SIJHL expanding to Kenora?
Junior hockey is poised to potentially return to the northwestern Ontario town of Kenora, which is located on the Lake Of The Woods near the Manitoba border.
Sources have told Hockey News North that Superior International Jr. Hockey League commissioner Darrin Nicholas is working with a group that is looking to put a team in Kenora, which has a population of about 15,000. And Nicholas, who is in his second full season as SIJHL commissioner, has had his eyes on Kenora.
“When you look across our landscape, the one glaring omission is Kenora,” said Nicholas. “There is no secret that we have been anxious and we have had our eye on that market for a while. For whatever reason, it hasn’t pulled together. But it is certainly something that is high on our radar.”
The SIJHL is currently a seven team league, six of which are based in northwestern Ontario. The NWO teams are the Dryden Ice Dogs, Kam River Fighting Walleye, Fort Frances Lakers, Red Lake Miners, Sioux Lookout Bombers and Thunder Bay North Stars. American-based Wisconsin Lumberjacks are the SIJHL’s other team.
Kenora last had a Junior A team hockey in the 1970s and early 1980s. The Kenora Thistles spent 14 seasons in the Manitoba Jr. Hockey League before the program shut down in 1982.
it’s about time
I covered the Thistles in the late 1970s and early 1980s when they were playing in the MJHL and Larry Beck was one of their big stars. They had some great teams back then and a lot of fan support when they iced winning squads.