The Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL) is a junior Aice hockey league and a member of the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL) and Hockey Canada. The league operates in the Canadian province of Ontario and the U.S. state of Michigan. Winners of the SIJHL playoffs compete for the Centennial Cup, the Canadian Junior A championship. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the winner of each tier 2 junior A league across Canada shows up to the national championship.
North Stars Sean Bassingthwaite battles with Fort Frances player (2008)
Founded in 2001, the SIJHL is successor of several former Thunder Bay junior A hockey leagues and teams. The Fort William War Veterans were the first representatives of the Thunder Bay region, winning the 1922 Memorial Cup as Canadian National Junior A Champions.[1] Although there is not abundant information on the subject, the Thunder Bay Junior Hockey League may date back to the War Veterans and existed until 1980. From 1980 until 2000, the region (Hockey Northwestern Ontario) was represented by a single team at the junior A level: the Thunder Bay Flyers. The Flyers played their regular season games in the United States Hockey League (USHL), a USA Hockey junior A league, and returned to Canada for the playoffs. The Flyers won the Dudley Hewitt Cup as Central Canadian Junior Champions in 1989, 1991, 1992, and 1995.[2] The Flyers were also National Champions in 1989 and 1992, winning the Centennial Cup.[3] The Flyers folded after the 1999–2000 USHL Season.[4]
The presence of the SIJHL in Northwestern Ontario marks the first time since the 1970s that the region has effectively supported a junior hockey league. In 2007, the SIJHL expanded east of Thunder Bay with the Schreiber Diesels[9] and Marathon Renegades.[10] A Wawa, Ontario, franchise was also in the works, but never came to fruition.[11]
2011 Action - Fort Frances vs. Sioux Lookout
On December 17, 2007, the Schreiber Diesels folded mid-season claiming lack of fan support. On December 21, the team was bought by a group of local fans in an effort to keep the Diesels alive.[12] The Marathon Renegades at one point were as high as third place in the SIJHL during the 2007–08 season, but after 37 games played were forced to cancel the rest of its season citing a lack of players through injuries and player defections to other leagues. Al Cresswell, team president, claimed that the shortage of players had become a health risk.
Although the 2008–09 season did not see a return to Marathon, the SIJHL did add the Sioux Lookout Flyers. In the 2008 off-season, the Thunder Bay Bulldogs elected to retract to embolden the Thunder Bay Bearcats.[13] Despite a strong year from the Bearcats and the Schreiber Diesels, both teams elected to cease operation in the summer of 2009. The Fort Frances Jr. Sabres claimed that they would be back for 2009–10, but their owners sold the rights to their players to teams across Canada. In a last-ditch effort, the town of Fort Frances bought the team and renamed them the Fort Frances Lakers, but were forced to find all new players due to the actions of the previous ownership. The Thunder Bay Wolverines elected to apply for promotion to the SIJHL for 2009–10 fresh off of their silver medal performance at the Keystone Cup Canadian Jr. B Championships.[14][15] Back up to five teams, the SIJHL also made a 20-game interleague setup with the Minnesota Junior Hockey League's Wisconsin Mustangs to diversify the league's competition.[16]
In June, the Thunder Bay Wolverines pulled out of the SIJHL. A few days later USA Hockey rejected the transfer bid by the Wisconsin Mustangs to join the SIJHL and the expansion bid of the potential of Duluth, Minnesota, despite approval by Hockey Canada and the SIJHL. The league sat at four teams.[17] The two teams appealed the decision and won, officially giving the league six teams and making the league an international league.[17]
The Fort William North Stars were dominant early in 2010–11, but due to financial difficulties, the team was sold to new ownership and became the Thunder Bay North Stars. The Wisconsin Wilderness jumped into the lead mid-season and won the regular season and playoff titles in their first season in the league.
In the summer of 2011, the SIJHL elected to expand with the Iron Range Ironheads awaiting the permission of USA Hockey and Minnesota Hockey. USA Hockey again denied the league. The decision was appealed and on July 12, 2011, expansion was allowed by USA Hockey as well as the continuation of the Duluth and Spooner franchises. Wisconsin won their second straight league title, coming from behind in the final to beat the Fort Frances Lakers in seven games.
The 2012–13 season was a season of decline for the league's American expansion. During the off-season, USA Hockey allowed the league to transfer Iron Range to new ownership and rename it the Minnesota Iron Rangers. Wisconsin was sold and relocated into the same market as Duluth and renamed the Minnesota Wilderness. Three games into the season, the Sioux Lookout Flyers ceased operations and eventually their franchise when a scandal over the carding of players by their new general manager and coach left them without enough players to continue. In early 2013, the league, after multiple cancelled games, stripped the Duluth Clydesdales of their franchise. Then, after clinching their third regular season and playoff crowns, the Wilderness won the league's second ever Dudley Hewitt Cup as Central Canadian champions. Minnesota Wilderness became the first American team to win the Dudley Hewitt Cup and the first to gain berth into the Royal Bank Cup Canadian Junior A Championship. After winning the Central Canadian Championship, it was announced that the Wilderness would leave the SIJHL at the end of the Royal Bank Cup to join the North American Hockey League, a USA Hockey-sanctioned Tier II league. The Wilderness finished fourth in the National Championship round-robin, earning a berth into the semi-final. Despite leading 4–2 in the third, the Wilderness took too many penalties and lost their lead with seconds to go in the third period. The Alberta Junior Hockey League's Brooks Bandits scored in overtime to win the game 5–4 eliminating the Wilderness. With the Wilderness and Clydesdales gone, the Minnesota Iron Rangers were the remaining American team with membership in the league.
