The Johnstown Tomahawks are in Blaine, Minn. This week for the 2016 North American Hockey League Showcase. Two of the Tomahawks’ four opponents qualified for the 2016 Robertson Cup playoffs, including the 2015 Robertson Cup champions, the Minnesota Wilderness.
“The showcase is an unbelievable opportunity for all of our teams to have every Division I, Division III and pro scouts in the building at once,” Tomahawks head coach Mike Letizia said. “For our players, it is a chance to receive maximum exposure early in the season.”
The Tomahawks open the showcase Wednesday afternoon at 12:15 p.m. EST (11:15 a.m. CST) against the Springfield Jr. Blues. The Tomahawks and the Jr. Blues are familiar foes as they have met a total of 22 times in the last five seasons. The last meeting came on March 8, 2015 with the Tomahawks picking up a 4-1 win at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena. Springfield opened their season with a split series against the Minnesota Magicians.
Additionally, the Jr. Blues feature former Tomahawks forward from 2015-16, Luke Picek.
Thursday afternoon at 3:15 p.m. (2:15 p.m. CST), the Tomahawks take on the Minnesota Wilderness for the firm time in team history. The Wilderness, based in Cloquet, Minn., are 0-2 to start the season after dropping their season-opening series with Janesville.
The Tomahawks meet the Austin Bruins on Friday at 11 a.m. EST (10:00 a.m. CST). This will be the third all-time meeting with the Bruins who have taken both contests against Johnstown. The last face-off between Johnstown and Austin ended with an 8-2 Bruins victory.
Johnstown concludes the showcase Saturday with a 1 p.m. EST (12 p.m. CST) game against the expansion Shreveport Mudbugs. Shreveport is the only NAHL team to call Louisiana home and they feature several players that the Tomahawks are familiar with in former New Jersey Titans forward Garrett Hallford and former Kenai River mainstays Cameron Cook and Croix Evingson.
Live video of all four of the Tomahawks showcase games will be available on www.fasthockey.com. Fans can follow our official Facebook and Twitter pages for updates from Blaine.