Right now, it’s a chilly Thursday night in November.
Of course, tomorrow will be Friday, and in times before the COVID-19 pandemic, that would mean one thing for a lot of small-town Canadian folks: pack the local barn for a good ole’ fashioned junior hockey game.
Wouldn’t you give anything to do just that right now?
With the world slowed to a halt and the average junior league lacking the luxury of having an NHL-esque bubble, most junior hockey fans are out of luck until at least January if they hope to see their favourite team in action this season.
Not up in Thunder Bay, though.
The SIJHL – Superior International Junior Hockey League, is their league up there. The regular season was scheduled to start on November 14th, but like every other junior league in Ontario, is on hold. Their new slated start date is for their pre-season to start on December 14th.
The league consists of seven teams: The Thunder Bay North Stars and Kam River Fighting Walleye – the two teams from Thunder Bay – the Dryden Ice Dogs, the Fort Frances Lakers, the Red Lake Miners, the Thief River Falls Norskies, and the Wisconsin Lumberjacks. While most of those teams will have to wait until the preseason begins, the Fighting Walleye and the North Stars get to partake in an epic, eight-game rivalry series that kicks off starting tomorrow night.
Doesn’t that sound like what good ole’ hometown junior hockey dreams are made of?
To give you some context on this series, the North Stars are a long-established team in the league. They’ve won the SIJHL Championship six times, and are known for packing some serious local talent. The Fighting Walleye have yet to kick off their inaugural season, but with their roster also bolstering a whole lot of talent, and the fact that they’re going to play one another EIGHT TIMES, we definitely smell a cross-town rivalry brewing.
Even though the stands will be empty, the Teleco Cup will be broadcast at local restaurants in Thunder Bay, which we think is a really sweet way to bring the city together when they can’t all be inside the rink.
This series definitely has our interest, and will absolutely be our junior hockey fix for the next couple of months!
