2012 Renwick Cup Champions!

April 9th, 2012

Sr Thistles sweep Dundas and earn berth in 2012 Allan Cup!

April 9th, 2012

By: Garett Williams
Kenora Daily Miner & News

Kenora’s Senior AAA Thistles have booked a second straight Allan Cup appearance after sinking the Dundas Real McCoys in two straight games to lift the Renwick Cup Saturday.

The Thistles got a leg up in the best-of-three series with a 5-2 win Friday and followed up with an even wider 6-1 spread Saturday.

Kenora blasted to a 3-0 lead in the first period Friday with a pair of goals from recruit Tobias Whelan — including a short handed goal assisted by keeper Ryan Person. Whelan logged his third point of the night still in the first period when he assisted Jonathan Poirier’s third Thistles goal.

Tyler Woodisse scored in the second and Troy Ilijow added another in the third for Kenora. Both Dundas goals came in the second period from Cam Watson and Ryan Christie.

Woodisse scored the only goal in the first period Saturday before Jeff Richards potted a hat trick — including two short handed goals — in the second to put Kenora up 4-1 after Scott Mifsud put Dundas on the board with the only Real McCoys goal.

Wesley Thom and Matt Johnson each added markers in the third.

The win gives the Thistles a berth in the Allan Cup championships in Lloydminster beginning April 16.

AAA Senior Thistles face-off against Lightning

January 7th, 2012

Garett Williams

Kenora’s AAA Senior Thistles are back in action Saturday, travelling to Beausejour to face the Manitoba Lightning in the club’s first game of the season away from their own barn.

The Thistles opened the season with a gritty 5-4 win over the Lightning at Thistles Rink in November and coach John Tresoor said he’s expecting another strong effort from the Manitoba squad.

“It’s going to be a good hockey game,” he said. “That’s a pretty good hockey team. They could be stronger, as well.”
In the second game of the home-and-home series, Tresoor said Kenora will ice a full line-up of 18-skaters, though he noted a few names will be off the roster, including Jon Johnson, who tallied two assists in the November tilt.

The afternoon match — the puck drops at 1:45 p.m. — is the final tune-up before the Thistles lace up for a two game series with the Fort Frances Thunderhawks at the end of the month and the coach is leaning on the basics.

“Every time we go out we’re just looking after three zones of the ice, looking after our own end and the neutral zone and getting on the forecheck,” he said. “Pretty basic hockey. I always keep telling the guys it’s a pretty simple game and we’ll keep it simple and try and work harder than the other team and we’ll be OK.”

The winner of the home-and-home series with the Thunderhawks will host game one of the best-of-three Northwestern Ontario playdowns in March for a shot at the Renwick Cup in southern Ontario and an Allan Cup berth down the road.

New faces add offensive punch for Senior AAA Thistles

January 7th, 2012

By Garett WIlliams

Kenora’s Senior AAA Thistles hockey club took its upgraded offence for a test drive against a short-handed Fort Frances squad Saturday and pounded the Thunderhawks 14-1 in the first meeting of the season between the Northwestern Ontario rivals.

Newly acquired Manitoba forwards Jonathon Poirier and Don Melnyk had an immediate impact on the first line with Thistles veteran and captain Sean Hughes. The trio connecting for seven goals, including six and a helper from Poirier alone.

“He’s a goal scorer and that’s exactly why we pursued him,” said coach John Tresoor. “He’s a guy who can put the puck in the net and he showed us.”

Melnyk was good for a couple helpers and brought some physical intensity into the line-up, including a second period tilt with Fort Frances’ Riley Caul.

Kenora built an 8-0 lead in the first two periods and added another six in the third when the Thunderhawks finally managed to solve Thistles keeper Ryan Person.

Tresoor said he expects to have four strong lines when all the players report but noted the Thunderhawks skated only a handful of players in the line-up from the team that knocked Kenora out of the Allan Cup tournament last spring.

“We’ve got to put things in perspective, they’re going to be better once they get their full-time guys but, at the same time, its a combo of both, they were weaker and we were strong.

“We should have beat them 14-1. I would have been disappointed with anything less, to be honest with you, because they were short-handed and we were pretty strong.”

In addition to Poirier’s six, Jaye Bergman, Ryan Bowen and Matt Johnson each potted a pair and Hughes and Mark Richards collected singles.

The Thistles didn’t dress offensive threat Jeff Richards, nor defensive stalwart Trevor Socholotuk.

