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Janesville Jets release first season schedule

JANESVILLE — Nine thousand miles.

That’s the estimated travel distance for the Janesville Jets, who released the 2009-2010 schedule for their debut season in the Junior A North American Hockey League.

The first-year Jets players better have their iPods, schoolbooks, portable DVD players and pillows ready as survival gear.

“Wow. That’s a lot of miles,” said Bill McCoshen, the managing partner of Wisconsin Hockey Partners, the team’s ownership group. “That just goes to show you the sacrifices the kids on this team are willing to make.”

The Jets will play 27 games at the Janesville Ice Skating Center, 27 road games and four neutral-site games.

The times for Janesville’s home and away games have not been announced. Also to be announced will be the cost and variety of Jets season-ticket packages.

The inaugural NAHL season begins Friday, Sept. 12, against the Traverse City North Stars when the Jets will drop the puck for the first time at home.

Janesville will play 13 series on their home ice and 13 away from home.

Because of the NAHL’s monstrous geographic footprint from eastern Michigan to Alaska, teams play the bulk of their schedules inside their own divisions.

The Jets will play 10 games against the North Stars, 11 against the Motor City Machine (11-45-2 in 2008-09), nine against the Alpena Ice Diggers (27-25-6) and 11 against the Marquette Rangers (26-24-8).

The schedule includes nine games against the Springfield Junior Blues (28-25-5) and two games against the St. Louis Bandits (42-9-7) of the Southern Division and two games against the Albert Lea Thunder (4-49-5) of the North Division. The Bandits have won the NAHL postseason title three straight seasons.

“The original plan was for us to play in the Central Division, a lot of those teams are closer than those in the North, except for Bismarck,” McCoshen said. “You’ll build up rivalries real quick. And Springfield, which is actually our shortest trip (220 miles), that can only be a real rivalry.”

The Jets and other 18 teams will all play four neutral-ice games in the seventh annual NAHL Showcase Tournament, which will be held from Sept. 16-19 at the Schwan Super Rink in Blaine, Minn., a Minneapolis suburb. Janesville will play four different teams in that major event. The Showcase schedule will be announced in the coming weeks. The Schwan Super Rink is the largest ice arena of its kind in the world.

Among the more interesting Jets home dates are a Halloween night game against the Marquette Rangers and a Feb. 7, 2010 game—Super Bowl Sunday—against Alpena.

“We definitely wanted to be home on Halloween weekend,” McCoshen said. “And we’ll definitely have a big promotion on Super Bowl Sunday.”

The Jets will play seven straight games against Motor City between Nov. 20 and Dec. 11. They play five straight against Springfield from Oct. 2-10 and five straight games against Alpena Feb. 6-19, 2010.

The longest road swing has the Jets playing three games in three days in late February. It begins with a 345-mile drive to Marquette, Mich., for a Friday night game on Feb. 19, followed by a 260-mile drive for games Feb. 20 and 21 at Traverse City, and a 421-mile trip home to capp the 1,000-mile trek.

Ten-game season-ticket plans dubbed “The Jet Pack” are now on sale. Regular-season game tickets and other season-ticket plans will go on sale in July. For ticket information contact the Janesville Jets at (608) 756-2382.