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Allan Cup Hockey (ACH) is the top tier Canadian Senior ice hockey league in the province of Ontario. As a member of the Ontario Hockey Association and Hockey Canada, the league contends for the famed Allan Cup. The league came to its latest incarnation when it lost several teams leaving it with two and as a result it merged with the Eastern Ontario Senior Hockey League in 2008.
History
Major League Hockey gained its name in 2003. Since 1990, Major League Hockey was known as the Southwestern Senior "A" Hockey League. This league was created through a merger between the Central Senior "B" Hockey League, the Seaway-Cyclone Senior "B" Hockey League, and the Southern Ontario Senior "A" Hockey League. The formation of the Major League Hockey marked the first time since 1987 and the folding of the OHA Senior A Hockey League that the Ontario Hockey Association has crowned a top level senior league. In 2005, the OHA also granted the Eastern Ontario Senior Hockey League the same status. Major League Hockey, despite its fruitation in 1990, has its roots scattered across a variety of leagues dating back as far as 1959.
The first season of Ontario Hockey Association senior hockey was the 1890-91 season, for the Cosby Cup. Ottawa won the first ever Senior title defeating Toronto St. Georges 5–0. The first "Major" league came in 1929, known as the OHA Senior A Hockey League. The league lasted for fifty season, its teams winning 16 Allan Cups. The league was replaced by the Continental Senior A Hockey League in 1979. The Continental league was renamed the OHA Senior A Hockey League in 1980 and lasted until 1987. Teams of the Continental league won 4 Allan Cups.
In 2008, the Brantford Blast became the first OHA team since the Brantford Motts Clamatos in 1987 to win the Allan Cup. As hosts of the 2008 Allan Cup, the Blast failed to win their league and were allowed to bypass the OHA Final against the Whitby Dunlops and the Renwick Cup against the Thunder Bay Hawks. After almost a months rest, the Blast competed at home for the Allan Cup and won the entire thing. After suffering their only loss of the tournament to the Shawinigan Xtreme in the first game, the Blast defeated the Bentley Generals to clinch second in their division. They defeated the Robertson Cup and EOSHL champion Whitby Dunlops in the quarter-final. They then knocked off the Major League Hockey and Renwick Cup champion Dundas Real McCoys in the semi-final. They met Bentley again in the final, and defeated them 3-1 to win the Canadian National Senior "AAA" crown.
In the 2008 off-season, Major League Hockey ran into some issues. The Windsor St. Clair Saints, the league's only college team, walked away from the league. The Tillsonburg Vipers have officially left the league, as they have applied for expansion into the independent Western Ontario Athletic Association Senior Hockey League.[1] The Petrolia Squires are stranded far away from Brantford and Dundas and have also been accepted into the Western Ontario Athletic Association Senior Hockey League. In the EOSHL, the Frankford Huskies and Marmora Lakers have walked away as well.
In May 2008, it was announced that Major League Hockey was going to merge with the Eastern Ontario Senior Hockey League. Major Hockey League was down to two teams and the Eastern League down to three at the time, but this brings the MLH up to five again. In June, 2008 after some reorganization, the Frankford Huskies were revived with a new owner but same management in the town of Baltimore which is just north of Cobourg. The team will be known as the Baltimore Clippers. Thus the new MLH will play its first season with six teams.
In the Summer of 2009, the Brantford Blast took a leave of absence from the MLH. The Baltimore Clippers left the league during the 2009 off season[2]
For the 2010-11 season, the Brantford Blast returned to the league; the Orillia/Coldwater Tundras abandoned Coldwater with the opening of the new Rotary Place Rink, which is part of the West Orillia Sports Complex.
The league was renamed Allan Cup Hockey for the 2011-12 season.
The league added the Welland Whalers and had the Norwood Vipers sit out the 2012-13 season.
The 2013-14 season had the addition of the Stoney Creek Generals, the return of the Norwood Vipers and the departure of the Orillia Tundras.
The Welland Whalers withdrew on October 20, 2014 citing a lack of players stating that they had tried to invite as many players as they could to training camp but to no avail.
On May 15,2015 the league announced the addition of a team to be based in Hamilton to play out of the Hamiliton Mountain Arena and a team to be based out of Thorold, Ontario to play out of the Thorold Community Centre. On June 3rd the Hamilton team announced they would be called the Steelhawks. The Steelhawks name was previously used by the city's OHL franchise from 1984 to 1988. The Thorold team has yet to release their nickname (as of July 20th).
As of the 2015 Allan Cup, the only Major League Hockey/Allan Cup Hockey teams to win the Allan Cup have been the Brantford Blast, who won it as the host team in 2008 and the Dundas Real McCoys, who won it as the host team in 2014.
On October 16, 2015 the Norwood Vipers announced they were suspending operations and not continuing in the league. In the league's press release on the Norwood team's announcement the league stated they were working to bring another team to the geographic area for the 2016-17 season.
Teams
Team | Centre | Founded | Arena |
Brantford Blast | Brantford | 2000 | Brantford Civic Centre |
Dundas Real McCoys | Dundas | 2000 | J.L. Grightmire Arena aka Market Street Arena |
Hamilton Steelhawks | Hamilton | 2015 | Mountain Arena |
Stoney Creek Generals | Stoney Creek | 2013 | Gateway Ice Centre |
Thorold Athletics | Thorold | 2015 | Thorold Arena |
Whitby Dunlops | Whitby | 2004 | Iroquois Park Sports Centre |
Former Teams
- Norwood Vipers (2010-2015) suspended operations
- Orillia Tundras (2011-2013)
- Welland, Whalers (2012-2014) withdrew due to lack of players
League Seasons
- 2003-04 OHA Sr. AAA Hockey League Season
- 2004-05 MLH Season
- 2005-06 MLH Season
- 2006-07 MLH Season
- 2007-08 MLH Season
- 2008-09 MLH Season
- 2009-10 MLH Season
- 2010-11 MLH Season
- 2011-12 ACH Season
- 2012-13 ACH Season
- 2013-14 ACH Season
- 2014-15 ACH Season
- 2015-16 ACH Season
- 2016-17 ACH Season
League Champions
Allan Cup Hockey
Major League Hockey
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EOSHL
Southwestern Senior "A"
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Bolded teams won the Robertson Cup as Ontario Hockey Association champions.
Former Member Teams
Please note: All teams in this list are listed ONLY with the last league they were involved with.
Major League/Southwestern Sr. A
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Eastern Sr. A |
Southern Ontario Sr. ASouthern Int. B
Southern Counties Int. B
Central Int. C
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Central Sr. B
Northern Sr. BOHA Int. C
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Seaway-Cyclone Sr. B
Seaway-Cyclone Int. BSeaway Int. C
Seaway-Western Int. C
Western/Tri-County Int. C
Cyclone Int. D |
References
External links
This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Allan Cup Hockey. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA). |