KENORA – The Kenora Thistles will play another season, at least, in the Manitoba U18 AAA Hockey League.
There will be no changes in the 12-team league’s composition this year, league president Don McIntosh confirmed to Newswatch, so the Thistles will continue competing against Manitoba’s best under-18 boys.
McIntosh said the Thistles’ continued participation in the league has to be approved annually by league governors and Hockey Manitoba.
“It's been like that forever because we're from a different branch (Northwestern Ontario),” said Doug Novak, Kenora's co-general manager, on Thursday.
More exactly, it has been that way since the Thistles joined the keystone province’s U18 AAA league in the mid-1980s.
McIntosh told CBC News last month that trimming Kenora and another team from the league was an option under consideration.
The uncertainty sparked a campaign by Kenora fans to urge the league to keep their team in the fold.
That grassroots support “definitely helped,” McIntosh said.
The Thistles finished the regular season at the bottom of the league with just eight wins in 44 games, but Novak said they were “very competitive” and “had a lot of good games” in the last weeks.
“We're just looking forward to the next season and looking forward to actually in two weeks playing Thunder Bay for the branch championship,” he said.
The Thistles play the Thunder Bay Kings in the 2024 Hockey Northwestern Ontario Branch Playdowns from March 22-24 at Fort William First Nation Arena, with the winner moving on to the U18 west regionals from April 4-7 in Winnipeg.
Besides the U18 team, the Thistles organization has Under-11 AA, U13 AAA, and U15 AA programs.
