All posts by Randy Russon
Rayside steals road win
Advantage to the visitors. Rayside Balfour Canadians have taken the edge in their Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League playoff series with the Soo Thunderbirds. …[read more]
Sault Major picks coaches
Sault Major Hockey Association and its coaching selection committee have confirmed the six AAA head coaches for the 2018-2019 season. …[read more]
Rayside v. Soo resumes
The series is tied at a game apiece. There is the side bar relative to a blind-side hit that has a player out for the season with a concussion and the instigator of it suspended by the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League. …[read more]
D-day has northern sky
D-day is looming in the Ontario Hockey League. As in the annual priority selections draft that is slated for this Saturday. …[read more]
Soo Eagles to Trine U
Having graduated from the Soo Eagles of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League, defenseman Owen Kipke has made a commitment to play at Trine University effective the 2018-2019 season. …[read more]
My Dunn birthday buddy
My trusted friend Dr. Kevin Caruso is celebrating a birthday today. Not only is Kevin an April Fools Day baby but he gets birthday wishes and hugs on Easter Sunday. …[read more]
Uproar over hit on Baber
The Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League is investigating a blind side hit on Soo Thunderbirds rookie forward Camaryn Baber that took place on the opening shift of a playoff game against the Rayside-Balfour Canadians on Friday. …[read more]
Seven game sizzler
One team had to win. One team had to lose. One team did win. Barely. One team did lose. Barely. …[read more]
In the Nick of time
Leave it to a pure goal scorer to decide a hotly-contested, seven-game playoff series. A power play marker by top gun Nick Smith with just over seven minutes to play in the third period lifted the Soo Thunderbirds to a dramatic 3-2 win over the Soo Eagles tonight in the seventh-and-deciding game of their Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League West Division semi-final set. …[read more]
Game 7 showdown
If this one does not stimulate the junior hockey fire and desire from within then you may want to check your heart beat. …[read more]
Give the NOJHL some love
It is not the Ontario Hockey League. But there are players aplenty who get to the OHL via the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League. …[read more]
As the Spirit moves
Saginaw Spirit is back home, crushed but not totally defeated. The young Spirit will now try to search for answers within itself after falling behind two games to none to the scoring machine that is the Soo Greyhounds. …[read more]
NOJHL tickets punched
Three of four seats for the divisional playoff dance have been booked. Timmins Rock — yes, Timmins Rock — and Cochrane Crunch from the East block along with Rayside Balfour Canadians from the West side have all punched their tickets to the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League division finals. …[read more]
Coming up at Sault College
Sault College Cougars will be making a move up within the Division 3, American Collegiate Hockey Association effective the 2018-2019 season. …[read more]
T-Birds extend series
Soo Thunderbirds stared elimination straight in the eyes on Saturday and did not flinch. Eric Schuch made 27 saves and rookie forward Camaryn Baber made a triumphant return to the lineup as the T-Birds forced a sixth game in their Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League playoff series with the Soo Eagles. …[read more]
T-Birds are teetering
Successive shutouts have Soo Eagles in position to put away Soo Thunderbirds for the season with another win tonight. …[read more]
Spirit was showing but…
For almost two periods of their Ontario Hockey League playoff opener, the upstart Saginaw Spirit stayed with the free-wheeling Soo Greyhounds. Stride for stride. Pass for pass. Chance for chance. …[read more]
Playoff weekend in the Soo
Tonight. Saturday night. Sunday afternoon. If you live in Sault Ste. Marie — and are into junior hockey playoffs — then this is a cool place to be this weekend. …[read more]
Dangerous hits to the head
It is a contact sport that is played at high speed within the dimensions of an ice surface. And it seems the higher the level, the more danger there is of suffering a head injury. To be sure, concussions — and symptoms of them — are a concerning part of, in this instance, junior hockey. …[read more]
Eagles blank T-Birds
Nothing like a whitewash on home ice to take a pivotal series lead. Rookie forward Austin Rowe tallied once and set up two others as the Soo Eagles blanked the Soo Thunderbirds 3-0 tonight in Game 3 of their Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League playoff series. …[read more]
NOJHL playoff trail
A playoff march through March has more than a touch of spring fever to it along a path of parity in the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League. …[read more]
Centennials to Battalion
During the glory days of the erstwhile North Bay Centennials, the late Bert Templeton was the face of the Ontario Hockey League franchise as a coach and general manager who defined winning and respect. And while it was big, bad Bert who stood tall, it was the fresh-faced John McLellan who marketed the Centennials front and center. …[read more]
Eagles tie up T-Birds
The border battle is even. Soo Eagles upended Soo Thunderbirds 3-2 in a Monday night match to tie their best-of-seven, Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League semi-final playoff series at a game apiece. …[read more]
In the Spirit of it all
Good news for the Saginaw Spirit is that it is back in the Ontario Hockey League playoffs after missing them last season. But a formidable foe awaits the Spirit in the ferocious form of the Soo Greyhounds. …[read more]
Here’s to you, Joe Shawhan
In his first season as a head coach in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association after a multi-year apprenticeship as an assistant, Sault Ste. Marie native Joe Shawhan has guided the Michigan Tech Huskies to a playoff championship. …[read more]
Cicchello shoots, scores!
