It’s a sure sign that summer is coming to a close. The Huntsville Otters play their Junior C league home opener tonight (September 16) against Orillia at the Don Lough arena.
The Otters are fresh off a runner-up result in a pre-season tournament in Alliston. The Alliston Hornets needed four third-period goals before defeating the Otters in the final game. Alliston were the run-away champions in the league last year, finishing 29 points ahead of second place Huntsville.
The Otters have made several additions to their roster, including new coach Rocky Clarke. He takes over from Shawn Crozier and Jim Purvis and brings a lot of experience to the job. He was the coach of Huntsville’s Jr. C team 29 years ago and was the last to coach a Junior C championship team in Huntsville.
Crozier had been with the team for four years but stepped down for personal reasons.
General manager Craig Shaw says the Otters have added experience to this year’s team and have about ten returning players, including affiliated players. Four Huntsville players are Mitchell Jones, Josh Zantingh, Jared Stevens and Cody Jones.
They also picked up Midland’s 20-year old captain from last year, Bobby Logan, and his teammate Matt Smith. They wanted to play out their junior careers with friends on the Huntsville Otters’ roster.
“They have a lot of experience,” Shaw said, “and to get two 20-year-olds like that is a real bonus. They will bring the right character that we are looking for.”
Our strength is going to be our defensive zone. We have three returning defensemen, and two back from Jr. A. Joel Fedeski of Minden and Jesse Holten of Kearney played in the Northern Ontario league and wanted to come home in their final year.Jr. C coach Rocky Clarke
“We were pleasantly surprised getting to the final Sunday in Alliston. We have been there four times before and this was the first time in the final game.”
Coach Rocky Clarke sees the upcoming season as “encouraging so far”.
“I think the Alliston results got several teams taking a second look at us,” he said while getting set for practice Wednesday night at the Don Lough arena. “The combination of players coming back and the new players seem to be meshing well but it’s early and we have a long way to go. We are looking for guys that play well together on the ice and that will take a little time.”
As for the first game Friday against Orillia, Clarke says he is looking forward to it. “I’m excited for the guys.”
We have a good squad, good coaching and depth as far as I’m concerned. We showed on the weekend that Alliston is definitely beatable and we can take a few games from them this year. I think Rocky’s system fits our style of hockey that we will be playing. He believes in puck possession and attention to detail and our systems will make us stronger than last year. Last year we were more of a rush team but a lot of the time you can get caught out of position.Kyle Burns, Defenseman of the year and co-captain of the Otters last season
As for the season opener Friday night, Burns is cautiously optimistic after beating Orillia in the Alliston tournament 5-0.
“They’re fast. They play on the rush and I think our systems match up well against them so we are pretty confident.”
This year’s league has a 42-game schedule with each of the eight teams playing each other six times.
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