Senior Thistles to test padded roster on Fort Frances

December 19th, 2011

By Garett WIlliams

When Kenora’s Senior Thistles hit the ice this weekend, it will be the first real test of the season.

The club is hosting the Fort Frances Thunderhawks, who bumped the Thistles from the 2011 Allan Cup championship tournament and the first team standing in the way of another berth in the senior hockey title meet.

While coach John Tresoor said he looks at the early season games as practice for the ice time lacking squad, this weekend’s game will act as an early litmus test gauging where the club stands against its Northwestern Ontario rival, who the Thistles will need to better in the spring if there’s any hope of an Allan Cup appearance.

“You can’t look past Fort Frances,” said Tresoor. “That’s the team that we have to beat and that’s what we’re stressing with our guys. These other games are great to get ready but we have to build to beat Fort Frances, that’s what we’re doing.

“If we don’t beat them we don’t go any further. This is an important game.”

A handful of new names will appear in the line-up this weekend including forwards Don Melnyk and Jonathon Poirier, who will skate the first line along with captain Sean Hughes.

Hughes’ linemate Jeff Richards and blueliner Trevor Socholotuk will be out of the roster Saturday, which opens the door for some of the new faces to step into the fold, said Tresoor.

“You want to give a guy a fair chance,” he said. “You can’t throw him out there for two or three shifts a game and evaluate him from there. I think put him in, let him have a game and show us what you got.”

“We’re deep up front,” Tresoor added. “It’s going to be very competitive because people will be fighting for spots and that’s healthy.

“It keeps everybody working hard but I expect everybody that we have in the roster to play a part in this at some point in time.”

Tresoor noted the club signed on defenceman Kevin Chabbert, who skated for the Thistles in the Allan Cup tourney last season, for another run and said he feels the team is taking shape.

“We’re almost there,” he said. “I think we might be looking for one more defenceman but as far as I’m concerned we’ve got the players that we need.”

Ryan Reynard, who was instrumental in forming the senior team five years ago, will be honoured at the game and will drop the opening puck at 8 p.m. at Thistles Rink. The Salvation Army will also be on hand collecting unwrapped toys and non-perishable food.

Kenora Senior Thistles return to action against the Fisher River Terriers Sunday

December 2nd, 2011

By Garett WIlliams

It took an 11th hour swap but the Senior Thistles will ride again this weekend.

The AAA club was scheduled to face the Fort Frances Thunderhawks at Thistles Rink Sunday afternoon but the Thistles learned Tuesday a short bench left Fort Frances unable to ice a team. As luck would have it, the ‘AA’ Fisher River Terriers put a call into the Thistles the same day and will pick up the date.

“It worked out great,” said Thistles head coach John Tresoor, whose team hasn’t skated since posting a 5-4 win over the Manitoba Lightning Nov. 13. “It would have been disappointing not to have a game. I think the players and everybody is looking forward to more hockey.”

The Terriers are leading the five-team AA Manitoba East Hockey League with a 6-1 record, have a perfect 3-0 road record and has tallied 23 goals in the last two games but Tresoor, who has made it clear the goal of the season is to earn an Allan Cup berth, said these early season games are simple workouts for the ice-time lacking seniors.

“We’re not panicking about that,” he said. “We’ve got a bunch of games lined up, we’re confident we’ll get some ice time at the time we need it. We’ll just do the best we can do right now and use these games, as I said before, as our practices.”

Kenora was boosted to a one-goal win over the Lightning earlier this month on a hat trick from Ryan Bowen but the coach pointed to a four-minute breakdown in the second period, defensive zone coverage and a few bad penalties as things to be addressed.

“You take that away from the game and I think we coasted to a fairly easy victory,” he said. “Those are the things we’ll key in on.”

“These guys are all high calibre players,” he added. “Most of them have played some good hockey and we can talk about it and they should be able to go out and do it.”

Tresoor said he expects a fast, young Fisher River squad and is counting on a tight defensive effort to control the game.

“If we play a good defensive game and pound the puck in their end and get the cycle going, I think we’ll be fine and capitalize on our chances,” he said. “We’ll just be patient, look after our own end of the ice and I think we’ll be fine.”

As the season unfolds, a handful of skaters with professional experience will find their way in the line-up leading into the branch playdowns against Fort Frances in March.

