Winnipeg Sun
Sunday, September 29, 2002
By Kirk Penton -- Winnipeg Sun

THUNDER BAY, Ont. -- The AHL exhibition series in Thunder Bay this weekend was a homecoming for a couple of veteran Manitoba Moose.

Alex Auld, who is in his second year with the club, moved to this northwestern Ontario city when he was six years old and played all of his minor hockey here.

Jimmy Roy, who hails from nearby Sioux Lookout and is in his sixth season with Manitoba, played a year of junior hockey at Fort William Gardens with the Thunder Bay Flyers junior A squad when he was 17.

The return visit brought out different feelings from the duo.

"It makes me feel old," said Roy, who last played in Thunder Bay six years ago as a member of the Canadian national team. "Ten years ago. Ten years ago! I mean, I'm only 27 and it's already been 10 years."

Auld, 21, was playing AAA bantam hockey the last time he lived in Thunder Bay, approximately six years ago.

At that time he was one of the teenage boys in the stands watching several semi-pro and junior teams come and go, but this weekend it was his squad that helped attract nearly 3,000 fans to the Gardens.

"Any time you get that many people in the Gardens, you know something pretty big is in town," Auld said.

NICE FIT: Moose GM Craig Heisinger said this weekend's exhibition series, which was hosted by the Lakehead University Thunderwolves hockey team, was a resounding success.

"The timing wasn't perfect, but it's been excellent," said Heisinger, who said a similar event could happen here next year. "It's good for the university, it's good for the Maple Leafs and it's good for us."

Heisinger said he expects the Thunderwolves program, which was in limbo several years ago because of financial reasons, to make in excess of $20,000 this weekend.

NEW DIGS: Brad Leeb was sitting at home in Red Deer, Alta., on Sept. 4, preparing for Canucks camp when the phone rang.

The Canucks had traded the 23-year-old right-winger to the Toronto Maple Leafs in exchange for 20-year-old defenceman Tomas Mojzis,concluding Leeb's three-year stint in Vancouver's organization.

"Vancouver has a ton of forwards that are capable of playing and I guess I just kind of hit a dead end," said Leeb, who this weekend faced his old team, the Manitoba Moose, as a member of the St. John's Maple Leafs.

"Nothing really happened in three years, so I'm going to try somewhere else. I'm looking at it as a positive. I'm happy it happened."



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