OXBOW - It is really interesting how stories can emerge out of things that weren’t supposed to happen!
Take, for instance, the events of last fall. On Nov. 25 and 26, the Saskatoon Blazers were scheduled to visit the Estevan Great North U18 AAA Bears in the Saskatchewan Male AAA Hockey League (SMAAAHL).
Those games were forced to be postponed, as a winter storm prevented the Blazers from getting out of Saskatoon. When time came for those rescheduled games to be played, no ice time was available in Estevan. A back-up plan saw the games shift to Oxbow and were played Feb. 26 and 27.
On the Blazers' roster was Troy Shewchuk, whose hockey career path would likely have never taken him to Oxbow. When Shewchuk stepped onto the ice, he became the fourth generation of the Wright family to play organized hockey in Oxbow’s arena.
That family trail began in 1960. The Big Six Hockey League started that year with four teams – Carnduff, Oxbow, Glen Ewen and Bienfait. Playing for the Glen Ewen Eagles was Lyle Wright. He won the scoring title in 1962 with 90 points in just 16 games. Another example of his playing prowess was seen in 1953, when he was with Carnduff’s junior B team. In a game where Carnduff was winning 15-1, the coach asked him to ‘hold things back’ a bit, as Lyle Wright had scored 14 of the goals. Wright responded by saying that he wasn’t wired to play at half speed.
Lyle Wright had a son Rae. Years after Lyle made his Oxbow Arena debut, Rae joined the Huskies in the Big Six. Rae was a pretty good player himself. He didn’t play organized hockey as a kid, only skating in shinny games on dugouts and playing recreationally. He was 31 when he played his first organized game with the Huskies. Perhaps his biggest claim to fame was the evening when he scored two goals and had five assists against the Lampman Imperials and still didn’t win player of the game honours. That went to his linemate who scored five goals, all set up by Rae.
The trail continued. Rae had a daughter named Kyla. She played seven years on Oxbow ice, skating with the boys. In fact, some years she was the only female player on the team. At the age of 13, she moved to Moose Jaw with her mother and that brought her Oxbow playing career to an end. She eventually moved to Saskatoon and in time, gave birth to a future hockey-playing son, Shewchuk.
And Shewchuk kept the Wright streak going when he laced up his skates in Oxbow on Feb. 26. All because games that were supposed to be played in Estevan weren’t, and games that weren’t supposed to be played in Oxbow were.
It will be interesting to see if a twist of fate will enable a fifth generation of Wrights to keep the streak alive.
