By Fred Liggett
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The ECHL continues to expand each year and this season the league’s expansion included two teams with one of them being the Tahoe Knight Monsters. This addition means the Kansas City Mavericks have a new Mountain Division rival as the Monsters have made it an eight team division.

The Mavericks left Kansas City on Tuesday this week for the teams’ very first trip to the Lake Tahoe region. The Mavs will play the Knight Monsters three times over a four day period giving the team a busy weekend. As of press time the Mavs are 8-3-1 and the Monsters are 5-3-1.

Mavs head coach Tad O’Had said the league expansion is “good to see.” O’Had feels the team has “a good affiliation with Las Vegas.” For the Mavs O’Had is “pretty excited” and thinks the Monsters “will be a good test for us.”

The Monsters play in a new 4,200 seat arena and fans can expect some entertaining games as O ‘Had states, “We match up well together.” The Mavs have watched a few Monsters games on film and O’Had is familiar with Tahoe’s head coach.

An intriguing fact about the Monsters is there ownership group which includes a Heisman Trophy winner. The 2007 Heisman winner QB Tim Tebow from Florida is part of the teams’ ownership group. To Coach O’Had, “Its pretty cool, I think that’s great.” For now the Mavericks are looking for a few wins over the Knight Monsters.