Following a stint in junior hockey, this weekend will see Mitch Chagnon return to Thistles Rink for the first time since he captained the Midget AAA Thistles in 2009. Portage la Prairie’s Allan Roulette is also expected to make his first appearance for the red-and-white.

Game time is 3 p.m. Sunday.

Senior AAA Thistles take the ice Sunday against Manitoba Lightning

November 22nd, 2011

By: Garett Williams

Senior AAA hockey is returning to Thistles Rink this weekend.

After hosting the 2011 Allan Cup senior hockey championships in the spring, the future of Kenora’s senior Thistles was up in the air.

Now that all the background noise has been dealt with it’s time to get down to hockey.

First up is the Manitoba Lightning, who’ll cloud the Kenora Recreation Centre Sunday at 2:30 p.m. and though head coach John Tresoor is short a few skaters — especially on the blueline — he said things look good heading into the campaign’s inaugural match.

“We don’t have all our players but we’ve certainly got a competitive line-up for Sunday and I’m actually quite pleased with that,” he said. “We’ve got a couple defencemen that are away right now and we’re going to be a little short but we’ve got lots of skaters.

“It’s not the perfect line-up but I’m quite comfortable with it.”

Tresoor said he’ll have to run with a four-man defensive unit, rather than the six he’d prefer but expects 18 skaters on the bench, overall.

The club has only skated a single practice/orientation camp so far as it struggles to find ice time but the coach noted a number of the players have skated together in the past — including the 2011 Allan Cup drive — and he said he’s counting on that familiarity.

“We’re going to, obviously, keep it a pretty simple game, it is our first game of the year,” he said. “Most of these guys, the nucleus of these guys, have played together before, so that makes it a lot easier.

“We do have a few new faces in the line-up and it’s the first game of the year, so obviously there might be some rust there but we’ll just keep the game simple and hopefully have some success.”

Senior hockey set to return!

October 22nd, 2011

It’s on.

It looked like senior hockey in Kenora was to be shelved indefinitely after coach and manager Ryan Reynard said this summer he wouldn’t lead the Senior AAA Thistles into another season.

But a nine-member board has since been struck and a coaching and managing staff aligned to carry the torch.

“We’re just getting the ball rolling now,” said chairman Bruce Johnson, who noted the club has scheduled its first home game for next month and is looking to squeeze enough ice time for five more this winter.

“We’re scraping by this year because we’re the low man on the totem pole,” he said. “Pretty much all the ice is gone, so we have to do what we can to get ice.”

The club will host the Manitoba Lightning at Thistles Rink Nov. 13.

The club also has three scheduled games with the Fort Frances Thunderhawks, the only other senior squad in Northwestern Ontario.

The Thistles will host Fort Frances Dec. 4 and travel to meet the Thunderhawks Jan. 28 and Feb. 18.

Ideally, Johnson said the club is looking to piece together a 12-game schedule.

“If we could get six home games and (six) road games for the year, we’d be doing well, for now,” he said, “with the lateness and everything else.”

Any skaters interested in lacing up for the team can take to the ice at the Kenora Recreation Centre in an open-to-all orientation camp Saturday from 12:30 – 2:30 p.m. when coaches John Tresoor, Brian Olson and Jim Gustafson can take a first-look at a potential roster. Bryan Booth has signed up to manage the club and Dean Smith is the trainer.

At a preliminary meeting earlier in the month, Johnson said more than a dozen potential players already committed themselves but added the club could use more.

After resuscitating the senior club following a 17-year absence in 2006, Reynard led the team through five seasons, including two berths in the Renwick Cup championships and hosting duties for the 2011 Allan Cup.

Unwilling to let sleeping dogs lie, Johnson and the board — Bob Johnston, Jim Green, Greg Bowman, Jamie Minor, Gord McCool, J.J. Moran, Tracy Laffin and Stephanie Loewen — banded together to lay the groundwork to keep senior hockey running in Kenora into the future.

Garett Willaims

Kenora Daily Miner & News

Congratulations Clarenville Caribous!

April 17th, 2011

Congratulations to the Clarenville Caribous, 2011 Allan Cup Champions.

Thank you Kenora!

April 16th, 2011

The Kenora Sr. Thistles would like to express a heartfelt thank you to the fans and sponsors of our 2010-2011 season. It was an incredible year capped off with the Allan Cup tournament held in our own Thistle Rink. Without your support our team would not have had the success it did this year.

THANK YOU!