Sitting in the very southeast corner of Saskatchewan, not far from the border with the United States or the border with Manitoba, is the village of Carievale. About 240 people live there, and the town, like many others in the region, is now over 100 years old, having celebrated its centennial in 2007. 

Ask a lot of people in the Estevan area what they know Carievale from, however, and you'll get a similar answer to what they'd say for towns like Alameda. Hockey is a huge part of life in that part of Saskatchewan, and no one has played it better lately than the McMillen brothers. 

Kade and Turner McMillen, 19 and 17 years old respectively, are both due to play high-level hockey once again this season. Kade will be one of the leaders for the Estevan Bruins in his 20-year-old season after leading the team in scoring by a defenseman last year with 38 points in 57 games. Turner will be entering his last year of eligibility for U18 hockey with the AAA Estevan Bears. Unless, of course, he also makes the Bruins. 

Both young men played hockey and went to school in the Carievale area growing. Carievale has a school that runs from Kindergarten to Grade 8, and kids from other communities such as Storthoaks often end up going to school there.

"I went from Kindergarten to Grade 8, there were three kids in my class," said Kade with a chuckle. "We started out with a couple more when we were younger and a few people moved away. By grade 8 graduation we had three kids."

McMillen joked he didn't play a lot of school sports because of it, but sports were not hard to come by for him. He played U15 and a little bit of U18 hockey in Estevan, as did Turner, and his parents put a lot of miles on their car to get him to and from practice, as Carievale is just over 100 kilometers from Estevan. 

"I played there (Estevan) from when I was 11 until 15," he said, adding he played out of Carnduff before that, which is about ten minutes away. "Turner played there from when he was 11 until 14. So yeah, there were a lot of kilometers put on." 

Away from the rink, McMillen does what a lot of people in the area do: he farms. His family are beef farmers. He estimates the area is split about 50/50 between beef farmers and crop farmers.  

James Mann, who played last season with the Estevan U18 AA Bruins and will play AAA in Swift Current next year, is also a native of Carievale.