It can be such a simple philosophy. That is, shoot the puck at the net and there is always a chance of scoring a goal. …[read more]
Twin Soo border alert
And so it begins. And so it will be written. The latest chapter in the ongoing saga involving the cross-border foes from Sault Ste. Marie will turn pages beginning tonight. …[read more]
Red, ready in Houndtown
They are getting ready to paint the town red, these Greyhounds. Ready to add more colour to the red that already adorns the windows and doors of the many businesses in downtown Houndtown. …[read more]
NOJHL playoff picture
It’s a game of crazy eights now. The cards are on the table. There are eight teams spanning four playoff series of chance in the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League. …[read more]
Writing the playoff story
Given my druthers, I would be sitting under the soft breeze of a northern sky, wearing my classic blue jean jacket and reading Shakespeare while thinking faraway thoughts. But for the time being, it is playoff season in junior hockey. Thus, a writing I shall go. …[read more]
Soo connect to college final
It will be an all-Upper Peninsula final — complete with Sault Ste. Marie accent — when the Northern Michigan Wildcats play host to the Michigan Tech Huskies in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association championship game. …[read more]
Hounds haven’t won yet
The envelope, please. Oops, there is nothing written inside of it as of yet. Must mean that the Soo Greyhounds have yet to be declared Ontario Hockey League champions after all. …[read more]
Stick it! BR sweeps EL
Apropos, Blind River Beavers are moving on to the semi-final playoff round within the West Division of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League. …[read more]
For the love of the game
If only we could all see the game through the wide, innocent eyes of the little five-and-six-year old hockey players. …[read more]
NOJHL has its Ides of March
There is hustle and bustle — and some rustle — taking place as the Ides of March descend upon the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League. …[read more]
Eagles finish in third
Soo Eagles took advantage — barely — of a Soo Thunderbirds team that opted to rest several top players in the regular season finale for both clubs on Wednesday. …[read more]
Eagles in search of third
Soo Eagles are in position to overtake the Blind River Beavers for third place in the West Division when the regular season in the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League draws to a close tonight. …[read more]
Down to the wire in NOJHL
There are only two games to play on the 2017-2018 regular season schedule in the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League. …[read more]
Soo midgets held their own
If only they could have generated more offense. A timely goal or two and the Soo Thunderbirds might have won a game or two at the well-played, four-team, minor midget hockey tournament that was held in Sault Ste. Marie on the weekend. …[read more]
NB over TB in title tilt
North Bay Trappers upended Thunder Bay Kings 3-1 this afternoon to take home the gold medal from the Northern Ontario Hockey Association’s minor midget tournament of champions that was held in Sault Ste. Marie over the weekend. …[read more]
Firebirds built to last
Flint Firebirds posted a winning record in the tough Western Conference of the Ontario Hockey League in 2016-2017 before giving the heavily favoured Soo Greyhounds a good run in the first round of the playoffs. …[read more]
Four more years of Whitten
Despite four straight losing seasons at the helm of the Lake Superior State Lakers, head coach Damon Whitten has been rewarded by the school with a four-year contract extension. …[read more]
Good news for Cochrane
Cochrane Crunch of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League already has its first victory of the 2018-2019 season. …[read more]
Baber is on the right path
The general manager of the Saginaw Spirit of the Ontario Hockey League is thrilled with the way rookie centre Camaryn Baber is developing with the Soo Thunderbirds of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League. …[read more]
Sad state at Lake State
Damon Whitten has had four full seasons to reverse the sad state of the Division 1 men’s hockey program at Lake Superior State University. …[read more]
Minor midget tourney in Soo
Sault Ste. Marie is set to play host to a four-team, minor midget hockey tournament of champions this coming weekend. Included in the group are the three minor midget teams from the Great North Midget Hockey League. …[read more]
Sweeping the Great North
No. 1 seed North Bay Trappers and no. 2 seed Sudbury Nickel Capital Wolves will meet in the Great North Midget Hockey League finals for the second straight season. …[read more]
Soo Eagles give and receive
Ever since arriving in Sault Ste. Marie in 2010 as the general manager and coach of the Soo Eagles of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League, Bruno Bragagnolo has been big on community involvement. …[read more]