September 14, 2012 at 2:18 p.m.
Street Cats' opener delayed
Rhinelander junior hockey team now slated to start season at home Sept. 22 and 23
Street Cats' opener delayed
The team's scheduled opening weekend three-game road trip has been postponed to a later date. The Cats - featuring players born between 1992 and 1997 - were scheduled to play at the Northwest Ohio (Sylvania) Grrrowl last night and play games at the Great Lakes (Fraser, Mich.) Lightning today and Sunday.
Rhinelander is now slated to begin play next weekend against the Hartland (Mich.) Hounds at the Rhinelander Ice Arena. The teams will play at 7:30 p.m. Sept. 22 and 12:30 p.m. Sept 23.
The Sept. 14 game at Northwest Ohio and another scheduled road game at Northwest Ohio Oct. 5 have been moved to a two-game road series March 1 and 2. No make-up dates have been announced for the road series at Great Lakes.
To accommodate the arrival of the Cats, the Rhinelander Ice Association installed its winter ice this week. The skating surface will be ready to use by Monday. Typically the RIA does not install winter ice until October.
According to Street Cats head coach Igor Myaskovskiy, the team began training last week and had done most of its dryland training in Three Lakes while using the Lakeland Ice Arena for on-ice practice.
The Street Cats have a deal with the Rhinelander Ice Arena for the use of the facility. While Rhinelander Ice Arena manager Brett Aylesworth would not go into the specifics of the deal, he said the fee is enough to make hosting a junior team "worth it" financially for the rink.
That opens the door to other potential skating opportunities at the rink, though Aylesworth said he did not have a concrete plan for what extra skating sessions will take place.
"We'll do some member stuff, mini camps and captains' practice," he said. "Starting next week, I'll probably start putting some stuff together. We might try some open skate here and there, if we can use the locker rooms."
Aylesworth said he is happy to have another tenant in the Rhinelander Ice Arena.
"It creates more interest in hockey in the area," he said. "It gets more people in the ice arena. It should be an advanced level of hockey - a level above high school is what it's geared toward - any time you can get more exposure to hockey in the community, it's a good thing."
Rhinelander is scheduled to play 48 games in the fledging MWJHL, which is sanctioned by the Amateur Athletic Union. The league has experienced some growing pains in preparation for its first season. Originally scheduled to have 16 teams, the league will begin play with 10 teams in 2012. President and CEO Patrick Pylypuik stepped down from those roles earlier this month to serve as the coach and general manager for the Grrrowl. David Holt, of the Bloomington (Ill.) Blaze franchise has replaced Pylypuik on an interim basis.
One of the teams six teams dropped from the original 16-team format was the Ironwood, Mich., Bears - the sister franchise to the Street Cats.
Myaskovskiy, who also serves as the director of hockey operations for the Northern Stars Junior Hockey Association - which owns both franchises - said the ownership group decided to merge the two franchises into one.
"We start with one team, (the) Rhinelander Cats," Myaskovskiy said. "Rhinelander deserves (to) have a team more. After three years of waiting, and battling and petition(s), We (wanted to) try to bring great junior hockey in town that support(s) the team and believe in us."
Myaskovskiy was the head coach for the Rhinelander Daggers of the Wisconsin Junior Hockey League, which folded weeks into its existence in 2008. Rhinelander has not had a junior level hockey team since.
Aylesworth noted that the Street Cats' home dates may change. The team has games scheduled for Saturday evening and Sunday afternoons. The RIA typically hosts youth games on Sundays during the winter. In addition, some of the team's homestands fall on weekends that have already been booked for youth tournaments. One of those homestands, a two-game series with Bloomington Feb. 15 and 16 has been taken off the calender. The RIA is hosting a squirt tournament that weekend.
Aylesworth said he and the franchise are working together to come up with solutions. One likely answer would be to move the team's Sunday afternoon games to Friday evenings. Three home series have already been changed to a Friday-Saturday format - a series against Holland Nov. 23 and 24, a series against Northwest Ohio Dec. 14 and 15 and a series against Dayton (Ohio) Jan. 11 and 12.
In other schedule changes, Rhinelander's Jan. 11 game at Bloomington has been taken off the schedule with no make-up date announced. Rhinelander's two-game home stand with Holland, originally scheduled for March 1 and 2, has been moved to Feb. 1 and 2 to accommodate Rhinelander's road trip to Northwest Ohio. Rhinelander's Feb. 8 game at Holland has been moved to Feb. 10.
That means eight of Rhinelander 48 games do not have assigned dates - two home and two road games with Bloomington, two road games at Great Lakes and a home and away game with Soo (Sault St. Marie, Mich).
Jeremy Mayo may be reached at [email protected].
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