YORKTON - The University of Saskatchewan Huskies will be playing Ukraine’s national hockey team Dec. 30, as Saskatoon will be the first stop for the visiting team during a ‘Hockey Can’t Stop Tour’.
The Ukrainians will be preparing for the upcoming World University Games as well as using the series of four games on the tour to raise funds for humanitarian and hockey causes in Ukraine, which has seen many of its hockey arenas decimated during Russia’s invasion over the past nine months. Money from ticket sales will also go toward Ukrainian grassroots organizations in Canada.
The game in Saskatoon will be particularly meaningful for a pair of former Junior Terriers on the Huskies this year; Alec Zawatsky and Aiden Bulych.
Overall the current college season has been something of a roller coaster ride for the University of Saskatchewan Huskies, said former Yorkton Junior Terrier Alec Zawatsky.
“The season was going great. We started off 6-1,” he said, adding the team then scuffled through a 3-3-1 stretch where “we lost a couple of games we shouldn’t have.”
But that won’t dull the experience of suiting up against the team from Ukraine.
“I think it’s really cool. Being in Saskatchewan there is a lot of Ukrainian heritage,” said Zawatsky. “. . . It should be a good test for us. . . It’s going to be a really good experience.”
The Ukrainian heritage Zawatsky spoke of includes his own family, where his grandmother makes the tradition perogies, cabbage rolls and borscht.
And when grandma’s perogies run out for Zawatsky he said he heads to the always popular Baba’s Homestyle Perogies for a meal in Saskatoon.
That connection of heritage also exists for another former Terrier Aiden Bulych.
“Being Ukrainian myself it is pretty special. It should be a pretty cool experience,” he said.
Bulych said the team will battle on the ice but he is looking forward to a supper planned for the two teams complete with perogies and cabbage rolls, which he hopes will provide an opportunity to get to know the players just a little bit.
“For sure it’s more than a hockey game,” said Bulych, adding it’s difficult to imagine what the Ukrainian players are facing.
“I’m sure they’re great people that don’t deserve it,” he said, adding he hopes to “. . . pick their brains what they’re dealing with.”
Bulych said he doesn’t expect stories of the worst of what is happening, but hopes to gain at least some personal understanding of the situation.
While Zawatsky said the game should be a competitive one, he recognizes there is greater storyline with the contest than hockey with Ukraine battling a Russian invasion.
“I think it’s a really good opportunity to raise some more awareness of what’s going on over there,” he said.
It is not lost on Zawatsky the players he will be facing off on the Ukrainian team might well return home to pick up a rifle and fight for their country.
“I try putting myself in their shoes and I can’t imagine what’s happening; what they’re experiencing,” he said.
In that respect Zawatsky said the game reinforces what we have here in Canada and how fortunate he is as a hockey player here.
“It’s a blessing every game to play hockey. Sometimes I think we take that for granted,” he said.
Bulych said he knows he takes his world too much for granted.
“When I think about it, I know I take what I have for granted,” he said, adding the pressures of school, hockey and life in general exist, but not one of those things compare to what is being faced in Ukraine.
The University of Alberta Golden Bears, University of Calgary Dinos and University of Manitoba Bisons will also play host to games during the tour.
All ticket sale profits will be sent to the Canada/Ukraine Foundation, which provides assistance to humanitarian groups in Ukraine and Canada.
The foundation will disperse the majority of funds to Save Ukrainian Hockey Dream, a charitable foundation operated by the Ice Hockey Federation of Ukraine with the assistance of the IIHF.
