By Sam Laskaris / November 19, 2009 /
For the first time in the event’s history, there will be no American entries at the 18th annual Toronto IceDogs Fall Classic.
Yet tournament organizers are still rather pleased with the quality of clubs that will participate at this year’s event, scheduled for Nov. 27 to 29.
Seventy-two squads, from various parts of Ontario, will participate in the tournament.
The A and AA teams will compete in 13 age groupings, ranging from minor atom to midget.
Tournament chairman Gus Bovoletis said there were some clubs from the United States that wanted to take part as well. But they did not contact tournament officials until late October, after schedules had already been finalized.
“There was interest [from U.S. teams] but it was after the fact,” Bovoletis said. “You need a few weeks to prepare to get the game locations and schedules done.”
The tournament was founded by the Weston Hawks’ organization. The group was renamed the Toronto IceDogs five years ago.
This tournament originally was staged during the Easter weekend. But a decade ago it was moved to late November, in part to accommodate U.S. squads that wanted to play in a tournament during the American Thanksgiving weekend.
At this year’s event the IceDogs will be represented by teams in 11 of the divisions. The host organization will not have entries in only the minor atom A and minor atom AA categories.
Bovoletis anticipates the IceDogs’ reps will have success in various groupings.
“It’s stiff competition but I think they’ll do well,” he said. |