I know that I'm getting to this late, but there's a lot to take care of at the beginning of the season.

Well, the first games are in the books, and here's a little recap of them:

As a tradition, I like to make the first game of the season a re-match of the two finalist teams from the previous season. In this case, the Omegas showed why they are the defending champions by defeating the Flyers 9-3.
The Flyers actually got on the scoreboard first when Darryl Poort scored the first goal of the season. However, the thrill was short lived for the Flyers, as they found themselves down 4-1 after the first period. The Omegas continued to roll on and held a 8-2 lead after two periods.
Dave Archer of the Omegas scored his first goal in our league in his first game. Lance Ross scored twice for the Omegas, but we'll let Ian VanReenen & Freddie VanReenen share the Player of the Game honours. They each had a three point game.

The middle game between the Hawks & the IceDogs went down to the wire, but the Hawks hung on with a 6-5 victory.
Veteran, Doug Boelens, got the Hawks off to an early lead and added another goal later in the first. It was a close game all the way through with both teams swapping goals. The Hawks looked like they may take it comfortably when they scored halfway through the third to give themselves a 6-4 lead. In the last minute, the IceDogs had a powerplay & poured on the pressure with the goalie pulled as well. Jordan Deboer scored his third goal of the game to bring the IceDogs to within one. It turned out to be too late because the Hawks held on from there.
Calvin Pelleboer of the Hawks & Joe Deboer of the IceDogs both had a three point game. Kyle Huizinga & Jordan Deboer will share the Player of the Game in this one. They each had four points in the game.

The late game saw the Stars beat the Cattle Barons 5-3.
This was another close game, thanks to some great goaltending on both teams. Steve Pastoor of the Cattle Barons & Dave Noorloos of the Stars were the reason the score didn't get out of hand. Both of them made outstanding saves and will share the Player of the Game.
Adrian Fonville of the Cattle Barons scored his first goal in our league in his first game. Jeff Sit had three points for the Stars, while Chris Helps had four points.

A few more new players have been approved to play since the league meeting last Thursday. These players are okay to start playing this week Friday (October 3).

The Stars have added John Hotke to their roster. John attends Temple Baptist Church in Sarnia and he is the brother of Jason Hotke.

The Cattle Barons have added Ryan Taylor to their roster. Ryan attends Westmount CRC in Strathroy. I'm not sure whether or not he has a brother. :)

The Omegas have added Ken Oudmen to their roster. Ken attends the Redeemer CRC in Sarnia.

Since the full schedule is still not finalized, I do not have an official one to hand out yet.

Here is the official schedule for the first few weeks:

Friday, Oct.3
7:00pm - Omegas vs. Flyers
8:20pm - IceDogs vs. Hawks
9:40pm - Stars vs. Cattle Barons

Friday, Oct.10
7:00pm - Cattle Barons vs. Flyers
8:20pm - Omegas vs. IceDogs
9:40pm - Stars vs. Hawks

As in the past, we will be playing almost all of our games on Friday nights at the Pt. Edward Arena.

Another hockey season is almost here! We are less than a week away now. That's right - we play our first games already this coming Friday (October 3).

The team reps met the other night to make preparations for the new 2014-15 season. Here are some of the highlights from the meeting's minutes:

Schedule
- We will not be playing any league games on Friday, December 26. Obviously, it is Boxing Day, and since a lot of players in our league will be participating in the Boxing Day Tournament, we don't want to make them play again that evening. Besides - the Pt.Edward Arena is closed anyways, due to it being a holiday.
- There was a discussion about playing on Saturday, December 27th to make up for those games, but it was decided that it would be better to make up these games later on in the season. I am trying to get ice on a Saturday evening in February, but nothing has been booked yet. I will keep everyone informed of that when it happens.
- We will not be playing games on January 16th or on January 30th due to the SilverStick Tournaments.

Costs
- The cost for the season will be $3840.00 per team. All teams will need to get their payments into the hands of the Treasurer in the first few weeks of the season. The preferred way of paying is in four installments of $960.00 each. These four cheques should be postdated for Oct.1, Nov.1, Dec.1, & Jan.1. All of the installments need to be handed in at the beginning of the season.
- If a payment has not been made one month after the due date, then that team will forfeit each of their games until the payment is made.

Rosters
- The rosters were reviewed for each of the teams and the following new players were approved to play this season:
Flyers: Kyle Scott
Omegas: Glen Angle, Dave Archer, & Steve Metcalfe
Hawks: Zack Vanderwal & Shane Boelens
IceDogs: did not add any new players
Cattle Barons: Chris Losier, Steve Minten, & Adrian Fonville
Stars: Devon Zekveld & Dylan Campbell

- The following players either moved to a new team for this season or are being welcomed back after an absence for the last few seasons:
Flyers: Will Marut (He is also on the Omegas' roster. Whichever team he plays for first - he stays on for the season.)
Omegas: Luke VanReenen & Joe VanReenen
Hawks: Justin Anjema
IceDogs: no new players
Cattle Barons: Eric Vanderlinde, Jon Vanderlinde, Darren DeGroot, Jake Huizinga, & Kyle Roest
Stars: Greg Wierenga

Rule Updates
- The "penalty cap" rule was discussed, and everyone agrees that it worked great last season. We will continue to go with it "as is" for this season. Here's a refresher:
If a player reaches the 30 minute mark in regular season penalties, he will be suspended for one game.
If this player later reaches the 60 minute mark in regular season penalties, then he will be suspended for another three games.
These suspensions will continue to be carried over into the next season, instead of having to sit out any playoff games.

Carried Over Suspensions
- The following three players will need to sit out the first game of the season due to carried over suspensions from last season:
Billy Freer (Cattle Barons) - was given a "game misconduct" in the last game of last season.
Sid VanReenen (Omegas) - reached the 30 minute mark in penalties during the last game of the last regular season.
Jeff Vanderdeen (Cattle Barons) - reached the 30 minute mark in penalties during the last game of last season.

Looking forward to another great season! See you all next Friday.

I figured that I would leave you with some fun facts to mull over for the summer.

As you all know, the Omegas are this season's League Champions.
- This is the 7th time in 12 seasons that the Omegas have done so.
- Herb Zylstra Sr., Chad VanReenen, Freddie VanReenen Jr., Rick Anjema, & Mark Zylstra have been on the Omegas for all seven of these championship seasons.
- There are four Omegas that will get their name on the "Case Schouten Memorial Trophy" for the first time this season. They are: Dave Giffen, Tim Allen, Jared Millberry, & Kurtis Tamming.

The Omegas were the fourth seed going into the playoffs, and barely made it in by the skin of their teeth, I might add.
- The last time a fourth place seed won the championship was six seasons ago, when the Crusaders won it in 2007-08. Actually, the Flyers were the fourth seed in the season before that (2006-07), and won it that year.
- This season's Omegas, the 2007-08 Crusaders, & the 2006-07 Flyers are the only fourth place seeds to win the championship since I started keeping track of stats in 1989.
- While I was checking my archives for this, I found out that there has never been a championship team that has come from the third seed (at least not since I started keeping stats in 1989). - now there's a fun fact, huh?

I can just see it next season, that nobody will want to be the third place seed.

Thanks for making this a very enjoyable season to run this league. Have a great summer, everyone!
Terry