All posts by Randy Russon
The latest on Owen Headrick
He is a current Thunderbird and a future Laker and he is inching towards a return to active duty.
It’s been two months — almost to the day — since Owen Headrick underwent shoulder surgery and the likeable youngster from Garden River First Nation is on the road to recovery. …[read more]
Irish, Monarchs meet again
It’s another showdown tonight — 7:30 at Fraser Hockeyland Arena — when the MC Monarchs play host to the Detroit Fighting Irish in the latest faceoff between the two Midwest Jr. Hockey League neighbours.
The two teams are tied for first place — technically at least — in the MWJHL standings, one point ahead of the Traverse City Hounds. …[read more]
Rugged CIHL rivalry
They are separated by about 150 miles of rugged northern Ontario roads.
And to be sure, the Batchewana Attack and Espanola Rivermen are establishing a rugged Canadian International Hockey League rivalry. …[read more]
Monday musings
We begin today in the Ontario Hockey League and make subsequent stops in various other junior outposts on both sides of the International Bridge. …[read more]
Rebuilding the good ship Laker
Their top two goalies are freshmen. So are five of their top six defencemen.
Not only that, they have only three seniors on their roster.
Suffice to say that the Lake Superior State University Lakers of the Western Collegiate Hockey Association are in a major rebuilding stage. …[read more]
Puck of the Irish
The record through 19 games is well above the .500 mark — 11-6-2 for 24 points to be exact — but Detroit Fighting Irish coach-general manager Dan Vasquez thinks it could be better.
“There have been games in which we out-shot our opponents by a wide margin but lost when we felt we should have won,” said Vasquez, whose Fighting Irish is in third place in the seven-team, Midwest Jr. Hockey League heading into a pair of home games this weekend. …[read more]
Good news for Soo crews
Four junior teams from the Sault Ste. Marie area — Soo Greyhounds of the Ontario Hockey League, Soo Thunderbirds of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League, Batchewana Attack of the Canadian International Hockey League and Soo Eagles of the North American Hockey League — are all at or near the top of the standings at this stage of the 2014-2015 season. …[read more]
Baby Birds flapping their wings
They have the veteran players who know their way around the junior hockey rinks.
But the Soo Thunderbirds have been getting major contributions from a number of rookie players as well. …[read more]
Soo Eagles home to Johnstown
With 27 points from a record of 13-10-1 — good for second place in the North Division of the North American Hockey League — Soo Eagles play host to the Johnstown Tomahawks tonight and Sunday. …[read more]
Fighting Irish home to Soo for two
Detroit Fighting Irish has a pair of home games slated for the Ice Box Sports Centre — tonight at 8:10 p.m. and Saturday afternoon at 3:10 p.m.
Soo Firehawks will depart the snow of the Eastern Upper Peninsula region and head south for the back-to-back meetings with the Fighting Irish, which holds down third place in the Midwest Jr. Hockey League with a record of 10-6-1. …[read more]
Thursday thoughts
As the winds of change and gusts of winter blow through the Canadian International Hockey League, it is weathering the storm with assistance from friends in Michigan…Parity is being personified in the North American Hockey League…Here and there and around the rinks. …[read more]
Surging Lakers home for two
Backed by freshman goalie Gordon Defiel, the Lake Superior State University Lakers will play host to the Alaska-Fairbanks Nanooks for a pair of Western Collegiate Hockey Association games on Friday and Saturday at Taffy Abel Arena. …[read more]
Baggs in Batchewana
He has a lot going for him.
He has the size at 6-foot-2, 205 pounds.
He has the smarts that he uses on the ice and in the classroom. …[read more]
3 CIHL coaches, 1,474 NHL games
For a first-year junior operation that has experienced growing pains, the Canadian International Hockey League nonetheless has impressive, big-time ties to the National Hockey League.
To be sure, no less than three CIHL coaches played multiple seasons in the NHL. …[read more]
Attack, Rivermen get the W
Batchewana Attack and Espanola Rivermen scored home-ice victories in Canadian International Hockey League action on Friday. …[read more]
Monarchs feast on Irish stew
MC Monarchs cooked up another victory at the expense of the Detroit Fighting Irish on Wednesday night.
The visiting Monarchs made it three straight wins over their Fighting Irish neighbors from the Detroit suburbs with a 5-3 triumph at the Ice Box Sports Centre in Brownstown. …[read more]
Caruso rounding into top form
He is close — very close, he says — to being at full strength.
