Dawson Creek Daily News
Rick Davison
The North Peace Hockey League (NPHL) plans to release its schedule for the 2011-12 season Oct. 3 with the senior men’s league expected to start in early November and continue into mid-February before the playoffs begin.
In the meantime, the league statistician is working out a schedule that will satisfy every club in the 12-team league.
Teams have submitted “wish lists” outlining which dates are available and which dates they cannot play.
The Dawson Creek Canucks would prefer to see most of their home games played on Thursday evenings and road matches on Friday or Saturday nights.
The Canucks play in the West Division with the Fort St. John Flyers, Hythe Mustangs, Horse Lake Chiefs, Grande Prairie Athletics and Spirit River Rangers.
The Valleyview Jets, Lakeland Eagles, High Prairie Regals, Grimshaw Huskies, Falher Pirates and Fairview Kings make up the East Division.
Most teams have asked to avoid scheduling game on dates that collide with the games of nearby teams.
As well, this season the NPHL plans to schedule several interlocking games with teams in opposite divisions.
Last year teams just played matches against other clubs in their division, but the league intends to mix up the schedule this year and include some inter-divisional games for each team. The proposal would see Falher, Grimshaw and Valleyview visit Dawson Creek and the Canucks travel to Fairview, and High Prairie over the course of the season.
In other news from the Canucks' organization, the team plans on holding an all-ages and all-skill levels tournament Oct. 14 – 16 at the EnCana Events Centre.
The four-on-four tournament is a fundraiser for the club and a good way to kick off the season before the team opens the NPHL season, say organizers.
Players enter individually and are drafted on to teams on the Friday night (Oct. 14) and then play games Saturday and Sunday.
Anyone interested in playing can e-mail the Canucks at dccanucks@hotmail.com, go to the “Dawson Creek Senior Canucks Ice Breaker No Hit Hockey Tournament” on Facebook, or call Sheldon Wilkinson at 250-784-6500
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