Registration Open

Just a reminder that fall registration is open and this year is completely on-line. When you register at our website, you have the option of paying by check or by credit card. Sunday August 9th is the last day to register without incurring a $75 late registration fee so make sure you get in an sign up right away!

Sabre Squirt skates are coming up on August 10th and 17th at Rocket. All players that will be Squirts this fall are invited to attend. The cost is $10 per player per session. The session on the 10th is from 8:10-9:40pm and on the 17th it is 7:00-8:30pm.

Sabre Girls Clinics are also being held at Rocket on August 10th and 17th. Both days the clinic runs from 7:00-8:00pm. Cost is $10 per skater, per session.

A reminder that the Sabre Welcome Back Picnic will be held August 22nd from 4-8pm at Rocket. Come on out, we hope to see everyone there!!

Summer Updates

The spring season just ended but things are busy already. Among noteworthy items are the following:

-Sabres have signed Midget Director Chris Chelios to a new 3-year deal that will keep Chris with the club at least through the 2012 season.

-Summer skates are being planned for the PW, Bantam and Girls levels starting in July. Watch your e-mail and the website for dates and times.

-The club is expecting a large turnout for the fall girls program. For more information contact Dave Lobdell or Rob Granato.

-Fall Registration should be available on-line in early July.

Spring Musings

We are well into the spring season with all of the Sabre teams doing pretty well within the Southwest Spring League. The Sabres will be hosting the SWSL playoffs for the Bantam level on May 16th and 17th. Joe and Laura Bresingham have graciously agreed to coordinate the playoffs so if you are interested in volunteering as a scorekeeper/clock operator please contact Joe or Laura.

Reminder that the Sabre Golf Outing is scheduled for Friday June 19th at Tamarack. We are looking for golfers and hole sponsors. If you have questions or need more information about sponsorships, please contact Sue Quinn or Amy Granato.

Game 4 tonight, Hawks vs. Calgary-Patrick Kane back in the Hawks line-up. Let's win tonight and close it out at the UC on Saturday night! Enjoy the game!

Awards Ceremony This Sunday!

Reminder that the Sabre Awards Ceremony is this Sunday 3/22 at the Tivoli Theatre in Downers Grove. The ceremony will start promptly at 1pm. Don Granato, head coach of the Wolves will be there along with White Sox organist Nancy Faust and other surprises. Wear your Sabre jerseys and come on out and join in the fun! The doors open at 12:15pm and refreshments will be available.

Good luck to both our Midget Major and Bantam AA teams that will be traveling down to St. Louis this weekend to participate in regionals!

Congratulations to our Bantam AA Coach Tom Clarke, who was named High School Coach of the Year....congratulations Tom!!

Playoffs and Spring.....

Congratulations to Bantam AA and the Midget Majors for their victories last weekend and bringing home the Blackhawk Cup!! Two great games at the Edge, Bantam AA dominated the Huskies and won big, while the Midget Majors took a 2-1 lead part way through the third period and added an empty net goal late to beat the Blues 3-1. Way to go guys!!

Reminder that spring registration is still open. Midget tryouts begin on Sunday, Bantams on Monday and all other levels are next weekend March 14 & 15. Registration now is completely on-line, including payment so go to the website and get registered for the spring season.

Also, remember that tomorrow night, 7pm at Rocket is the Sabre Coaches vs. the Midget Majors. Come on out and enjoy a fun night at the rink. Oxygen tanks will be available on the bench for the coaches. Rumor is there has been a lot of trash talk between the two sides so no telling what may happen!! Coach Chelios is even running an actual practice for Team Chelios-hopefully no one will hurt themselves!!

Odds and Ends

Congratulations to Bantam AA, Midget Major and the Girls U-16 all of whom will be playing for the Blackhawk Cup this weekend. Let's get everyone out to support our teams! Congratulations also to all 10 of the Sabre teams that made Final 8 in State. The Sabres had the second most teams of any club advance to the Final 8.

Spring registration is now open and you can both register and pay on-line. The deadline for registration is March 5th. Please be aware that Midget tryouts are March 8th,9th and 10th and Bantam tryouts are March 9th and 10th. This is a change to the dates that were published originally.

The spring coaches are also published on the web page, just go to the home page and click on the link under "spring coaches"

NIHL Playoffs

The Sabres want to congratulate our two Wolves Cup/NIHL Championship teams. Coach Paul Dukovac and his Mite A2 team won the Mite Bronze Championship by beating the Flames 3-2. Coach John Vanderpool and the Bantam A5 won the Bantam Bronze Championship by defeating the Ice Dogs 6-3 in the final game. Congratulations also to the Bantam A2 team for finishing 2nd in NIHL. All three teams did a great job representing the Sabres this past weekend. Way to go!!

Keep watching the web page, spring registration should be on-line sometime around mid-week and the spring coaches should be posted at approximately the same time.

