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Tri City Icehawks (GLJHL, 2011-12)

2011-12 Regular Season: Icehawks vs. Wisconsin Rampage
     Here's a random program. I went to this game while my brother was still living in Bay City. 

     The Tri City Icehawks are a junior hockey team based out of Bay City, Michigan. They play their home games at the Bay County Civic Arena. The team is owned by Arthur and Colleen Dore (Colleen is also General Manager).  Chris Lacy was the head coach, with Eric Albrecht and Arthur Dore serving as his assistants.
     During the 2011-12 season, the Icehawks were part of the Great Lakes Junior Hockey League. That year, the Icehawks stumbled to a 10-32-0 record. The team scored 158 goals while allowing 288 on the year.
     This program is from the game on February 12, 2012, when the Icehawks played the Wisconsin Rampage. The Icehawks won, 4-3, in a shootout. At the time, this was their ninth win of the year.
     The Icehawks are considered a "Tier III" junior team, which would place them one step below the NAHL (where the Port Huron Fighting Falcons and Michigan Warriors once played, btw). Probably the lowest level of hockey I've watched (outside of my brother's house league games). I believe tickets were $4, about the price of high school sports. The lady taking tickets (Colleen Dore, maybe?)  seemed genuinely surprised that my brother and I came to watch the game, especially when I said where I was from. Very welcoming too, may I add. The hockey game wasn't too bad, either.
     The program is on the same level as something you'd find at, say, Deckerville High School athletic events. It's a 15-page program with advertisements (most of them pixelated), all of which are in color. Individual pictures of the players, coaching staff and front office are on the middle pages. The majority of the players from that season were from the Tri-City area, but one was from the Czech Republic! Local ads include Firehouse Soft Car Wash, Ken Wackerle Excavating and Winding Creek Boarding Kennels. BTW, the Icehawks logo on the front is pretty slick.

Aftermath: The Icehawks still exist, and still play at the Bay County Civic Arena. However, they currently play in the United States Premier Hockey League, another Tier III circuit. As of this post, the Icehawks have a 13-1-1 record, tops in the Eastern Conference of the Midwest Region. The Dore family still owns the franchise. 

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