THUNDER BAY – SPORTS – Hockey Northwestern Ontario announced Monday that the Thunder Bay Elks Minor Hockey Association will host the 2017 AA Tournament of Champions. The event will take place March 3-5, 2017 in Thunder Bay. The tournament will feature AA teams from within Hockey Northwestern Ontario at the Atom, Peewee, Bantam and Midget levels, with Branch champions being crowned in each division.
“The Thunder Bay Elks are privileged to have been awarded the opportunity to host the Tournament of Champions for a third year in a row, we plan to continue to build this event similar to the tradition of the Tom Thumb and Central Canada tournaments we host annually” said Thunder Bay Elks President, Paul Tocheri.
The Tournament of Champions format was created in March 2013 by the HNO Board of Directors as a way to recognize a Branch wide champion at the AA category in the Midget, Bantam and Peewee divisions. The Atom AA division was added in 2016.
“We are pleased to have the Thunder Bay Elks Minor Hockey Association step up to host this event for a third straight year; it has been a great weekend of hockey the last two years and we expect that to continue in 2017” said HNO President Glenn Timko.
The Midget AAA Branch Championship will take place in Kenora, Ontario March 10-12 with the Kenora Thistles Midget AAA team hosting the Thunder Bay Kings Major Midget AAA team in a best of three series. The Peewee and Bantam AAA Championships will take place the following weekend (March 10-12) in Thunder Bay. The champions will move onto their respective Provincial championship in Peewee and Bantam and the Telus Cup Western Regional at the Midget AAA level.
The All Ontario Bantam AAA Championship will take place in Thunder Bay March 27- April 1st with Thunder Bay Minor Hockey hosting the event.
