
The Huskies are playing in the Central Alberta Hockey League this season, a change from the South Central Alberta Hockey League, and that has so far largely worked out well for the association, she said.
"It's good; we know the parameters we have to do everything in."
Provincial playdowns recently got underway, and the peewee A Huskies as well as the bantam squad are participating. Playdowns last about three weeks and lead up to provincial finals.
There are six teams this year ó dynamite, novice, atom, two peewee squads as well as the bantam Huskies. The midgets are the only level of hockey missing in Sundre this year, but that will change next season.
"We will be having a midget team next year. We'll definitely have enough kids," said Thengs, adding the local minor hockey association anticipates fielding teams at every level for the 2017-18 season.
Support for minor hockey has been excellent, and the annual tournaments have all done really well, she said.
"I've heard some great compliments coming in from the teams who have come into Sundre to play in our tournaments."
The last event is lined up in February when the dynamite Huskies will host their tournament on home ice. The tournaments not only provide the minor hockey teams with an opportunity to play a loaded weekend of hockey, but the events also create a beneficial economic ripple that reaches throughout the community's businesses, she said.
Before the new year, the association held its comedy night fundraiser, and will within the following weeks be announcing plans to sell 11-pound boxes of bacon, she said.
"They sell like hotcakes!"
Last but certainly not least, the annual Twinkle Toes season windup game is lined up for the end of March. Each team must raise at least $1,000 to get its coaches to play, and the squad that raises the most gets the entertaining honour of going up against the coaches in tutus, she said.
"It's a good time!"
