Contenders aplenty in NOJHL
Of the 12 teams that make up the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League, no less than eight of them have winning records as of this writing — and two others are not far off the mark.
For starters, with October here and 10 games in the books, the two-time defending champion Soo Thunderbirds are in familiar territory with a record of 8-2-0.
Coached and managed by Jordan Smith, the T-Birds are perched atop the six-team West Division.
However, balanced division that the West is, there is little room between the first-place Thunderbirds and the last-place Soo Eagles.
As a matter-of-fact, the Thunderbirds and Eagles have already met four times this season and the series is even with two victories per team.
With a record of 3-6-1 through 10 games, two of the Eagles wins have been over the first-place Thunderbirds. And of further note, both of the Thunderbirds losses thus far this season have been to the cross-border Eagles.
With better goaltending, the Eagles would probably have another two wins.
Bunch in the 6-5-0 Elliot Lake Wildcats, the 5-3-1 Rayside-Balfour Canadians, the 4-3-0 Blind River Beavers and the 3-4-1 Espanola Express and the six-team West is a sizzler, to be sure.
In the East Division, the NOJHL’s most-relentless recruiter, Cochrane Crunch coach-general manager Ryan Leonard, has his team in top spot with a 7-0-2 record, though the 6-2-1 Powassan Voodoos are not far behind. Managed by Chris Dawson and coached by Scott Wray, the third-year Voodoos have quickly become a model, efficient NOJHL franchise.
Two of the other four teams on the East side, the 5-4-1 Kirkland Lake Gold Miners and the 4-2-0 Timmins Rock, are both over the .500 mark.
Thus far, the NOJHL’s two lowliest teams reside in the East — the 1-7-0 Iroquois Falls Eskis and the 0-10-1 French River Rapids.
Poor Eskis, Donnon needs to go… also the Rapids and Jesse Landry are suffering from big ALs aftermath… it’s really to bad for two great hockey communities
Yes something must be done and fast. There already season tickets holders that next year will not buying there tickets if nothing change soon.
Eagles rank 11th in goals given up. No wonder why they are tied for last place in the West. They need more consistent goaltending.
No they should just stop rolling all 3 goalies and stick primarily with one.
Give the Eskis a break, this roster is much better than their record. Suspensions and injuries have taken their toll but still, even with those injuries and suspensions, there a number games where the Eskis were winning or tied going into the third and it slipped away.
I’ve watched this league long enough to recognize a bad roster and a good roster, this is not a bad roster and I expect the boys will eventually pull out of this. No better time to start than tonight. Boys just need to follow the program and put in 60 minute effort of hard work winning battles
Eagles solution is simple. Stop giving up 40+ shots a game and start playing the goalie who beat theTbirds twice and has a winning record. All other teams rolling primarily one goalie like Tbirds and RBC with Savard. Tough for goalie to get in groove if start every 3 games and seeing 40+ shots a game.
The Eagles should play hockey instead of running around hacking and whacking. They can only get away with it in their barn because of the homer refs, plain and simple.
Still think the same way Eskisfan after loosing 6-2 to timmins I can point a finger on a couple of them but I wont. Just saying….