Ridge Meadows Flames open new junior hockey season Friday night

The Ridge Meadows Flames will open their new Junior A hockey season Friday, Sept. 11, at Cam Neely Arena. Puck drop is scheduled for 7:30 p.m.

The Flames enter the season as three-time defending Pacific Junior Hockey League champions, but will compete in a new league and under a new head coach. Mike Legg has been promoted from assistant coach to replace Brent Hughes, who led the club to all three PJHL titles. Garett MacDonald will serve as associate head coach.

The roster includes many rookies, while returning veterans include Manny Sandhu, who recorded 65 points in 44 games during his rookie season last year; forward Jonah Power Smith, with 27 goals and 23 assists; Maple Ridge’s Joshua Bettesworth, with 22 goals and 30 assists; and two-way defenceman Tyler Blatz.

The team will begin with four rookie goaltenders, including local player Jonah Chambers. Chambers is coming off a strong season with the Rustlers U18 A1 team and has previously been an affiliate player with the Flames.

At the end of August, the Flames also announced former Vancouver Canuck Denis Pederson as an assistant coach. Pederson played 435 NHL games from 1995 to 2003, then spent nine seasons in Germany. He was part of Canada’s gold-medal-winning team at the 1995 World Junior Championships and had a junior career with the Prince Albert Raiders.

The Flames will play in the re-aligned BC Hockey Conference, a 22-club league with a 50-game regular season across the Interior, Kootenay, Mainland and Valley divisions. They will compete in the six-team Mainland Division against the Burnaby Steelers, Coastal Tsunami, Delta Ice Hawks, Richmond Sockeyes and Port Coquitlam Trailblazers.

The top four teams in each division will advance to a 16-team playoff, featuring four best-of-seven rounds. The BCHC champion will be awarded the Mowat Cup in April.