Five teams have already punched their tickets to the 2016 Allan Cup, being played in Steinbach next month. They are South East Prairie Thunder, Ile des Chenes North Stars, Bentley Generals, Shellbrook Elks and Stoney Creek Generals.

Marv Kornelson is Vice President of the Host Committee and is also part of the South East Prairie Thunder. For weeks, local hockey fans had been waiting to see if former NHLer Ryan Smyth would be playing in this year's Allan Cup, but Kornelson says that won't be happening.

"That dream is over, he will not be coming," says Kornelson. "They lost to Bentley," he says, referring to last week's loss by Stony Plain to Bentley.

There are two teams from the Atlantic region competing for the last spot in the Allan Cup. That series will be played this coming weekend. Kornelson says if the team from Newfoundland wins, it means former NHLer Arron Asham will be in Steinbach. The 37 year old who was born in Portage played more than 700 games in the National Hockey League.

The Allan Cup runs April 11th to the 16th. Afternoon games will start at 4pm and evening games at 8pm. The Championship game will take place the night of Saturday, April 16.

"Ticket sales are going pretty good," says Kornelson. "I would say seventy-five per cent of the reserved is gone."

Kornelson says they are still only selling packages. Individual tickets will go on sale at noon, April 11th. He says they are also still looking for volunteers.

According to Kornelson, excitement is building and he expects that will continue until opening faceoff.

"I think the closer we get the more exciting it will be," he says. "There is still a lot of hockey going on but I think as teams start to finish, there will be more excitement because there won't be a lot of hockey going on during that time."

Kornelson says the Allan Cup is a very difficult trophy to win.

"One bad game and you could be out and you hope you've picked the right guys that are good enough to win," says Kornelson. "But you never know I guess because there are six very capable teams of winning it."