The Portland Winterhawks quietly announced that the Neely Cup Tournament during Training Camp will run Wednesday, August 21 through Saturday, August 24. All the games will take place at Veterans Memorial Coliseum. There was little fanfare, no e-mail. It registered barely a blip on the main website, but it was picked up as snapshots on various fan Facebook pages.
Wednesday and Saturday, the games will begin at 3pm and end at 6pm allowing just under two hours each. The games once again will be running time except the last two minutes, which will have stoppages. Penalties will be called during the game. The format will see the opposing team having a penalty shot rush against the goaltender, as they chase the puck handler after giving them several strides ahead.
Thursday and Friday, the games will start at 4pm and will end about 6:45pm. Tickets are $5 per day or $15 for all four games. The Fan Fest will now take place in Veterans Memorial Coliseum until about 8:30pm on Saturday. No word what it will entail, but the past few years have seen inflatables for the kids, street hockey-type formats and The Junior Hawks selling previously used equipment and the Booster Club represented as well.
The Championship games will take place on Saturday with teams in third and fourth place meeting in the earlier game and the top two teams will battle in the final game of the night.
On Sunday, as players get ready to leave, the paring down will begin with players looking to be reassigned to Junior teams in their locales and the team getting ready for the “tournaments” in Everett and then Tri-City. There will also be exit interviews and an opportunity for the players to get feedback on their accomplishments during camp.
Portland also announced that 15 players will be attending hockey camps in either the United States or Canada as the Hawks ramp up to start the preseason.
In the US, 17-year-olds Matthew Knies, Joe Miller and Aiden Thompson, who was drafted in the 7th round of the 2017 Bantam Draft, and Jackson Nieuwendyk, drafted in the 12th round in 2017.
Tyler Haskins will take part in the Select 16 Development Camp.
Four players: Maddox Fleming, selected in the 12th in this year’s Bantam Draft, James Snuggerud in the 10th Round, Marek Hejduk in the 9th round, and Luke Scheller in the 6th round, will be a part of the Select 15 Development Camp.
Canada will be represented with Ryder Thompson in the fifth round of this year’s draft playing in the Manitoba Provincial Camp, Landon Van Engelen in the ninth round and Marcus Nguyen in the eleventh round will play in the Alberta Provincial Camp. Three players will represent British Columbia at their Camp with Kyle Chyzowski selected in the third round, Carter Streek in the fourth round and Josh Mori in the eighth round. All of the players older than 16 will be eligible to join the Winterhawks as regular dressed players. The others will attend Winterhawks camp in August but will be ineligible to join the Winterhawks as regular players until next season, though they may play up to five games with the team during their regular season and all game once their bantam team has finished playing for the season, including playoffs.
