USPHL Midwest faceoffs on Friday

The USPHL-Midwest gets underway Friday night with 14 of the league’s 18 teams opening their 2015-16 campaigns.

The league recently went through bit of a facelift as four different teams found themselves unable to line up at the starting gate. As a result, the team has transformed from a two-conference — four division type of set up into a couple of nine-team conferences.

In the Western Conference will be: the St. Croix Valley (formerly Hudson Crusaders) Magicians; Steele County Blades; Dells Ducks; Wisconsin Rapids Riverkings; Illiana Blackbirds; Decatur Blaze; Chicago Cougars; Forest Lake Lakers and Blaine (formerly Maple Grove) Energy.

Eight of nine Western Conference teams will open the season on Friday as the Magicians head to Owatonna to play the Blades at the Four Seasons Center ; Dells Ducks travel to Dyer, Indiana to face Illiana at the Midwest Training and Ice Center, Wild hosts the Cougars at the Farmington Ice Arena and the Energy takes on the Lakers at the Forest Lake Sports Center.

Ducks-Blackbirds and Cougars-Wild will both be Friday/Saturday doubleheaders and other West Conference action on Saturday will see the Energy playing its home opener against the the Magicians while the Lakers welcome the Blades to Forest Lake.

The Eastern Conference will be made up of: Traverse City Hounds; Alpena Flyers; Kalkaska Rhinos; Marquette Royales; Indiana (formerly Fort Wayne) Attack; Michigan Wild; Detroit Fighting Irish; Motor City Hawks and Tri City Icehawks.

In the East will be three match-ups, all of them Friday/Saturday twins

The Traverse City Hounds will travel to the Bay County Arena to play the host Tri-City Icehawks while the Indiana Attack hosts the Flyers at the Parkview Ice House and Marquette Royales will come down to the mainland to face the Motor City Hawks at McCann Arena.