In the summer of 2014, commissioner and president Ron Whitehead was relieved of his post. Whitehead held his position from 2005 until 2014 and had been a member of the league executive since its inception in 2001. In 2011, Hockey Northwestern Ontario named Whitehead their Central Zone volunteer of the year.[19]
The league added a second team in Minnesota and their sixth franchise for 2016–17 season with the Thief River Falls Norskies. In 2019, the league added another team in Spooner, Wisconsin, called the Wisconsin Lumberjacks for the 2019–20 season. After several seasons of ownership issues and lack of player recruitment, the Minnesota Iron Rangers ceased operations for the 2019–20 season, returning the league to six teams.[20] The 2019–20 season was then curtailed by the COVID-19 pandemic with one week left in the regular season and no postseason tournaments were held. The ongoing pandemic border-crossing restrictions caused the two American teams to withdraw from the 2020–21 season while the league added a new team called the Kam River Fighting Walleye. The five Canadian teams would play a few games in November and December 2020 along with two U18 minor teams, the Kenora Thistles and Thunder Bay Kings, to fill in the schedule before the season was cancelled entirely.[21]
The winners of the SIJHL Playoffs are awarded the Bill Salonen Cup. Although the Jack Adams Trophy is supposed to be awarded to the branch Junior A champion, Hockey Northwestern Ontario will not bring it out unless there are two leagues vying for the branch championship.[24]
Kam River Fighting Walleye join as an expansion team
2022-23
Sioux Lookout Bombers join league
2023–24
Kenora Islanders join as an expansion team
2024–25
Wisconsin Lumberjacks relocated to Ironwood, Michigan, and were renamed the Ironwood Lumberjacks
Related Research Articles
The Dudley-Hewitt Cup is a championship ice hockey trophy awarded to the Central Canadian Junior A champion. The trophy is currently decided by round robin tournament format, at the conclusion of the playoffs of the Ontario Junior Hockey League, Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League, and Superior International Junior Hockey League, to determine the central representative at the Centennial Cup, the national Junior A championship.
Hockey Northwestern Ontario (HNO) is the governing body of all ice hockey in Northern Ontario, Canada. Hockey Northwestern Ontario is a branch of Hockey Canada.
The Dryden Ice Dogs are a junior ice hockey team in the Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL) based in Dryden, Ontario. It is one of the charter teams of the SIJHL.
The Minnesota Wilderness are a Tier II junior ice hockey team based in Cloquet, Minnesota, and play in the North American Hockey League (NAHL). The organization formerly fielded teams in the Canada-based Junior A Superior International Junior Hockey League for three seasons and in the American-based Tier III Minnesota Junior Hockey League.
The Borderland Thunder are a defunct Junior "A" ice hockey team from Fort Frances, Ontario, Canada. They were a part of the Superior International Junior Hockey League.
The Thunder Bay Junior A Hockey League (TBJHL) was a Canadian junior ice hockey league that existed from c. 1920 to 1980. The TBJHL operated in Northwestern Ontario, primarily in the Thunder Bay region.
The Duluth Clydesdales were an American Junior ice hockey team based in Duluth, Minnesota. They are former members of the Canadian-based Superior International Junior Hockey League.
The 2010–11 SIJHL season was the 10th season of the Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL). The six teams of the SIJHL played 56-game schedules.
The 2009–10 SIJHL season is the 9th season of the Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL). The six teams of the SIJHL will play 52-game schedules, except for Wisconsin who will play a 20-game schedule.
The 2008–09 SIJHL season is the 8th season of the Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL). The six teams of the SIJHL will play 50-game schedules.
The 2007–08 SIJHL season is the 7th season of the Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL). The seven teams of the SIJHL will play 50-game schedules.
The 2005–06 SIJHL season is the 5th season of the Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL). The six teams of the SIJHL played 52-game schedules, except for Minot State University-Bottineau who played a 20-game season.
The 2011–12 season was the 11th season of the Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL). The seven teams of the SIJHL played 56-game schedules.
The 2011–12 OJHL season is the 18th season of the Ontario Junior Hockey League (OJHL) and the second since the league existed as two separate bodies in 2009–10. The twenty-seven teams of the North, South, East and West Divisions will play 49-game schedules.
The Wisconsin Wilderness were an American junior ice hockey team in the Superior International Junior Hockey League based in Spooner, Wisconsin.
The 2012–13 SIJHL season was the 12th season of the Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL). The seven teams of the SIJHL were to play 56-game schedules.
The Red Lake Miners are a Canadian junior 'A' ice hockey team based in Red Lake, Ontario. The Miners play in Hockey Canada's Superior International Junior Hockey League.
The 2013–14 SIJHL season was the 13th season of the Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL). The seven teams of the SIJHL played 56-game schedules.
The 2014–15 SIJHL season is the 14th season of the Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL). The five teams of the SIJHL will play 56-game schedules.
The 2001–02 SIJHL season was the inaugural season of the Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL). During the first regular season, the five franchise teams each played 48 games, while two associate teams each played 24 games. In the post-season, the third-place Dryden Ice Dogs swept the first-place Fort Frances Borderland Thunder in four games to win the league championship Bill Salonen Cup.
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2024–25 SIJHL season 
