Doyle: Heading to the homeland for Hockey Day

While CBC will have many eyes of the Canadian hockey community on Stratford this weekend for their annual hockey celebration, there is an event taking place in Peterborough that takes draws plenty of attention to the game in the Liftlock City.

The second annual Hockey Day in Peterborough on TVCOGECO hits the air Saturday at noon. It features about 9 1/2 hours of hockey coverage. The festivities begin with a game in the annual Peterborough Midget Tournament of Championship with the host team taking on Detroit Victory Honda. Then it will be the Peterborough Jr. A Stars battling their rivals from Lindsay in Central Canadian Hockey League action (most people know it better as Tier 2 Junior A). There will also be an outdoor women's game played on the Canal below the Liftlocks, and finally the Peterborough Petes playing host to the Ottawa 67's.

This is an event that literally takes months of planning, shooting and editing video features, lining up crew, and many other logistics that TVCOGECO Peterborough producer Ben Lyman heads up. I am lucky - I just have to answer a couple emails, attend one conference call, and then show up in the middle of the night before hitting the air at noon Saturday to call the first two games before also joining in on the Petes/67's broadcast that night. Oh wait, I did put together one of the feature stories as well - Sarnia Sting Head Coach Dave MacQueen looking back at his time coaching the Peterborough Petes from 1993-96. It is a lot of fun and really demonstrates the effect local television can have on a community, especially brought together under the umbrella of hockey. The Petes/67's game should be quite interesting as the Petes are struggling right now due to injuries, while Ottawa has been hot of late. But when these two teams hook up lately it seems anything can happen.

On a personal note, the best part for me is having the chance to catch up with so many people in my hometown. Even when I was there for 48 hours at Christmas, during Boxing Day shopping I ran into familiar faces at every place I stopped. For those of you Loosepucks followers who will be in the Peterborough area (Many OHL scouts will also be in town for the minor midget component of the tournament), be sure to check it out while you're relaxing at the hotel or hanging around one of the arenas.

tdoyle@loosepucks.com
Twitter: Loosepucks