By Sam Laskaris /
PROVINCIAL JUNIOR A HOCKEY LEAGUE
Regardless of how they fare in their league playoffs, the Newmarket Hurricanes will still have an opportunity to advance to their nationals, the Royal Bank Cup tournament.
Newmarket is playing host to and has an automatic berth into the Dudley Hewitt Cup, set for April 22 to 26.
The four-team tournament will also include the champs from the Provincial loop (or finalists if Newmarket wins the league crown), as well as the champs from the Northern Ontario Junior A Hockey League and the Superior International Junior Hockey League.
The Dudley Hewitt Cup winner moves on to the Royal Bank Cup, beginning May 3 in Cornwall, Ont.
Newmarket is one of the top teams in its league this season. After 40 games, they had an impressive 33-6-1 record.
CENTRAL JUNIOR A HOCKEY LEAGUE
As of mid-January, Jason Akeson was still the Cumberland Grads’ top point-getter this season.
In 34 games, Akeson had accumulated 61 points (18 goals, 43 assists). Besides being Cumberland’s top scorer he was also tied for fifth place in the league scoring race.
But the 17-year-old right winger will not be producing any more points for the Grads this season. That’s because earlier in the month he signed a contract with the Ontario Hockey League’s Kitchener Rangers. Akeson was Kitchener’s sixth-round pick at the 2007 OHL draft.
Akeson joined a Rangers’ squad that will play host to and compete in the Memorial Cup tournament this May.
NORTHERN ONTARIO JUNIOR A HOCKEY LEAGUE
The Soo Thunderbirds and Sudbury Junior Wolves are icing two of the better squads in the six-team league this season.
But one certainly wouldn’t know it based simply on the clubs’ attendance figures.
Though they were sitting atop the league standings in mid-January with an 18-5-6-7 record, the Thunderbirds were averaging a NOJHL-low of 160 fans per home game.
And the 18-3-12-4 Junior Wolves, who were tied for third spot in the standings, had the second lowest attendance, averaging 206 spectators to their home contests.
Despite enjoying on-ice successes, both the Thunderbirds and Junior Wolves were contending with a similar issue – having higher-calibre Ontario Hockey League franchises (Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and Sudbury Wolves) in their town.
SUPERIOR INTERNATIONAL JUNIOR HOCKEY LEAGUE
Several league players might find they have to introduce themselves to teammates prior to their games.
By mid-January, the Schreiber Deisels had already utilized 43 different players this season. Meanwhile, the Fort Frances Jr. Sabres had dressed 40 players while the Thunder Bay Bulldogs had 39 different players suit up for them.
The constant moving of bodies perhaps has affected these teams in the standings. Schreiber was occupying fourth place in the seven-squad league while the Jr. Sabres and Bulldogs were fifth and seventh, respectively.
At the other end of the standings, the top three clubs – Dryden Ice Dogs, Fort William North Stars and Thunder Bay Bearcats – had all used just 31 players each.
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