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Brantford Blast
BrantfordBlast
City Brantford, Ontario
League Allan Cup Hockey
Founded 2000 (2000)
Home arena Brantford Civic Centre
Colors Red, Yellow, and Black
General manager Darren Watson
Head coach Mike Burgoyne
Franchise history
2000-2001 Brantford Prowl
2002-present Brantford Blast

Brantford Blast are a Canadian senior ice hockey team in the Ontario Hockey Association's Major League Hockey, from Brantford, Ontario, Canada. The team was established in 2000, and play their games at the Brantford Civic Centre.

The Blast were the winners of the 2008 Allan Cup as Canadian Senior "AAA" Champions.

Competitive hockey back in Brantford[]

In 2000, the Ontario Hockey Association allowed for the expansion of the first Brantford team since 1987 into Ontario's top tier of Senior hockey. The Brantford Prowl competed during the 2000-01 Southwestern Senior A Hockey League season and finished in fifth place with a record of 12 wins, 17 losses, and a tie. The team took 2001-02 off, but then re-emerged in 2002 as the Blast.

In 2002, Brantford rejoined the top tier of Ontario senior hockey this time known as the Brantford Blast. At the time, the city had the Brantford Golden Eagles in the Ontario Hockey Association, but had also lost teams, like the Brantford Alexanders of the Ontario Hockey League, who left in 1984 and the Brantford Smoke of the Colonial Hockey League, who left in 1998. The Blast would play their home games at the Brantford Civic Centre as well. The Blast have made it to the post season twice. In the 2005-06 season, when they won the league, but lost in the first round to the Dundas Real McCoys 4 games to 2. In the 2006-07 season, they placed third, defeating the Petrolia Squires 4 games to 3, and the Windsor St. Clair Saints 4 games to none to capture their first MLH Championship after a 4-3 win Monday March 12 in front of the home town crowd in Brantford.

2008 Allan Cup[]

The Blast finished the 2007-08 season just barely out of first place. They swept the Windsor St. Clair Saints 4-games-to-none in the Major League Hockey semi-final, but were defeated 4-games-to-2 to the Dundas Real McCoys.

The Brantford Blast were the host team of the 2008 Allan Cup, which was held in Brantford from April 14-April 19, 2008. This was also the 100th anniversary for the event, one of the reasons that the Blast wanted to host it.

The Brantford Blast became the first Ontario Hockey Association 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 3-2 in the first game, the Blast defeated the Bentley Generals 5-3 to clinch second in their division. They defeated the Robertson Cup and EOSHL champion Whitby Dunlops in the quarter-final handily, 7-2. They then knocked off the Major League Hockey and Renwick Cup champion Dundas Real McCoys in the semi-final 3-2 in overtime. They met Bentley again in the final, who defeated the 2007 champions Lloydminster Border Kings and the Shawinigan Xtreme, and defeated them 3-1 to win the Canadian National Senior "AAA" crown.

Building for the Future[]

During the summer of 2017 Blast owner Peter Ham relinquished the General Manager position to the then assistant General Manager Darren Watson. Ham had been the team's GM since its' founding in 2002. Ham was hoping to focus on building he Blast relationship with the local community and was working on trying to host the 2020 Allan Cup which is scheduled to be awarded to Ontario.

Leave of Absence[]

During the summer of 2018 Peter Ham had announced that he would put the team up for sale and step down from running the team.  No one had purchased the team by early September and the team announced it was suspending operations for the 2018-19 season and would hopefully be back under new ownership for the 2019-20 season. Sale of the team was announced on September 24, 2018. Unfortunately, it would be too late to get the team on the ice for 2018-19. The team should be returning to the ice for 2019-20.[1]

Return of the Blast[]

The Stoney Creek Generals would open their 2018-19 season at the Brantford Civic Centre.[2]  The Generals organization would announce in early August 2019 that the team would be relocating to Brantford for the 2019-20 season and would assume the Blast identity.

Season-by-season record[]

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

Season GP W L T OTL GF GA P Results Playoffs
2000-01 30 12 17 1 0 -- -- 25 5th SWSHL
2001-02 Did Not Participate
2002-03 31 9 21 1 0 130 189 20 5th OHA Sr. A
2003-04 32 16 11 4 1 162 141 37 5th OHA Sr. A
2004-05 34 8 25 1 0 136 195 17 6th MLH
2005-06 32 18 9 - 5 161 137 41 1st MLH
2006-07 30 15 13 - 2 156 142 32 3rd MLH
2007-08 30 21 9 - 0 131 100 42 2nd MLH
2008-09 28 13 15 - 0 127 120 26 5th MLH
2009-10 Did Not Participate
2010-11 24 13 11 - 0 133 127 26 2nd MLH
2011-12 28 17 10 - 1 148 131 35 3rd ACH
2012-13 24 20 2 - 2 148 82 42 1st ACH
2013-14 24 16 7 - 1 126 80 33 3rd ACH
2014-15 24 16 6 - 2 136 98 34 2nd ACH Lost league final
2015-16 24 17 5 - 2 105 86 51 2nd ACH Lost league final
2016-17 24 12 10 - 2 112 111 51 4th ACH Lost quarterfinal
2017-18 23 8 15 - 0 103 126 24 5th ACH Did not qualify
2018-19 Did Not Participate
2019-20 20 11 8 - 1 105 108 31 3rd ACH Playoffs cancelled during final with team trailing 2 games to none
2020-21 Season cancelled due to COVID-19 pandemic

Awards[]

  • 2004/2005 - All Star Centre - Paul Polillo
  • 2004/2005 - Most Sportsmanlike - Tyler Pelton
  • November 2005 - Player of the Month - Adriano Fiacconi
  • December 2005 - Player of the Month - Tyler Pelton
  • 2005-06 - League All-Star Game players - Tyler Pelton, Adriano Fiacconi, Brett Leggat
  • 2005-06 - Season Champions
  • 2005-06 - Best Team Goaltending
  • 2006-07 - Major League Hockey Champions
  • 2007-08 - Allan Cup Champions
  • 2011-12 - Allan Cup Hockey - Robertson Cup Champions
  • 2011-12 - Best Team Goaltending - Brett Leggat, Anthony Marshall, Ben Thomas
  • 2011-12 - League Best player award - Mike Ruberto
  • 2011-12 - League Leader Points - Mike Ruberto
  • 2011-12 - League Best goaltender award - Brett Leggat
  • 2011-12 - League Leader Goaltending - Brett Leggat
  • 2012-13 - League Best goaltender award - Brett Leggat
  • 2012-13 - League Leader Goltending - Brett Leggat
  • 2013-14 - League Best goaltender award - Brett Leggat
  • 2013-14 - League Most valuable player - Joel Prpic
  • 2013-14 - League Leader Goaltending - Brett Leggat
  • 2014-15 - League Best goaltender award - Anthony Marshall
  • 2014-15 - League Leader Goltending - Anthony Marshall
  • 2015-16 - League Best goaltender award - Brett Leggat
  • 2015-16 - League Leader Goaltending - Brett Leggat

Notable alumni[]

See also[]

External links[]

References[]

This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Brantford Blast. 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).


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