Lightning frustrated with championship cancellation

By Lethbridge Herald on March 28, 2025.

By Justin Seward

Lethbridge Heradld

The Hockey Alberta Senior AA Provincial Championship, which was supposed to be hosted by the Lethbridge Lightning early next month, has been cancelled.

Hockey Alberta put out a social media post out earlier this week with the announcement.

“A difficult decision has been made to cancel the 2024-25 Hockey Alberta Senior AA Provincials ,” as read in Hockey Alberta’s post.

“With only three teams committed from two leagues, the tournament was no longer viable or truly representative of a provincial championship. We appreciate the dedication of all teams, organizers, and supporters  and we look forward to future opportunities to showcase Senior  AA hockey in Alberta.”

This was the second time the Lightning saw their opportunity of being provincial host dashed after COVID-19 halted their first chance in 2020.

“As an organization we’re pretty frustrated just due to the fact that we’ve  put a lot of time, energy  and money into organizing this tournament,” said Scott Davis-Fisch, Lightning G.M.

David-Fisch and Hockey Alberta had been in discussions over the last number of weeks.

“They (Hockey Alberta) were trying to drum it up and really trying to get teams involved in this,” he said.

“The thing was is at the beginning of the season, the presidents and leagues sat down (and) stated the fact where provincials were gonna be and we had everybody’s buy-in at the beginning of the year. And then all of sudden for teams from other divisions to drop out like this, it was a little heart wrenching needless to say.”

Davis-Fisch was asked about how the cancellation impacts the Senior AA hockey in the city.

“Not being able to hold provincials like this really puts a sour taste in for example our sponsorships,” he said.

“Our sponsors are now looking at this  (and are) like why aren’t we getting that kind of buy- in from other divisions and other leagues.”

Davis-Fisch anticipates that there will be discussions between Ranchland Hockey League and Hockey Alberta to re-evaluate how the team moves forward in trying to host a provincial championship again.

“It’s going to have to be if you buy-in at the beginning of the year, you need to figure out how to get your team there,” said Davis-Fisch.

“It doesn’t matter what league it is, what division, Hockey Alberta really needs to evaluate how to do this.”

The Lightning were going to go into the tournament after winning the Ranchland Hockey League championship for a second consecutive year after beating the Nanton Palominos in five games a few weeks ago.

The Hockey Alberta Senior AA Provincial Championship, which was supposed to be hosted by the Lethbridge Lightning early next month, has been cancelled.

Hockey Alberta put out a social media post out earlier this week with the announcement.

“A difficult decision has been made to cancel the 2024-25 Hockey Alberta Senior AA Provincials ,” as read in Hockey Alberta’s post.

“With only three teams committed from two leagues, the tournament was no longer viable or truly representative of a provincial championship. We appreciate the dedication of all teams, organizers, and supporters  and we look forward to future opportunities to showcase Senior  AA hockey in Alberta.”

This was the second time the Lightning saw their opportunity of being provincial host dashed after COVID-19 halted their first chance in 2020.

“As an organization we’re pretty frustrated just due to the fact that we’ve  put a lot of time, energy  and money into organizing this tournament,” said Scott Davis-Fisch, Lightning G.M.

David-Fisch and Hockey Alberta had been in discussions over the last number of weeks.

“They (Hockey Alberta) were trying to drum it up and really trying to get teams involved in this,” he said.

“The thing was is at the beginning of the season, the presidents and leagues sat down (and) stated the fact where provincials were gonna be and we had everybody’s buy-in at the beginning of the year. And then all of sudden for teams from other divisions to drop out like this, it was a little heart wrenching needless to say.”

Davis-Fisch was asked about how the cancellation impacts the Senior AA hockey in the city.

“Not being able to hold provincials like this really puts a sour taste in for example our sponsorships,” he said.

“Our sponsors are now looking at this  (and are) like why aren’t we getting that kind of buy- in from other divisions and other leagues.”

Davis-Fisch anticipates that there will be discussions between Ranchland Hockey League and Hockey Alberta to re-evaluate how the team moves forward in trying to host a provincial championship again.

“It’s going to have to be if you buy-in at the beginning of the year, you need to figure out how to get your team there,” said Davis-Fisch.

“It doesn’t matter what league it is, what division, Hockey Alberta really needs to evaluate how to do this.”

The Lightning were going to go into the tournament after winning the Ranchland Hockey League championship for a second consecutive year after beating the Nanton Palominos in five games a few weeks ago.