Preseason tournament on deck, but without Windsor

Published 1:51 pm Thursday, September 1, 2011

So are you ready for some real hockey?

Everett’s exhibition season gets started this weekend with three games at the Everett Silvertips Preseason Tournament at Comcast Arena. All five U.S. Division teams are taking part this year with two games on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Here’s a quick r

ecap of the schedule:

Friday
Spokane vs. Seattle, 3 p.m.
Everett vs. Tri-City, 7 p.m.

Saturday
Portland vs. Tri-City, 3 p.m.
Everett vs. Spokane, 7 p.m.

Sunday
Spokane vs. Portland, 1 p.m.
Everett vs. Seattle, 5 p.m.

Now, usually there’s six teams at this tournament and three games each day. However, some big plans fell through this year. If you remember, last year the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds of the OHL flew out from Ontario to be the sixth team, giving locals a refreshing look at a major-junior team from a different league. Tips general manager Doug Soetaert indicated at the time that there were other teams from the OHL and QMJHL that has expressed interest in attending in the future. Well, Soetaert had the Windsor Spitfires, the 2009 and 2010 Memorial Cup champions, lined up to be the sixth team this year. However, Windsor backed out late, leaving the tournament short-handed.

As a result, only Everett and Spokane are playing each day. Portland, Seattle and Tri-City are playing just twice.

But this year’s five-team tournament should only be an anomaly. The Tips plan on returning to six teams and three games each day next year.