Just a summer removed from shoulder surgery, 1995 birth-year defenceman Michael Caruso returned to the lineup of the Soo Eagles of the North American Hockey League in mid-October, several weeks ahead of schedule. …[read more]
Monarchs invade Irish territory
Tonight will mark the third meeting of the 2014-2015 Midwest Jr. Hockey League season between the Detroit Fighting Irish and the neighboring MC Monarchs.
The Fighting Irish will be looking for its first win of the season against the Monarchs when the two teams face off in an 8:10 p.m. start at the Ice Box Sports Centre. …[read more]
Greyhounds on a good path
Methinks they are right about where they should be.
It is just past the one-quarter mark of the 2014-2015 Ontario Hockey League season and the Soo Greyhounds have a tidy record of 13-5, which translates into a .722 winning percentage. …[read more]
Monday musings
Soo Thunderbirds and Kirkland Lake Gold Miners are waging war for first place in the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League…Make that two players who have left the Blind River Beavers of the NOJHL for the new Canadian International Hockey League…The CIHL is in the midst of major change and the Batchewana Attack just keeps on winning…And the MC Monarchs of the Midwest Jr. Hockey League boast an ultimate trio of skaters. …[read more]
Friday’s finest
A rookie skater has left the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League for the Canadian International Hockey League…Here and there and around the junior hockey rinks… …[read more]
OHL trade rumours
It’s early November and trade winds are blowing through the Ontario Hockey League.
A main subject of relocation is Saginaw Spirit overage goalie Jake Paterson, who is a National Hockey League prospect of the Detroit Red Wings. …[read more]
Batchewana to Des Moines
Another member of the Batchewana Attack of the new Canadian International Hockey League has been called up to the Tier 1 junior, United States Hockey League. …[read more]
Bummer in Blind River
They have seen better days.
All is not well with the Blind River Beavers and one has to wonder about the future of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League’s smallest-market team. …[read more]
Soo Eagles home for three this week
Soo Eagles take a record of 10-8, good for 20 points, into a three-game home set with the visiting Springfield Jr. Blues this week.
Games are slated for Thursday (7:00), Friday (7:30) and Saturday (7:00) evenings at Pullar Stadium in the Michigan Soo. …[read more]
Monday musings
Good and bad of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League…A night of firsts for the Lake Superior State University Lakers…Here and there and around the rinks… …[read more]
Best of the NOJHL West
They are perched atop the four-team West Division and have the best record in the nine-member Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League.
That notation aside, Soo Thunderbirds are not alone as elite members of the NOJHL. …[read more]
Irish, Monarchs and Hounds
Just call it a Saturday night invasion.
Detroit Fighting Irish, MC Monarchs and Traverse City Hounds all skated into enemy arenas and left with Midwest Jr. Hockey League victories on Saturday. …[read more]
Wolves hit with modest fine
The Ontario Hockey League has fined the Sudbury Wolves $7,500 as the result of what it calls the “most unprofessional and inappropriate comments” made by coach Paul Fixter. …[read more]
Kalkaska on the road
Coach Krzysztof Oliwa is taking his Kalkaska Rhinos on the road for four games in four days against teams from the Minnesota Jr. Hockey League.
The road trip begins tonight and concludes on Monday afternoon. …[read more]
Self-serving agendas
They proclaim to be in it “for the kids” and the “love of the game.”
And while that may be true of some, there are those involved at the grassroots and junior hockey levels who have self-serving agendas. …[read more]
Laker goalie leads the nation
Lake Superior State University Lakers are winless in eight games to start the 2014-2015 season but freshman goalie Gordon Defiel leads the nation in three categories. …[read more]
My guest tonight
He has played the game at the Ontario Hockey League and Atlantic University levels.
He has been an assistant coach in the OHL and a head coach in the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League, both while maintaining a full-time job in the criminal justice system.
He is 55-years old and he still coaches — for the love at the game — at the pee wee level. …[read more]
Firehawks utilize Canadian talent
It’s back to the ice for the Soo Firehawks this weekend after an idle stretch of almost two weeks.
The Firehawks, who play out of Big Bear Arena in the Michigan Soo, have a record of 2-3-1 through the early going of the 2014-2015 Midwest Jr. Hockey League season. …[read more]
Monday musings
On the Ontario Hockey League hot seat…High and low in the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League…Here and there and around the rinks… …[read more]
Kendall Huckins on the Attack
He’s liking his home away from home.
