Lucas Punkari
After all of the practices and all of the exhibition contests, the real competition is now underway.
The Fort Frances Thunderhawks began their quest for the 2011 Allan Cup this afternoon in Kenora, where they took on the South East Prairie Thunder (Manitoba) starting at 2 p.m. at the Kenora Recreation Centre in the first round-robin game for both teams.
Over the weekend, the Thunderhawks held two practices at the Ice For Kids Arena here before hitting the road to Kenora, which also marked the first time the full squad was together on the ice.
Goalie Steve Bounds, and former OHL players Malcolm MacMillan and Troy Ilijow, were among the newcomers added for the tournament.
“We moved a few guys around and the guys started to find a little bit of harmony there,” Thunderhawks’ head coach Larry Beck noted.
“Overall, I think everything went really well,” he added.
“We had some good tempo out there, and the guys are starting to get the hang of each other.”
Along with on-ice scrimmages, the T’hawks also did some work on their defensive zone coverage and power-play systems over the weekend.
“These guys are men, so you don’t go back to the old Atom drills to get things ready,” reasoned assistant coach Randy White.
“The main thing this weekend was to get everyone on the same page, especially with the new guys coming in, and I think we did a good job of that,” he remarked.
The first obstacle that stands in the Thunderhawks’ way is the Prairie Thunder, who have been to the last two Allan Cups and were the runners-up in the 2009 title game to the Bentley Generals.
Despite going up against a number of former players from the universities of Manitoba and North Dakota in the opener, Beck is confident of his team’s chances.
“We have four forward units that we’re not afraid of putting out on the ice at any time,” Beck noted.
“We have a couple of really strong power-play units and couple of good defensive pairings, as well, so I think we’re going to give them all they can handle,” he pledged.
The Thunderhawks will complete their Division 1 round-robin slate tomorrow afternoon against the Clarenville Caribous, then will await the outcome of the game between the Caribous and Thunder on Wednesday afternoon to find out if they will be in Thursday’s quarter-final or Friday’s semi-final.
“This is really uncharted waters for a lot of these guys,” White stressed.
“We’ve always used Kenora [Thistles] as a measuring stick and they went toe-to-toe with the Ontario champs [Dundas Real McCoys] last year, so we feel pretty good based off of that,” he said.
“It’s going to come down to good goaltending and who makes the fewest mistakes, but all of the teams will be very good and you’re not going to see 9-8 or 10-9 games,” White added.
The Allan Cup final goes Saturday at 3 p.m.