Great job by everyone involved in the Shootout for Cancer at IIC on Friday night. A special thanks to Sabre mom Becky Cizek who was instrumental in putting the event together. Once again they far exceeded their fund-raising goal and that money will be put to good use funding cancer research. This is just another example of how the hockey community can come together like no other. Thanks to all that worked on and attended the event.

Good to see the Blackhawks finally get back home and pound Dallas on Saturday-sorry Jonathon! :)

Hockey Weekend in America

USA Hockey has designated February 13-15th as Hockey Weekend in America. The Sabres are asking all players to (where permissable) wear their Sabre jerseys to school on Friday, February 13th. They will be joining hockey players from across the country who will all be wearing their jersey's to school that day.

Playoffs Are Here!!

Lots of great playoff hockey in the area this time of year and many Sabre teams we want to acknowledge. Congratulations to Bantam AA and our Midget Minor #1 team for making to the finals in the CSDHL playoffs. Both lost in the title game but made great runs.

We have four teams that have made it to the NIHL championship game, Mite AA lost their championship game but have had a great season!! Mite A2 will play the Flames at Inwood at 1pm on Sunday 2/15. Bantam A2 plays the Falcons in the Silver Division Championship at 11am on Saturday 2/14 also at Inwood and Bantam A5 plays the Ice Dogs in the Bronze Division game also at Inwood, 11am Sunday 2/15. Good luck to all 3 teams!

And in Blackhawk Cup play, while many teams still have elimination games to play, the Sabres have three teams already in the Final 8. Midget Major, Midget Minor #1 and Bantam A3 have all advanced into the round robins for the Final 8. Congratulations and good luck to all three of these teams as well.

Be on the lookout for spring registration on the website in the next several days and spring coaches will be posted shortly as well.

NIHL Regular Season Ends

With the NIHL regular season ending this past weekend, we want to congratulate both Mite AA and Bantam A5 for winning the NIHL President's Cup! Mite AA won it in the Mite Gold division and Bantam A5 won in Bantam Bronze, way to go!!

The playloff brackets for NIHL are posted on the NIHL web page and the Blackhawk Cup seedings and pairings are available on the AHAI web page. The Bantam A and B pages for Blackhawk Cup have been temporarily removed because of a couple changes that need to be made. They should be re-posted sometime tomorrow.

As the playoffs approach, we want to remind all our parents, coaches and players that during the playoffs, whether it is NIHL, CSDHL, NWHL or Blackhawk Cup, Zero Tolerance is going to be striclty enforced at all rinks. We believe that Sabre teams and families have always strived to conduct themselves in an exemplary manner. We want to urge everyone to keep their cool during the playoffs, enjoy some great hockey,encourage our kids but always remember, It's Just A Game!

Hockey Updates

Save the dates -Spring Tryouts will be held on March 14th and 15th. Each level will have two tryout sessions, one each on Saturday and Sunday. More information about spring hockey will be coming very shortly so watch your e-mail, the Sabre website and this space for more information.

Congratulations to the Sabre players that were selected for the 2009 Prep Jamboree that was held this past weekend at The Edge in Bensenville. The 1994 boys selected were forward Joe Patzin and Goalie Joe Messerschmidt. On the girls side, Izzy Smith (also a 1994 birth year) was selected. The players are evaluated by Tier I, Tier II, High School and Junior coaches. These evaluations will be used for selection to future USA Hockey camps and events. Congratulations to Izzy, Joe and Joe!!

Reminder that the 7th Annual District 203/204 Shootout for Cancer will be held on Friday February 13th, 7pm at IIC in Romeoville. the event features players form Naperville North/Naperville Central against players from Neuqua Valley and Waubonsie Valley. Proceeds go to benefit the DuPage chapter of the American Cancer Society and this year's fundraising goal is $10,000. We look forward to seeing everyone out there to support this great cause. If you have questions please call Becky Cizek (Sabre Bantam A3 parent) at 630-341-0966.

The New Sabre Blog!

To All Sabres:

We have set up this blog as a way to get information about the Sabres, hockey in Illinois and general hockey information to you on a real-time basis. We hope that you will find the blog to be interesting and informative. If you have comments, suggestions, etc. please let us know-we would love to hear from you.

The Sabres want to congratulatethe Midget Majors for their two exciting wins against Shattuck St. Mary's this weekend. They won Saturday evening's game 7-3 and then came right back and defeated Shattuck again on Sunday morning 4-2. Way to go guys!!

We also want to congratulate the Bantam AA team and Mite A2 for the great job they did representing the club this past weekend at the Silver Sticks International Finals. Congratulations to both teams for making it to the finals!

Silver Mite Parents watch for information very soon about "Bring a Friend to the Sabres" day that we will be sponsoring.

Gold Medalist and Hall of Famer Cammi Granato will be dropping the ceremonial first puck at the Blackhawks vs. Wild game on Monday night.

The USA Hockey Winter Meetings will occur in Orlando FL this weekend. This is a rule change year so they will be discussing various rule changes that have been proposed which include items like tag-up offsides, etc. We will let you know sometime this summer if any rule changes are passed.

Go Sabres!!