Ford Fiesta up for grabs during the Leafs final KIJHL regular season game
By The Nelson Daily Sports
By Bruce Fuhr
The Nelson Daily Sports
Saturday, during the Leafs game against the Creston Valley Thunder, two lucky fans will get an opportunity to shoot for a 2011 Ford Fiesta.
The chance occurs during the second-period intermission of final Kootenay International Junior Hockey League regular season home game for the Leafs.
“Two fans, one selected from the list of second-period shooting contestants during the season and one from the program buyers at Saturday’s game receive a chance to shoot for the Ford Fiesta,” said Leaf president Russell Stocks.
The two contestants receive one chance from center ice and must score on the Fiesta Shootout board over the goal.
The Ford Fiesta shoot to win is the highlight of what promises to be an evening of fun and games.
Also for fans at the game is a Wheel of prizes game. For $2, fans have a chance to spin the wheel to receive prizes donated by Nelson and District Community Complex, Save On Foods and Nelson Ford.
The Leafs are also donating some of the game proceeds to the Children’s Hospital Child Heath of B.C. The foundation, an initiative of B.C. Children’s Hospital, is a network of health authorities and health care providers dedicated to excellence in care of infant children and youth in B.C.
Executive decision to bring coach Shaw back
It’s not even playoff time and the Nelson Leafs executive is already planning for next season.
Team president Russell Stocks announced earlier this week that the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League franchise has retained current skipper Chris Shaw for another season as skipper of the Green and White.
“Chris had expressed interest in returning for next year, and if there wasn’t any issue and he agreed to come back we wanted to get that right out of the way,” Stocks told The Nelson Daily Thursday. “We wanted to get that done and out of the way.”
The Leafs were stung a little when last year’s coach and GM, Simon Wheeldon announced at the end of the season he was stepping down from a headman of the team.
The decision came after a long run by the Leafs through the playoffs and well into recruiting season.
That, combined with the fact Shaw could not start the job until June, left the Leafs behind other teams in the recruiting game.
“Most of the work for next season starts in the next two to three weeks after playoffs so we wanted to Chris to focus on what we need to do to win some games and not be worried if he’s going to have a job or not.”
Despite the Leafs failing to find any success against the Beaver Valley’s or Castlegar’s of the Murdoch Division, the Leaf executive is happy with the job of their coach and GM.
“We never based this year for Chris on wins and losses . . . we feel Chris has done a good job,” Stocks explained. “We also didn’t want to make it part of his success in the playoffs. His job wasn’t dependent on that. We wanted to make sure he knew that and the community at large knew that.
“So regardless of how we do in the playoffs won’t affect our decision moving forward.”
The Leafs are 24-21-0-3 under Shaw, good enough for third place in the Murdoch Division behind front running Castlegar Rebels.
Nelson concludes the regular season this weekend with a home and home series against Creston.
Friday Nelson opens in the Creston Valley before finishing off the campaign at home Saturday.
The Leafs open the KIJHL playoffs Tuesday in Fruitvale against the Hawks.
The first home game is Friday, Feb. 18 at 7 p.m. in the NDCC Arena.
sports@thenelsondaily.com
