New league gives Eagles new challenge

HOUGHTON — The Ojibwa Eagles will do something they’ve never done before starting this upcoming season. The Eagles will be part of the new Northern Lakes Hockey League. The league, which will begin play this October, is currently made up of five teams. The Marquette Electricians, the Soo Indians, the Green Bay Gamblers and the Thunder Bay Kings are the other four teams to join the conference. Thunder Bay is just an affiliate member this season. The Kings will only play half a league schedule this season. Thunder Bay will become a full-time member and play a full slate of league games in 2009-10. “It was an easy decision when the opportunity to join the league came about,” Eagles coach Dan Giachino said. “We wanted to be a part of it.” The formation of the new league began after three of its “new” teams were not included in two new super-conferences that were formed. So members from the Marquette and Soo organizations got the ball rolling to form the new league. Once the ball got rolling, by-laws were established, officers were elected, and the request for the new league was sent to USA Hockey. Two weeks later, the NLHL was born. Still, there were some obstacles to overcome in forming the league. The biggest problem was putting a schedule together. “Most of the teams play a lot of tournaments,” Giachino said. “We had to schedule around them and that was the toughest thing we had to do.” And now that the schedules are set, the league is ready to begin its inaugural season. Each team will play 14 regular season games. All the teams in the league will also host tournaments that will include every other team in the conference. The league will not have a playoff in its first year of competition. The powers that be hope to have a post-season in place by the league’s second season. By that time the league could expand to as many as eight teams. Having eight teams in the conference fits the tournament format perfectly. All the league members have to do is convince three more clubs to join the NLHL and the process of forming the league will be complete. The only other thing left to do is drop the puck. And that will be done for the first time this coming October. K.D. Warvie can be reached at kwarvie@mininggazette.com