Blackhawks moving to Port for playoffs
The Thorold Blackhawks are heading south for the playoffs.
The Blackhawks will play all their Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League, Golden Horseshoe Conference home games at the Vale Centre in Port Colborne.
The Thorold Arena will be closed from the first week of April until early September 2022 for renovations.
Blackhawks owner/coach Scott Barnes said the final decision was his, but he did not want to hold up the extensive renovations which are scheduled to take place at the arenas.
“They asked me what I wanted to do. With the old rink being (closed) they are moving the whole ice compressor system back into that area and ripping up a lot of stuff,” Barnes said. “The earlier they get all that out, the earlier we can get in for next season. Had we waited an extra two or three weeks by the time the playoffs get started, who knows if it would have been ready for next season. It still might be close with it coming out now.”
The Blackhawks have one more home game remaining on the regular season schedule, Monday, March 28 versus the Pelham Panthers. They close out the regular season Friday, April 1 at Niagara Falls.
The playoffs are slated to begin the week of April 3. The Blackhawks will take on either the Caledonia Corvairs of the St. Catharines Falcons in the first round depending on the final standings.
Barnes, who is a former Port Colborne Sailor, is happy with the arrangement he worked out at the Vale Centre.
“Port Colborne is giving us a room and they’ve had junior hockey there before and they were able to give me whatever ice I wanted so it worked out really well,” he said.
Meanwhile, it appears the Pelham Panthers still may play the first round of their playoffs at the smaller James Duliban Arena at the Meridian Community Centre.
Panthers director of hockey operations, owner, general manager and coach Tim Toffolo was informed last month that the Accipiter Arena at the Meridian Community Centre would not be available for playoffs which begin April 6 because the ice is being removed for the Fonthill and District Kinsmen Home and Garden Show.
Toffolo originally indicated he may try and play in another venue.
“I still don’t know,” he said. “It depends where we finish but I’ve tried to look around and I don’t have too many options right now. That’s the problem.”
Accipiter Arena seats 1,000 while the Duliban can seat around 300 if bleachers are added.
“If we ever got to the second round, somehow, someway, I could not play in the Duliban. I couldn’t and I wouldn’t.”
The Panthers sit in seventh place in the standings and would play the second-place Falcons in the first round if the standings remain the same.
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