THUNDER BAY – There’s plenty of pros and cons to the Lakehead Thunderwolves hockey schedule this season.
The biggest plus, of course, is it looks like there’s a plan to get the team back on the ice as soon as Nov. 4.
The OUA last week announced schedules for all of its team sports, with shortened slates and fewer opponents, an effort to reduce travel costs and minimize the dangers of COVID-19.
For the hockey Wolves, it means starting the season at home for eight straight games, a chance to get off to a hot start with the support of one of the strongest university fan bases in all of Canada. But with that comes a lengthy stint on the road, a 10-game stretch lengthened by the need to give up the revamped Fort William Gardens’ ice to accommodate the Scotties Tournament of Hearts.
It means the Wolves won’t be at home for three full months, wrapping up their first half on Nov. 20 against the Toronto Varsity Blues, then closing out the Ontario University Athletics regular season at home with games against the Brock Badgers on Feb. 18 and Feb. 19.
It’s not ideal, said LU athletics director Tom Warden, but the good news is games will be played.
“At the end of the day, I think people are going to be happy that there is an event going on, a varsity event,” Warden said.
“It’s definitely going to tax our marketing group and there’s going to have to be an understanding from our community, but I think that’s there.”
Also new in 2021-22 are three-game sets.
The Wolves open up on Thursday, Nov. 4 against the York Lions, the first of three games the two teams will play over three consecutive nights. The following weekend the Ryerson Rams visit the Gardens for three.
It’s a little different, but given the situation, understandable, Warden said.
“It will be a change. I think people will be more than understanding when it comes to these changes, whether it’s an earlier start or later starts or gaps in the schedule or whatever it might be, because they’re happy to see the Thunderwolves back,” he said.
“I think that’s something we’re still going to have to overcome when it comes to our marketing, when it comes to fans understanding what’s going on with our schedule, but yeah, there are some Thursday games for hockey. We’re going to try to market those in a manner that sees more high school kids, etc.”
The men’s and women’s basketball teams will see a more traditional schedule in 2021-22, never playing more than two games on the road consecutively and will play four straight at home straddling the Christmas break in the confines of the CJ Sanders Fieldhouse.
Both teams open on the road on Nov. 4 against McMaster, returning home on Nov. 12 to host the Brock Badgers for a pair.
The women’s volleyball team, which starts at home on Nov. 5 against McMaster, will have a five-game road trip and a five-game home-stand, also going nearly three months between home games, from Nov. 6 to Jan. 28, when they welcome Waterloo to the Fieldhouse.
