The largest recreation hockey tournament in Saskatchewan isn鈥檛 going to be happening for the second straight year.
The Estevan Strippers hockey club announced last week that it was forced to call off its annual Molson Spring Bust Tournament, which attracts 40 men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 teams to Estevan every April for five days of games.
鈥淲ith all of the lockdown restrictions, we can鈥檛 even play over-30 hockey,鈥� said Steve Godfrey, one of the organizers of the tournament. 鈥淭rying to plan a 40-team tournament on the possibility that we might be able to (have it), we just couldn鈥檛.鈥�
The Strippers had to cancel last year鈥檚 tournament after COVID-19 hit Saskatchewan just weeks before the tournament was set to start.
Multiple teams who haven鈥檛 been in the tournament before contacted the Strippers in the hope they might be able to participate this year.
鈥淲e had lots of interest and lots of support, but in the end, everyone understood why we couldn鈥檛,鈥� said Godfrey. 鈥淓verybody said they鈥檙e in for next year when we make that work.鈥�
The final blow for this year鈥檚 competition came last Tuesday, when the provincial government announced that it was extending current restrictions to Feb. 19. Those measures prevent teams from playing games, and limit the number of people allowed in an arena to 30.
鈥淚f they would have started pulling back the restrictions, then we might be able to see a light at the end of the tunnel, where the second week of April, we could possibly run the tournament,鈥� said Godfrey.
Since they have so many teams coming from out of town, Godfrey said they wanted to give the players lots of advanced notice about a cancellation.
鈥淓verybody鈥檚 looking at their schedules and looking at their holidays, and we鈥檇 had enough requests and things for everybody wanting to arrange hotels that we didn鈥檛 want to leave a decision to the last minute,鈥� said Godfrey.
More than 20 of the 40 teams come from outside of Estevan for the tournament each year, which means lots of people are staying at hotels and eating at restaurants.
Tournament organizers also have to make arrangements with referees and the suppliers of food and refreshments.
If the tournament did proceed, Godfrey said he doubts the Strippers could have had the cabarets and socials, which raise thousands of dollars for community projects each year.
He is still hopeful the Strippers and other teams can be back on the ice this season, but he doubts it will happen.
