The Davidson Cyclones senior men’s hockey team beat their former leading scorer Josh Sim and his defending SWHL (Sask West Hockey League) champion Kindersley Red Lions 5-2 on home ice Oct. 26 beginning another season of hockey in town and another key change in personnel on the roster.

“For the first game of the season we played really good,” said Cyclones goaltender Mark Zoerb, who gave up two goals on 22 shots through 30:26 of playing time before being replaced by Brady Willner for the second half of the game. “There are a lot of new guys this year and everybody seemed to play good together.”

Although the roster is still taking shape, new faces on the club that made their debut against the Red Lions include locals Bryce Prpick, Garret Dieno and Orrin Gryba and imports Cody Danberg and Kyle Bortis. Conspicuously missing from the Cyclones roster for its first pre-season game was two-time LLHL (Long Lake Hockey League) MVP Steve DaSilva who now calls the Beechy Bombers home.

“It (won’t be) easy to be able to replace him,” said Zoerb. “That’s a big spot to fill, but we brought in three young local players and we brought in two new imports that bring a lot of skill so I think we’ll be fine.”

Jason Shaw, head coach of the Cyclones, said Bortis, who scored the second and fourth goals against Kindersley, and Danberg, the first and fifth plus an assist on Kevin Johnson’s second period marker, are both gifted offensive players who have put up big numbers wherever they have played. He said the goal is to have the two new scorers playing on different lines this season, which should keep the club a dangerous offensive threat at all times.

“They both played some good hockey (against Kindersley),” said Shaw. “I don’t know if they’ll play together much (as) you want to try and spread the scoring out. Derek Allan has a sore knee right now, so we’re waiting on him to see how things go. Carter Smith is a pretty good offensive player too, so we’ll probably run two lines to try to spread out the scoring all year. You don’t want to just rely on one line.”

Shaw said with the new recruits the Cyclones should be able to play the same free skating high scoring hockey they enjoyed with DaSilva and Sim before him. He said their style that saw the club once again lead the league in regular season scoring last year won’t be changing this season and their goal of winning a fifth straight provincial title won’t as well.

To read more please see the November 4 print edition of The Davidson Leader.