Kendall Huckins may be from Chicago but he is feeling at home in Sault Ste. Marie.
Huckins, a 1996 birth-year forward, is taking to living away from home and playing for the Batchewana Attack of the new Canadian International Hockey League. …[read more]
Here’s to Captain Kovacs
Sault Ste. Marie native Bronson Kovacs has been named one of three senior captains for the Hobart College Statesmen of the Eastern Collegiate Athletic Conference for the upcoming season.
Kovacs, a hard-hitting, puck-moving defenceman who played with the Soo Thunderbirds of the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League before going to Hobart, had 6 goals, 8 assists, 14 points in 24 games with the Statesmen in 2013-2014. …[read more]
Otters an Erie foe for Greyhounds
The team that eliminated the Soo Greyhounds in the second round of the 2013-2014 playoffs looms as a formidable foe again in 2014-2015.
A high-powered, hard-skating, well-coached outfit in 2013-2014, the Erie Otters have more of the same in 2014-2015. …[read more]
Eagles v. Warriors for pair
I-75 highway rivals, the Michigan Warriors and Soo Eagles will meet for a pair of key North American Hockey League games tonight and Saturday.
The Warriors will play host to the Eagles in 7 p.m. games both nights at Perani Arena and Event Centre in Flint. …[read more]
Hostile takeover in Mattawa?
Multiple sources have confirmed that the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League has forcibly removed David Beauchamp as owner of the Mattawa Blackhawks.
The same sources are saying that NOJHL commissioner Rob Mazzuca has new owners set to take over the first-year Mattawa franchise. …[read more]
Nurse gives Hounds a booster shot
From very good to very, very good.
Without defenceman Darnell Nurse, the Soo Greyhounds were a very good team.
Ergo, they should be even better now that the 19-year old defender has returned to the Soo from the Edmonton Oilers. …[read more]
Batchewana to Green Bay
Goalie Jack Hickey has joined the Green Bay Gamblers of the Tier 1 junior, United States Hockey League from the Batchewana Attack of the new Canadian International Hockey League.
Attack president-director of hockey operations David Maciuk confirmed to HockeyNewsNorth.com that Hickey has been promoted to Green Bay on a fill-in basis. …[read more]
Fighting Irish wear pink
Pink will be in the rink in the Detroit suburb of Brownstown this Saturday.
Detroit Fighting Irish of the Midwest Jr. Hockey League will play host to its annual breast cancer awareness benefit game on Saturday afternoon at the Ice Box Sports Center.
The visiting Alpena Flyers will provide the opposition. Game time is 3:10 p.m. at the Ice Box. …[read more]
Road-tested Lakers return home
There is no place quite like home, especially after a long road trip.
Lake Superior State University Lakers return to the friendly confines of Taffy Abel Arena for Friday-Saturday night games versus the Northern Michigan University Wildcats after a two-week road stretch that saw Sault Ste. Marie’s Western Collegiate Hockey Association team log more than 4,000 miles. …[read more]
Batchewana v. Kalkaska
The Michigan-based Kalkaska Rhinos, an independent junior hockey team that is coached by Krzysztof Oliwa, who won a Stanley Cup in 2000 as a fearsome left winger with the New Jersey Devils, will play their first-ever home games this weekend.
The Rhinos will play host to the unbeaten Batchewana Attack of the new Canadian International Hockey League on Saturday at 7:30 p.m. and Sunday at 2 p.m. at the Kaliseum Recreational Complex in Kalkaska. …[read more]
Up north in the O
Two of the three northern teams in the 20-member Ontario Hockey League — Soo Greyhounds and North Bay Battalion — are among the early contenders this 2014-2015 season.
Then there is the OHL’s other northern Ontario team, the Sudbury Wolves, who are in last place overall and may be looking at a coaching change. …[read more]
First points for Andrew Barbeau
Andrew Barbeau, a 1997 birth-year defenceman from the Canadian side of the International Bridge at Sault Ste. Marie, is adapting quite well to the level of play in the North American Hockey League.
For starters, Barbeau, a rookie with the NAHL’s Michigan Warriors and the youngest player — and only one with a 1997 birth date — on the team, is taking a regular turn on the blueline. …[read more]
Attack at the Rankin tonight
Batchewana Attack of the new Canadian International Hockey League will put its 3-0 record to the test tonight when it plays host to the visiting St. Charles Spirit.
Game time is 7:30 p.m. at Rankin Arena. …[read more]