A Boxing Day tradition

Prince County’s two IJHL teams clash in Abram-Village

ABRAM-VILLAGE – It’s an opportunity for two arch-rivals to make a statement in the Island Junior Hockey League.

The Arsenault’s Fish Mart Western Red Wings and Kensington Moase Plumbing and Heating Vipers will meet in a home-and-home series over a four-day span. The teams will clash at the Evangeline Recreation Centre on Boxing Day at 7 p.m., and at Credit Union Centre in Kensington on Sunday, Dec. 29, at 7 p.m.

“Those are going to be massive games for us,” said Red Wings forward and captain Chandler Wood. “It’s going to be a real big test.

“If anybody likes the big stage and lights, this is going to be it. It’s going to be a battle and these are games that are a lot of fun.”

The Red Wings, coming off a 3-0 win over the SherwoodParkdale Metros on Sunday, are in first place at 12-1-2 (won-lostovertime losses) while the Vipers are third at 8-6-1.

“The Western games are always fun games,” said Vipers head coach Wade Waddell. “Going into the Boxing Day game our record against them is one win, one loss and one overtime loss. It’s going to be a lot of fun as we play them twice in a week.”

Red Wings head coach Nathan DesRoches is looking for his team to play disciplined hockey.

“Although (Boxing Day) is a big hockey game you can’t get caught up in the emotions of it,” said DesRoches. “The last couple of weeks we have dropped some games and really shot ourselves in the foot with our emotions and spun out of control.

“We have talked about it and Boxing Day is going to be a really good bench-mark for us in a way because it is such a big game we can’t get caught up in our emotions. We have to play our game.”