The PJHL will kick off the 2021-22 Regular Season with games beginning Thursday, Sept 30th, with the Pollock Division kicking off the following night. The Kincardine Bulldogs will kick off their season Friday, October 1st at the Davidson Centre with an 8:30 puck drop, versus the new-look Mitchell Hawks.
The Bulldogs are wrapping up an extended training camp, which kicked off in early August, and saw them go 3-1 in exhibition play, with two impressive wins over Goderich and Walkerton, where they outscored their opponents 17-2, and a last-second thriller in Mount Forest, where Bulldog rookies Jordan Beisel and Gavin Gibbons connected with a little more than a second to play to claim the 4-3 victory.
The early season will be filled with a lot of new procedures, thanks to the COVID pandemic, but teams are adapting as best they can. Players, staff and fans alike will all require proof of vaccination as they enter any of the rinks, and in the case of the Davidson Centre, the additional municipal screening is required. Of course masks are still mandatory and social distancing is requested. No matter the rink – please be patient with the arena staff checking for proof – many are volunteers.
The PJHL has also had a face-lift of its’ own, switching online scoring and website platforms to Waterloo-based HockeyTech. While the teams have been busy getting websites prepared, and learning a new online scoring platform, there will be growing pains but in the works is also a PJHL smartphone app which will allow you easy access to scores, news and everything Provincial Junior Hockey League-related. Watch for that in the very near future, and in the meantime, check out the league site a www.thepjhl.ca
See you at the rink!