Murray Wood: Who's hot... and who's not
Every Friday, Murray Wood takes a look back at the week's news and decides who's hot... and who's not.
The two finalists for Kraft Hockeyville 2017 are out and Ituna is still in the race.
“It’s definitely a surreal moment,” said Adrienne Ivey, who co-owns a ranch near Ituna.
“I don’t know if we expected to hear our name coming out of Milan Lucic’s (Edmonton Oilers forward) mouth.” she said about the moment the finalists were announced Saturday.
“We had all got together at the arena for a viewing party Saturday night to celebrate,” Ivey said. “We absolutely celebrated in great hockey style and it’s been a fantastic few hours.”
The community of around 600 people is up against O’Leary, P.E.I.
The grand prize is a pre-season NHL game and $100,000 for arena upgrades with the runner-up getting the $100,000 prize too.
“You walk down the streets in Ituna and everyone has this enormous smile on their face,” Ivey said. “Everyone is talking about it, even if you don’t have a kid in hockey.”
Adrienne Ivey told 650 CKOM Sunday the money would be a major boost because the current rink will need to be torn down soon due to a failing roof.
“We can take a breath of fresh air since we have the $100,000, but now we want the pre-season game to make even more money for the arena,” she said.
Mayor Doug Scully said since the nomination the community has banded together.
“We’ve always had a strong community, but it’s become even stronger these past few weeks,” he said.
Voting is open now and ends on Monday.
If Ituna wins they will be the first Saskatchewan community to win Hockeyville.
Ituna is located around 135 kilometres northeast of Regina.
With files from JT Marshall.
