Lucas Punkari
For Fort Frances Thunderhawks’ head coach Gary Noga, the excitement he has for this weekend’s game with the Kenora Thistles is pretty easy to see.
“It’s about time that we get started,” Noga enthused.
“We’re really excited about this game and it should be a very entertaining game,” he added.
The local senior men’s ‘AAA’ team will go up against their arch-rivals Saturday at 7:30 p.m. the Ice For Kids Arena in what will be the first time the Thunderhawks will have a full roster this season.
In their previous two games, the Thunderhawks were hammered 12-1 by the Thistles in Kenora on Dec. 17, but displayed a much stronger effort in a 4-3 shootout loss to the Fort Frances Lakers on Dec. 29.
Now, however, with players coming in from out-of-town to go along with the local base, the T’hawks will be able to show what they can do with a full roster.
“We should have a very strong team,” Noga remarked.
“Offensively we are there already, and our defence is very solid with some good puck moves, so it will just be a matter of us gelling as quickly as possible,” he added.
The mix of local and out-of-town talent is something Travis Green, co-manager of the Thunderhawks along with Kevin Webb, is very excited to see up close.
“It’ll be kind of exciting for me to see how they mesh together,” he said.
“From out-of-town we have Nick Bydal coming up from Minnesota, who played semi-pro hockey [with the SPHL’s Augusta Riverhawks] last year, and we have Mike English coming from Dryden, who local fans may remember from when he was with the Ice Dogs,” noted Green.
“As for local guys, we have Jordan Davis, who had been playing with the University of Manitoba at the start of the year, and we also have our goaltender Chris Medicine back, who gives us a chance to win any time he’s in action.”
Saturday’s contest will be the first in a two-game, total-goal series between the T’hawks and Thistles, with the second one slated for March 4 in Kenora.
The winner of that series then will host the Gary Cook Cup best-of-three series to determine the regional champ from March 16-18.
“After that, the winner will go on to face the southern Ontario champion in the Renwick Cup in April to determine who will go on to this year’s Allan Cup,” Green explained.
The 2012 edition of the Allan Cup will take place April 16-21 in Lloydminster, Sask.
In last year’s tournament, held in Kenora, the Thunderhawks made it to the semi-finals before being ousted by the Bentley Generals.
