SAUK RAPIDS - The Granite City Lumberjacks will open their season Saturday night. They're hosting the Alexandria Blizzard at 7:30 p.m. at Sports Arena East in Sauk Rapids.

Brad Willner is the head coach and general manager. He says their roster includes players from all over the country, but there's also several home grown guys on the team.

This year we do not have any imports.  Typically most of them are from the Minnesota, Wisconsin, North Dakota area.  And this year we have seven local players that actually played for high schools in the St. Cloud area.

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Besides Alexandria, other teams in the Lumberjacks' division are Breezy Point, Willmar and New Ulm. Other teams they are scheduled to play this are include:  Madison, Wisconsin, St. Louis, and North Iowa.  There's a total of 45 teams in their league.  Willner says they play in a big league with teams across the country.

Teams in our league stretch all the way from Montana down to Texas over to Georgia, and then all along the east coast.

The players in the league are a lot of top former high school players who are trying to move on to the next level, or get picked up by a college team.

The Lumberjacks average between 600 and 800 fans for their home games.

This is the 11th season of Granite City Lumberjacks hockey. They have 47 regular season games.

The Lumberjacks are the defending NA3HL West Division Champion, as well as the NA3HL Silver Cup Champion.

If you want tickets to any of their home games you can buy them through the Value Connection.

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