Fort McMurray forward Brendan Wright has been suspended five games by the AJHL, captain Adam Johnson has been banned for two and assistant coach Tom Kecca one game following a late game fight Thursday night.

With the Oil Barons beating Lloydmister 4-1 things got ugly late in the third period of the exhibition game. Three Bobcats also received two game suspensions while another has been banned one game. The league also fined the Oil Barons.

It’s only their first pre-season game of the year, but a wins a win. The Fort McMurray Oil Barons beat the Bonnyville Pontiacs 6-1 in their first game action of the 2010/2011 season Wednesday night.

The exhibition tilt was the first of three straight on the road. The MOB are in Lloydminster tomorrow for the first of back-to-back games versus Bobcats.

Tune into Fort McMurray Matters this Friday August 20th when I’ll be joined by Oil Barons general manager and head coach Gord Thibodeau. We’ll be recapping last season, talking training camp and touching on the 2010-2011 season. You can also catch the show online at www.mix1037fm.com.

The Fort McMurray Oil Barons wouldn’t have reached game seven of the AJHL Enerflex Cup Finals last season if it weren’t for the steller goaltending of Jesse Kallechy; and that’s what it came down to when head coach and GM Gord Thibodeau had to decide which starter to keep.

Today the Barons dealt 19-year old Joey Quattrocchi to the Drayton Valley Thunder 20-year old netminder Jeff Holloway and future considerations. The MOB then shipped Holloway to the BCHL’s Prince George Spruce Kings for forward Carsen Cooper.

Quattrocchi went 18-10-2 with a 2.82 GAA and 90.56 save percentage with Fort McMurray last season, adding a record of 1-1 in the playoffs.

Cooper, a 6′0″, 170 lbs centre had six goals and 15 assists in 21 games during his rookie campaign with the Saints. The Bow Island, Alberta native also recorded a pair of goals and five helpers in seven postseason games for the Enerflex Cup champs.

The Oil Barons open training camp on August 20, 2010.

Fort many of the Fort McMurray athletes who recently participated in the 2010 Alberta Summer Games, they’ll never compete on a higher stage.

The games, which played host to over 3,000 athletes, coaches and officials ended Sunday after six days in Peace River, AB. Zone 7, made up of north eastern communities including Fort McMurray, Lac La Biche and Cold Lake finished with 28 medals; 7 Gold, 11 Silver and 10 Bronze. There are 15 sports played at the Alberta Summer Games, open to athletes aged 11 to 17.

In total nine Fort McMurray athletes stood proudly on the podium, some of the highlights include; Jason Barrett winning Gold in the U17 Male 3000m, the Zone 7 Girls Softball team clinching Silver, Daniel Granger was a member of the second place Mountain Bike Team Event Relay and Hannah Katinas winning a swimming Silver medal.

For a complete list of results, visit www.albertagames.com.

With training camp a little over a month away, the Fort McMurray Oil Barons continue to prepare for next season. This week the MOB dealt Gui Glasspoole and Klye Sangris to the Lloydminster Bobcats for blueliner Brock Maschmeyer.

Brock Maschmeyer

The 5′8″, 145 Bruderheim, Alberta native is still more than two weeks shy of his 18th birthday, but despite being young, Maschmeyer has AJHL experience. He has a combined 112 games under his belt, scoring 3 goals and adding 40 assists over the past two seasons with the Bobcats. Maschmeyer, a left-handed shot has also played eight playoff games, collecting a single assist.

Both Glasspoole and Sangris are currently listed on the Bobcats’s AJHL site as on the reserve roster. Glasspoole, acquired in January in a trade with the Okotoks Oilers played 10 games for the Oil Barons during the 2009/2010 season, picking up four goals, an assist and 11 penalty minutes.

Sangris, an 18-year old forward from Yellowknife, NWT played just once for the MOB last season earning an assist.

Following a more than two decade hiatus, the Canadian Professional Golf Tour is returning to the oil sands city. The Fort McMurray Golf Club will play host to the inaugural Syncrude Boreal Open in June 2011. The tournament will feature 156 of the top PGA Tour prospects competing for a minimum prize purse of $150,000.

It was in 1989 when the last Canadian Tour event was played in our city, with Jeff Lewis of Miami winning the Fort McMurray Rotary Classic on the third playoff hole at Miskanaw Golf and Country Club. In a written statement, former Syncrude President and CEO Tom Katinas said, ““This is an excellent tourism opportunity for Fort McMurray and the Wood Buffalo region. This event will give the community an opportunity to showcase the warmth and friendliness found here and show off all the features that make this a great place to live and raise a family.”

Some of the game’s best have honed their skills on the Canadian Tour, including 2003 Masters champion and Ontario native Mike Weir, Calgary’s Stephen Ames, who won the 2006 Players Championship as well as Chris DiMarco, Stuart Appleby, Michael Campbell, Tim Clark and PGA rookie Graham DeLaet, who hails from Weyburn, Saskatchewan.

(Stuart Anderson after winning 2009 Desjardins Montreal Open, photo courtesy of Canadian Tour)

Although he admits by this time next year he hopes to be playing on the PGA Tour, Stuart Anderson who was raised and learned to golf in Fort McMurray says, “It’s going to be great, I’m excited to come back and play the tournament.”

Anderson also had a warning the Tour’s big hitters, “I think it’ll be difficult for the guys who like to pull the driver out and hit it long, those fairways narrow in pretty good. If we could get the superintendent and his crew to grow the rough up and speed the greens up it’ll be a sure test.”

“One of the things that the Canadian Tour does very well is bring world-class golf into communities that might not otherwise have the chance to see golf played at this level,” stated Canadian Tour Commissioner Richard Janes. “The other thing golf does better than any other sport is raise awareness and funds for important local causes and charity. We are very excited about returning to Fort McMurray in 2011 and we hope that the entire community will embrace the event.”

The Fort McMurray Golf Club is carved out of the Borealis Forest and nestled along the banks of the mighty Athabasca River. It was designed by Bill Newis of GPEC Designs and is ranked one of the must play golf courses in Alberta by the Edmonton Sun.

The Alberta Junior Hockey League released its 2010/2010 schedule today. The regular season will consist of 16 teams playing an unbalanced schedule of 60 games.

Fort McMurray starts September 10th in Canmore against the Eagles. The Oil Barons will then battle Calgary and Sherwood Park, before playing their home opener and first game against a North Division opponent on September 17th versus rival Grand Prairie.

To prepare for the regular season, the MOB will play a handful of exhibition games versus AJHL and ACAC teams.

The Wood Buffalo Sports Hall of Fame will honour the Class of 2010 at an induction dinner on Thursday June 17,2010 at the Sawridge Inn.

Being inducted are former Olympic swimmer Jennifer Button, long-time high school cross-country running coach Gerry Breneman, the 1995/1996 L. Robert Enterprises Pee-Wee AA Barons and Frank Lacroix, who was known around the community as the Mr. Hockey of Fort McMurray.

Well-known former NHLer Dennis Hull will entertain the crowd and athletes as the event’s guest speaker.

www.woodbuffalosports.com

The magic of 2000 won’t return to Fort McMurray in 2012. Earlier this week Hockey Canada choose Humboldt, Saskatchewan to host the 2012 Royal Bank Cup. Fort McMurray, along with Port Alberni, BC and Kingston, Ontario were the four finalists.

Oil Barons President Andrew Boutilier says he is disappointed, but thankful for all the hard work the bid committee put in. Boutilier also says he will ask Hockey Canada officials what led to Fort McMurray being passed up. In 2000 the Oil Barons hosted and won the National Junior A Hockey championship.