Staff
It’s not the ideal start to the season, but at least it started.
The Fort Frances Thunderhawks senior men’s hockey team originally was slated to begin its competitive existence this past Saturday at the Ice For Kids Arena and again on Sunday at the Emo-La Vallee Arena in a two-game set against the Thunder Bay Twins.
But a delay in getting the official paperwork to Hockey Northwestern Ontario (HNO) led to the weekend action having to be cancelled due to the fact the players had to be registered with HNO to be insured by Hockey Canada while they were playing.
“I owe a big apology to hockey fans in the area,” said Thunderhawks’ manager Dean Bruyere.
“I should have had the paperwork in before now.”
HNO contacted Bruyere on Friday morning, stating he had to have the team’s roster registered and the paperwork for any players transferring to the team documented with HNO before the team could take the ice.
Bruyere still needed to get signatures for the 11 eligible players he had on the roster, plus get the paperwork for the rest of the roster finalized, when he received terrible personal news.
“I was trying to chase everything down on Friday when I received the news my eldest sister was on her deathbed [due to illness],” he noted. “So I was dealing with this and still trying to get the hockey matters finished.
“She died early Saturday morning.”
Bruyere still tried his best to take care of his hockey affairs. But with no one working in the HNO offices on the weekend, he was unable to get in touch with the people he needed to so he could register the roster.
That led to the weekend cancellations, with the games unable to be made up due to a lack of available ice time in the area.
That means the planned 12-game schedule for the Thunderhawks has been reduced to 10, the first of which took place last night at the Ice For Kids Arena against the Kenora Thistles (no score was available by press time) as Bruyere finally was able to get the paperwork accepted.
Among the members of the Thunderhawks’ roster are two American-born players, which Bruyere had to get transfers for agreed to by the U.S. Amateur Hockey Association.
But now with all the bureaucracy out of the way, Fort Frances can focus on making its planned run at the Allan Cup—symbolic of national senior men’s hockey supremacy in Canada.
The last team from Fort Frances to capture that title—the 1952 Fort Frances Canadians—were an important part of the pre-game ceremonies before the season-opener last night.
Surviving members were scheduled to be introduced to the crowd, with Canadians’ captain Walter (Sambo) Fedoruk dropping the puck for the ceremonial face-off.
