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Smiths Falls Bears
Smiths Falls Jr. Bears
City: Smiths Falls, Ontario
League: Central Junior A Hockey League
Division: Yzerman
Founded: 1961 (1961)
Home Arena: Smiths Falls Memorial Centre
Colors: Gold, Black, and White
Head Coach: Bill Bowker
General Manager: Bill Bowker

The Smiths Falls Bears are a Junior "A" ice hockey team from Smiths Falls, Ontario, Canada. They are a part of the Central Junior A Hockey League. They were original members, but then left Smiths Falls in 1976. The current team rejoined the league in 1985, with a short two-year stint in Lanark.

Smiths Falls Bears 1961 - 1976
Smiths Falls Bears 1985 - 2000
Lanark Thunder 2000 - 2002
Smiths Falls Bears 2002 to Present

History[]

The Smiths Falls Bears trace back to when the Central Junior Hockey League was formed in 1961 under the act of the Montreal Canadiens. The Bears are one of the oldest franchises in Canadian Junior A hockey, despite a 9-year leave of absence from 1976 to 1985, and a 2-year absence from Smiths Falls as part of a re-location to Perth, and being known as the Lanark Thunder from 2000-2002. When the Bears first surfaced, the team wore maroon and white - identical colours of the American Hockey League's Hershey Bears. The Bears won their first Art Bogart Cup in 1965 as Central Junior Hockey League champions. The Bears won back-to-back CJHL championships in 1974 and 1975. In 1976, the Bears took a leave of absence from the league. In 1985, the Bears returned to the league wearing the colours black, gold, and white - identical to the Pittsburgh Penguins uniforms in the 1980's. In the early 1990's, the Bears went back to their original colours of maroon and white, but with grey. In 1998, the Bears changed their colours to teal and black, which confused CJHL supporters around the league. In February 2000, the Smiths Falls Bears lost all their equipment in a dressing room fire at the Smiths Falls Memorial Centre. The equipment was replaced through donations and charities and the Bears finished off the 1999-00 season. In the summer, the Bears announced to relocate to nearby Perth, Ontario and became the Lanark Thunder. The new owner promised to draw attendance at the Perth & District Community Centre for the 2000-01 season. The Thunder drew a decent attendance, but attendance dropped in their second season causing financial trouble. The Lanark Thunder folded after the 2002 playoffs. The Smiths Falls Bears returned as an expansion team for 2002-03, because the Lanark Thunder ceased operations. Most of the Lanark players went on to play for the Bears, while other players were recruited through the expansion draft. The Smiths Falls Bears missed the playoffs in their first three years back. In December 2004, a new head coach Bill Bowker was assigned to turn the team around. The Bears won just 1 game before January 2005, and fans were criticizing the team's performance and asked what was wrong with the team and how long they would be in Smiths Falls. The coaching change paid off as the Bears made the playoffs four-consecutive years. Their best post-Lanark Thunder season was 2007-08, when the Bears made the CJHL finals after knowing off arch-rivals [Brockville Brave]] in 6 games to compete against the other arch-rivals Pembroke Lumber Kings. The Lumber Kings won the finals in 5 games. In July 2008, three Bears were chosen in the NHL Draft. Mike Bergin (Dallas Stars); Nicholas Tremblay (Boston Bruins); and Mark Borowiecki (Ottawa Senators) became the first trio of players from the same CJHL club to be chosen in the NHL Draft.

On February 27, 2010, the Smiths Falls Bears played their final game at the Smiths Falls Memorial Centre as the Bears will move to a new arena that is currently near-completion.


Notable alumni[]

Season-by-Season record[]

