MJHL regular season schedule announced
- Details
- Published on Saturday, June 27, 2015
By Eoin Devereux
The Neepawa Banner
The Manitoba Junior Hockey League has unveiled its 2015-2016 regular season schedule. It will begin on Friday, Sept. 25 with 10 of 11 teams in action. The defending MJHL and RBC Cup champions Portage Terriers will open their regular season in Virden against the Oil Capitals, while the Neepawa Natives will begin the season on the road in Dauphin. The first home game for Neepawa will be on the following night, as the Kings will journey to the Yellowhead Centre for a 7:30 pm matchup.
For the second straight year, teams will play a balanced schedule with three games at home and three games on the road against each opponent. The annual MJHL Showcase at the MTS Iceplex in Winnipeg will also return this year. Neepawa plays two games, first against the Virden Oil Capitals on Friday, Oct. 2 at 3:00 pm, and then a matchup with the Winkler Flyers on Saturday, Oct. 3 also scheduled for 3:00 pm.
As for the schedule as a whole, Neepawa Natives general manager Myles Cathcart said they’re pleased with how it’s been organized.
“It’s very good for [the Natives organization]. There is a fair number of weekend games. I believe about 20 of our 30 home dates are on the weekend. There are also a few more Saturday night contests. We’re pleased with that as we didn’t want as many Sunday night games as we’ve had in the past,” said Cathcart. “The travel schedule for road games is also fair, so we are definitely looking forward to the new season.”
As for the playoff format for 2015-2016, a total of 10 teams will make the post-season. The clubs that finishing seventh to tenth will participate in separate, best-of-three survivor series to determine playoff seeding. The seventh-place team will play 10 while the eighth seeded club will face off against the ninth seed. Winners of these contests will then move on to the regular playoff format which will be best-of-seven series.
The top ranked team in the MJHL will play the eighth seed, second will meet seventh, third will face off against sixth and the fourth place club goes up against the fifth seeded team.
The MJHL exhibition schedule will likely be unveiled within the next few weeks.
