Staff
A change of plans for Manitoba’s senior ‘AAA’ hockey teams has resulted in some tweaks for the Fort Frances Thunderhawks.
When the Manitoba senior ‘AAA’ 2010-11 schedule was announced, the league’s three teams found themselves with different open dates than expected, meaning some compromises had to be made in order to schedule interleague play between Northwestern Ontario and Manitoba.
The changes affect the T’hawks’ home-opener on Dec. 18 and 19 as the Manitoba Lightning will visit instead of the Kenora Thistles.
The start times of 6:45 p.m. on Dec. 18 and 12:30 p.m. on Dec. 19 were not affected.
Fort Frances then will return to face the Lightning as visitors, hitting the road to Beausejour on Feb. 19-20.
As well, the T’hawks now officially will open their season a week earlier, traveling to Kenora to face the Thistles on Dec. 10.
The team also rescheduled its away series with the Dakota College at Bottineau Lumberjacks for Feb. 12-13.
The doubleheader originally was scheduled for a month earlier.
However, the Lumberjacks’ visit here for games on Jan. 22-23 remains the same.
The Thunderhawks’ home schedule is rounded out with an exhibition game against the Fort Frances Lakers on Dec. 28 and a pair against the Thistles on Jan. 11 and Feb. 1.
GM Dean Bruyere noted the schedule still is subject to change.
All of the team’s exhibition games will lead up to its appearance in the Allan Cup tournament in Kenora, which will be held April 11-16.
The T’hawks were awarded a host branch slot last month after Hockey Canada announced the Quebec region would not send a team to the national championship.
Kenora already was guaranteed a berth as the tournament host, so as the only other team in the branch, the Thunderhawks were given the second slot automatically.
In other news, the T’hawks have launched a website at www.thunderhawkshockey.com and also have a Facebook group titled “Thunderhawks Senior AAA Hockey.”
