Tiger Hills Hockey season set to begin

Details

Published on Tuesday, October 23, 2018

By Eoin Devereux

Neepawa Banner & Press

There’s a real sense of anticipation building across the Tiger Hills Hockey League (THHL) in advance of the 2018-2019 regular season. That’s because many of 13 member clubs in the league are feeling optimistic about their chances to win it all this year.

One of those clubs, the Neepawa Farmers will be hoping to improve on last year’s solid result. The team finished first in the Eastern Division with a 14-4-0 record. Those  numbers didn’t turn into  post-season success though, as the Farmers were ousted in the Eastern Division final by the eventual league champs, the Gladstone Lakers.

Farmers general manager Rodney White noted to the Banner & Press that the core of the 2017-2018 squad is returning, there are a few new faces that will also be out on the ice.

“We’ll have Josh Blondeau on the team this year. He played last season with the Natives and should be a real good addition to our defensive core. We’ll also see Shayne Wiebe of Brandon this year. He’s a former semi-pro player, who has been in the AHL, the ECHL. He also had a stint in Europe in the Swiss league,” said White. “To go with that, we’ll have our returning players. Matt Lowry, Ward Szucki are back again. The Speiss brothers [also return] and Curtis Nelson. There are several others, just too many to mention. We’re coming back with the core from last year, so we have some high expectations heading into the year

The defending champs

A little further east in the town of Gladstone, the defending league champion Lakers will have a big challenge this season. Team rep Dale Evenson said that while there will be many new bodies in the sweaters, they’re still feeling optimistic about their chances to defend this year. He added that many people in the community have been asking him as of late about the team’s outlook and indicating that they greatly looking forward to the start of the regular season.