WHITBY DUNLOPS GEAR UP FOR ANOTHER RUN AT ALLAN CUP
By: Brian McNair - Whitby This Week
Metroland File Photo
(From: DurhamRegion.com)
The Whitby Dunlops are going to be younger, bigger and they hope better once the Allan Cup Hockey League season gets underway this weekend.
New coach Shane Bowler will lead the senior hockey club into a home-and-home set with the Thorold Athletics to kick off the 2016-17 campaign, Friday, Oct. 14 on the road and the next night at 6:30 p.m. at the Iroquois Park Sports Centre.
Bowler, a 45-year-old Toronto resident, was brought in to give the club a fresh outlook, one that management hopes will finally deliver an Allan Cup national championship.
“Quite a few of the older guys decided to move on, so we’ve gone with a whole new attitude with the team, a whole new face, a lot of different voices,” Bowler said. “It’s a changing of the guard almost this year. We hope we can compete and believe we can.”
Among the departed is 41-year-old Peter MacKellar, last year’s captain who had been with the team since its inception in 2004, although he missed a number of games the past few seasons due to growing commitments.
The Dunlops will welcome back their top three scorers from a year ago, Kyle Ventura, Darren Doherty and Brett McConnachie, along with at least six other forwards, while adding Tyler Melancon, Daniel Pachis, Alex Morton and Lucas LaBelle to the mix up front.
Melancon, 27, and Pachis, a 25-year-old Whitby native, spent three seasons each in the Ontario Hockey League, while LaBelle, a 28 year old from Ajax, played a few games in the OHL as well with the Oshawa Generals.
At least five defencemen are also returning, although not last season’s top point producer, Matt Baxter.
Hunter Syrydiuk, David Victor and Michael Whiteside, a former UOIT Ridgebacks player, are the newcomers to the blue-line.
“We’ve added some size on the back end,” said Bowler. “Apparently we were a pretty small team last year on the back end. This year, I don’t think that is going to be a concern.”
Whitby’s Jason Guy, who had an 11-5-1-1 record and 3.08 goals-against average with the Dunlops last season, is back as the No. 1 goalie.
“We expect a lot out of him and we’re going to change the defensive system quite a bit in front of him this year, so he probably won’t have as much work as he did last year,” Bowler said. “We’re going to tighten up a bit where he just has to do his job and not have to carry too much of the load.”
The Dunlops finished third in the six-team league last season with a record of 16-7-1 before being eliminated in six playoff games by second-place Brantford.
The team is looking to get back to the Allan Cup national championship tournament for the first time since 2008 and searching for its first title since the historic Dunnies last won in 1959.
NOTES: Children 12 and under will be admitted free of charge to Whitby Dunlops home games for the entire season, including sports teams and school groups … The Oct. 15 home opener will be a Special Olympics Night where the Dunlops honour the region's Special Olympians.
