If there's anybody who should be excited about Estevan hosting the 2022 Centennial Cup, it's Pete Sereggela.

A longtime Estevan Bruins fan, Sereggela, the owner of Tower Cafe, Eleven24, and Willy's The Tap House, is gearing up for an influx of people from outside the province to visit his restaurants on main street over the next couple weeks.

"When the Western Canada Cup was here...and I've been here for Summer Games and everything else, a lot of those things are hosted within the high school, but there's been nothing like this to ever come to Estevan," Sereggela said. "So everyone just get out, when you see a stranger on the street just say hello and introduce yourself, chat them up." 

"It's been great...the people of Estevan are really excited."

Sereggela, who billeted Bruins goaltender Boston Bilous this past season, added that he already senses the buzz even though the tournament hasn't started yet.

"Only a few of the teams are rolling in as of right now, but the people that are already here and stopping, I must have had three or four lengthy conversations with people from outside of the province," he said.

Sereggela said he's added extra staff to help manage the flow of customers, and he said he'll be hosting the teams through out the tournament.

"We've almost doubled our staff scheduling wise. We had a great response from all of the teams. People are already booking previous to arrival. We've got dinners booked and everything else. Lunch time we're doing buffets for some of the teams," he said.

"We're expecting quite a bit of people in our doors."

Sereggela said he'll still be taking reservations for the general public through out the event.

"We're going to be busy but we got room between the cafe and Eleven24 and the Tap House," he said.

"We might be a little tired by the end of this whole thing, but before you know it the tournament's going to be over, so enjoy it while we've got it."