Tiger Hills Hockey League season set to begin
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- Published on Thursday, October 22, 2015
Photo by Eoin Devereux. The Neepawa Farmers and Minnedosa Bombers will be league rivals this season.
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The 2015-2016 regular season is about to start for the Tiger Hills Hockey League (THHL). It will operate with 13 clubs this year, making it the largest senior league in Canada.
During the off-season, the Swan Lake Cougars requested and were granted a one year leave of absence from league play, stating a lack of player commitment as the principal reason for them not being able to compete. The Minnedosa Bombers, previously a member of the North Central Hockey League, made a presentation for entry into the THHL during the off-season and were unanimously accepted.
With 13 teams, the league format will once again be an east and west divisional system and teams will play an unbalanced schedule. Each team will play three games against divisional opponents and either travel to or host a team from the other division once. Eastern Division teams will play 24 games and Western Division teams will play a 22 game schedule.
The playoffs will be similar to last season, with the biggest change being that if the seventh place team in the East has a better winning percentage than the sixth place team in the West, there will be a crossover series in the first round. The rest of the playoffs remain as before. First and second in both divisions receive first round byes, while the third place team will play the sixth ranked club and the team seeded in fourth position will go against the fifth ranked club in a best of three series. After that round is completed, the first place team plays the lowest surviving seed and the number two seed will face the next playoff contender in a best-of-five series. As for the THHL Championship, the two finalists can decide on whether they want a best-of-five or a best-of-seven series to determine the league champion.
Regular season play for the Tiger Hills Hockey League begins on Friday, Oct. 23 and the playoffs are scheduled for February. The THHL Champion will compete in the Senior ‘A’ Provincial Tournament to decide the Hockey Manitoba Cup Champion.
