The Erie Otters enjoyed their first practice at Erie Insurance Arena today after spending training camp in Ancaster, Ontario, and the past few weeks of workouts primarily at Ice Center of Erie.
“It’s going to be cool to actually get on our ice and get back to things,” second-year winger Stephen Harper said before practice, which was a rare full workout for him and other high school-age players.
The team often practiced from 2:30 to 4 p.m. while at ICE. High school players arrived at the rink around 3 p.m. because of their school schedule. “The practices were short,” Harper said. “I didn’t get enough time to work on some of my skills like I would have liked to.”
Practice began a bit late today, though, since the water on the ice needed extra time to freeze.

- Victor Fernandes

The Erie Blizzard will join the Midwest Junior Hockey League, a new Tier II Junior A league sanctioned by the American Athletic Union, in the 2012-13 season. But first, Curtis Prue, the club’s owner and general manager, will focus on putting a roster together.
The Blizzard will hold a pair of two-day tryout sessions at Ice Center of Erie – Aug. 11 from 3-4:30 p.m. and Aug. 12 from 9-10:30 a.m., as well as Aug. 25-26 from 3-4:30 p.m. The cost for each session is $75. The league’s inaugural season, which runs from Sept. 14 to March 17, features 16 teams separated into two conferences (American and National) and four divisions (North, Central, East and West).
The Blizzard are in the National Conference’s East Division with the Dayton (Ohio) Aeros, Lake Erie Steelheads (Cleveland) and the Northwest Ohio Grrrowl. Teams will play a 50-game regular season, with the top two teams in each division advancing to three rounds of playoffs. Member teams will play in the Veterans Memorial Cup playoffs. The Veterans Cup champion will qualify for the AAU national championship April 8. Prue said the league should release the schedule in the coming days.
The Blizzard played in the much-maligned Continental Junior Hockey League in their inaugural season two years ago. The CJHL had two teams in 2010-11. As Prue said in December 2011, the Blizzard left the CJHL a season ago because it had one team and the AAU, a national sanctioning body for multiple sports, refused to sanction the league. Prue hastily co-founded the East Coast Jr. Hockey League last season, since the team needed a sanctioned league to register players in order to insure them. But they were a Tier III Junior A independent team.

Erie native Keith Kaval, an 18-year hockey referee who officiates in the AHL, ECHL and OHL, will hold an officiating clinic today at Ice Center of Erie. A limited number of spots are available for prospective and current officials with any level of experience interested in honing the finer points of officiating.

The clinic, which runs from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., costs $45 and includes 2½ hours of classroom lessons and 90 minutes of on-ice instruction, highlighted by a scrimmage where officials are videotaped and reviewed by instructors. It also features fitness lessons geared to hockey officials offered by Tyler Travis, executive director of the John M. and Silvia Ferretti LECOM Medical Fitness & Wellness Center.

Registration begins at 8 a.m. For more information, visit www.eriehockey.com.

Gannon University’s club hockey players will replace their maroon and gold colors with purple jerseys as they face off against D’Youville College in a game to benefit the American Cancer Society and Relay for Life.

The puck will drop 9:45 p.m. on Feb. 19 at the Ice Center of Erie, 3515 McClelland Ave.  Advance tickets will be sold Feb. 7-11 and Feb. 14-18 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in Gannon’s Waldron Campus Center, 124 West 7^th St.  Advance tickets cost $1 and $3 at the door.

Gannon club hockey is a student-run team advised by Gannon biology professor Dr. Edward Phillips.  For more information on Gannon club hockey or the Feb. 19 purple game, contact Bobby Johns at 412-913-0077 or visit the club’s Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Gannon-University-Club-Hockey/96325972836.

The Erie Blizzard of the Continental Junior Hockey League will hold another tryout camp on Aug. 14 and 15 at Ice Center of Erie.

The Blizzard is looking for players ages 15-21 who are looking to take the next step in their hockey career. The times for the try-out camp will be 11:45 a.m. to 1:15 p.m. and 3:30- 5 p.m. on the 14th and 1:303 p.m. on Sunday the 15th. Players are asked to report an hour early to the first session on Saturday for registration.

Cost for the camp will be $50 per player. Players who participated in the first round of tryouts in July will skate at no cost. Interested players can contact Blizzard general manager Dave Hinz by email at gm@erieblizzardhockey.com or by phone at 449-7813 to reserve their spot.

- From Erie Blizzard news release