Season GP W L T OL GF GA Pts Finish Playoffs
1961-62 28 10 14 4 - -- -- 24 6th OHDJHL Lost Semi-final
1962-63 32 10 9 3 - 140 124 43 2nd OHDJHL Lost Final
1963-64 32 13 16 3 - -- -- 29 6th OHDJHL Lost Quarter-final
1964-65 36 29 5 2 - 175 75 60 1st CJHL Won League
1965-66 36 20 9 7 - 177 123 47 4th CJHL Lost Semi-final
1966-67 50 22 20 8 - 186 176 52 2nd CJHL Lost Final
1967-68 40 21 15 4 - 197 143 46 2nd CJHL Lost Final
1968-69 40 20 11 9 - 157 123 49 2nd CJHL Lost Semi-final
1969-70 40 13 22 5 - 135 159 31 4th CJHL
1970-71 48 31 12 5 - 247 183 67 1st CJHL
1971-72 48 29 17 2 - 250 208 60 1st CJHL Won League
1972-73 55 25 29 1 - 246 274 51 4th CJHL
1973-74 50 30 17 3 - 301 240 63 1st CJHL Won League, Won CC
1974-75 50 27 16 7 - 287 222 61 2nd CJHL Won League, Won CC
1975-76 50 24 20 6 - 223 227 54 3rd CJHL
1976-85 Did Not Participate
1985-86 60 12 44 1 3 231 389 28 7th CJHL
1986-87 54 24 25 5 - 218 219 55 5th CJHL
1987-88 56 4 52 0 - 174 441 11 8th CJHL
1988-89 55 24 30 1 - 269 305 52 6th CJHL
1989-90 56 17 33 1 5 225 294 40 8th CJHL
1990-91 53 13 31 3 6 285 375 35 8th CJHL
1991-92 57 9 46 1 1 206 423 20 10th CJHL
1992-93 57 8 43 2 4 184 385 22 10th CJHL
1993-94 57 33 15 4 5 293 229 75 3rd CJHL
1994-95 54 29 10 8 7 237 203 73 2nd CJHL
1995-96 54 26 26 2 - 253 247 54 1st Yzerman
1996-97 53 41 8 4 - 271 172 87 2nd Yzerman
1997-98 54 26 19 11 - 224 202 69 2nd Yzerman
1998-99 54 28 20 6 - 202 220 62 4th Yzerman
1999-00 56 25 28 3 - 240 256 53 4th Yzerman
2000-01 55 24 23 8 0 207 194 59 4th Yzerman
2001-02 55 16 26 15 - 212 260 47 4th Yzerman
2002-03 55 9 39 7 2 196 317 25 5th Yzerman
2003-04 55 11 38 5 4 196 335 28 5th Yzerman
2004-05 57 9 42 1 5 165 304 24 5th Yzerman
2005-06 59 18 31 5 5 193 250 46 4th in Yzerman Lost quarter-final
2006-07 55 25 23 5 2 199 200 57 4th in Yzerman Lost semi-final
2007-08 60 41 15 4 0 280 183 86 2nd CJHL Lost final
2008-09 60 36 22 - 2 247 205 74 5th CJHL
2009-10 62 18 40 - 4 148 256 40 10th CJHL DNQ
2010-11 62 27 29 - 6 191 229 60 8th CCHL Lost Quarter-final
2011-12 62 30 30 - 2 220 240 62 8th CCHL Lost Quarter-final
2012-13 62 36 22 - 4 235 183 76 7th CCHL Lost Quarter-final
2013-14 62 41 17 - 4 238 174 86 2nd CCHL Lost Final
2014-15 62 28 26 3 5 173 206 64 5th of 6 Robinson
7th of 12 CCHL
Lost Prelim. Round, 1-2 (Raiders)
Season GP W L OL SL GF GA Pts Finish Playoffs
2015-16 62 38 22 0 2 220 170 78 4th of 6 Robinson
6th of 12 CCHL
Lost Quarterfinals, 0-4 (Hawks)
2016-17 62 24 31 5 2 177 209 55 6th of 6 Robinson,
7th of 12 CCHL
Lost Quarterfinals, 1-4 (Colts)
2017-18 62 24 31 3 4 158 196 55 5th of 6 Robinson,
9th of 12 CCHL
Did not qualify
2018-19 62 28 23 9 2 195 211 67 3rd Yzerman Lost Quarterfinals, 1-4 (Braves)
2019-20 62 33 24 - 5 223 216 71 3rd Robinson Playoffs cancelled before team starts quarterfinal series
2020-21 League only played training games due to COVID-19 pandemic
2021-22 55 25 25 4 1 193 215 55 5th Robinson W, 8th PO 4-1 (Nationals)
L, QF 0-4 (Senators
2022-23 55 37 15 1 2 232 165 77 1st Robinson W, QF 4-1 (Canadians
W, SF 4-1 (Wolves)
L, F 3-4 (Senators)

175px previous logo

Championships[]

CJHL Bogart Cup Championships: 1965, 1972, 1974, 1975
Eastern Canadian Fred Page Cup Championships: None
CJAHL Royal Bank Cup Championships: None

Notable alumni[]

External links[]


This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Smiths Falls Bears. 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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