POWERED BY

Thunder Bay to Host Holiday Tournament

Mon Sep 30, 2002
Written by Mike Aylward
Photo by James Mirabelli

(Thunder Bay) The Lakehead Thunderwolves and Bell Canada will be staging the first annual Bell Canada Varsity Cup, from Dec. 27 to Dec. 30, 2002. It is the first major university hockey tournament to be held in Thunder Bay.

The tourney will give Thunderwolves fans a great christmas gift, in the form of four of the top teams in CIS university hockey. The teams that will face off will be the University of Toronto (OUA), University of Calgary (Canada West), Saint Francis Xavier (AUA), and your own Lakehead Thunderwolves. All three of the visiting teams were ranked in the CIS Top 10 in the 2001-2002 season.

Tournament Chairman Don Wing believes this is a great way to showcase CIS hockey and provide great family entertainment during the holiday. "Lakehead University and Thunderwolves Inc. are proud to bring teams of this caliber from all over Canada into Thunder Bay. It is a great opportuity to profile our community and the partnership it has with Lakehead University."

Caren Naismith, Regional Director of Bell Community Affairs and Customer Services, said that Bell Canada is very proud to be involved with this prestigious new tournament, "Bell is truly honored to be supporting the communities in which we serve,and being able to share in the excitement with the announcement today of the Bell Canada Varsity Cup."

The tournament will follow a round-robin format with each team playing the others over the course of the first 3 days. December 30 will see the teams with the two best records facing off to be tournament champions.

TOURNAMENT SCHEDULE

December 27:

4:00 pm - University of Toronto vs University of Calgary
7:30 pm - Saint Francis Xavier vs Lakehead University

December 28:

4:00 pm - University of Calgary vs Saint Francis Xavier
7:30 pm - University of Toronto vs Lakehead University

December 29:

4:00 pm - University of Toronto vs Saint Francis Xavier
7:30 pm - University of Calgary vs Lakehead University

December 30:

2:00 pm - Finals (Winner of Round Robin vs 2nd place)