The Landmark Blues won the very first Hanover Tache Junior Hockey League championship and that was a long time ago.

The HTJHL's 30th season begins Saturday as the Steinbach Huskies face the Springfield Xtreme in Oakbank and the Mitchell Mohawks host the Red River Mudbugs.

The defending champion Lorette Comets are back this season along with the Grunthal Red Wings.

The HTJHL has a seventh team this year.

"We welcomed back the St. Adolphe Hawks," said league president Ray Laing. "It's been a few years since St. Adolphe had a team. They have a good group of players to start with. In general the league has been strong. The managers, when I meet with them, they're happy and looking forward to getting the season going."

The Red Wings and Huskies dominated the HTJHL the past number of years as they met in the final three consecutive seasons and combined to win the league title 10 of the last 11 years.

That is until the Comets beat the Xtreme in six games last March.

"You strive for parity in the league and if you look at the points standings from last year - it was as good as you get," said Laing. "When you get a couple of different teams advancing to the final from tradition - in the last couple of years it has been Steinbach and Grunthal but Red River has been in the finals, Lorette has been in the finals and won it a couple of years ago - it's been good and we look forward to another year."

Operating a league with seven teams is great but obviously eight or even nine teams would be better.

"There's a couple of communities that have made noises about putting a team in but it's a lot of work to get one started from scratch," Laing said. "This Junior "C" loop is unique. When a kid comes out of midget, there is nowhere to play unless he can make Junior "A" or a senior team somewhere so we are unique and we give players an opportunity to play good competitive hockey."