Fayetteville places to put on your bucket list fayobserver.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from fayobserver.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Credit Pensacola Ice Flyers
After a nine-month hiatus, it’s back to the ice for the Pensacola Ice Flyers and four other Southern Professional Hockey League clubs, who are playing a truncated season with fewer teams and fewer games thanks to the coronavirus.
The geographically southernmost teams – Pensacola, the Birmingham Bulls, Huntsville Havoc, Knoxville Ice Bears, and the Macon Mayhem – are playing a 42-game season. Ice Flyers head coach Rod Aldoff says with only one other minor league in operation, the ECHL, there’s been a bumper crop of talent to recruit.
“Obviously, when the league announced the five teams were dropping out, obviously a lot of teams became available from other teams,” said Aldoff. “So our goal was to go after a few guys that we thought would fit well with our team and we did, and they’re here.”
Posted:
December 11, 2020
By Emanuel Sequeira
COVID-19 had a life-changing impact for Braeden Ostepchuk.
The former Kimberley Dynamiters goalie was preparing to transition from playing minor pro hockey to becoming an engineer. Through a contact, he had a job lined up in Philadelphia, PA., that he was excited about.
The then 26-year-old was playing in his final season with the Evansville Thunderbolts in the Southern Professional Hockey League when the coronavirus put an end to his season. In 20 games, he was 13-5-0-2 with a 3.18 goals against average and a .902 save percentage.
“I’m down in the U.S on a temporary visa, I no longer have a job, I no longer have any health insurance. I no longer have a place to live. I don’t have any income,” said Ostepchuk, 27. “I have $70,000 in student debt left over. There was talk about what would happen with the border, but I decided I had to go home so I drove back to Alberta. The job I was going to do in the summer got pushed b