British Columbia Hockey League

BCHL Emblem

The British Columbia Hockey League is a tier II Junior "A" ice hockey league under Hockey Canada, a subsection of the Canadian Junior A Hockey League. Founded in Vernon in 1961, the BCJHL now includes 17 teams. These teams play in three divisions, known as Island, Mainland and Interior. The winner of the BCHL playoffs continues on to play in the Doyle Cup in a best-of-7 series against the champion of the Alberta Junior Hockey League. The winner of the Doyle Cup will compete in the Junior "A" National Championship for the Royal Bank Cup.

For the next round of the playoffs, please go to the Doyle Cup.

For the National Championship, please go to the Royal Bank Cup 2006.

History

In 1961, the heads of four junior "B" hockey teams in the Okanagan region of British Columbia got together and formed the first ever Junior "A" league in British Columbia's history. The Okanagan-Mainline Junior "A" Hockey League, the precursor to the BCHL, was comprised originally of the Kamloops Jr. Rockets, the Kelowna Buckaroos, the Penticton Jr. Vees, and the Vernon Jr. Canadians.

In 1967, the league expanded out of the Okanagan region, bringing in the New Westminster Royals and the Victoria Cougars. With the expansion, the league decided that since it had stretched out of the Okanagan region, that it need a new name - The British Columbia Junior Hockey League. A year later, the Vancouver Centennials joined the league as well. In the 1970's, the Victoria Cougars jumped to the Western Hockey League and the New Westminster team was forced to fold due to the invasion of the Estevan Bruins into their arena, this version of the Bruins is not the current team in the BCHL. In 1972, the Bellingham Blazers and the Nanaimo Clippers expanded the league to 8 teams.

On a side note, in the early 1970's the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association separated the two tiers of Junior "A" hockey. The BCJHL, being a Tier II league, was disallowed from competing for the Memorial Cup. Therefor, the variety of Tier II Junior "A" leagues across Canada agreed to compete for a new trophy called the Centennial Cup. The 70's also saw the rise of a rival league for the BCJHL. The Pacific Coast Junior Hockey League, which briefly existed in the 1960's, was resurrected by Fred Page, the man that the Eastern Champion Junior "A" Fred Page Cup and the BCHL Championship trophy are named for. The Richmond Sockeyes were the PCJHL's most dominant team, which even defeated Nanaimo in the BC Championship, the Mowat Cup, to move on to what was the precursor to the Doyle Cup. In 1979, the PCJHL and the BCJHL merged. The 77-78 season proved to be a strange one. The BCJHL sent their regular season champion, the Merritt Centennials off to play in the interprovincial playdowns as league champions without playing a single playoff game. The BCJHL continued their league playoffs without them, crowning Nanaimo as the playoff champion after Penticton refused to finish the playoff finals due to a series of brawls in the third game of the series. Merritt played off against the Prince Albert Raiders of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League in the Abbott Cup (the Western Canada Championship) and lost in 5 games (best-of-7). The Raiders lost the Centennial Cup finals to the Guelph Platers of the Ontario Hockey Association.

In 1986, Penticton won the BCJHL's first ever National Championship defeating the Metro Valley Junior Hockey League's Cole Harbour Colts by a score of 7-4 to win the Centennial Cup. A year later, the BCJHL's Richmond Sockeyes won the league's second national title as well.

In 1990, arguably Canada's best Junior "A" team, the 52-3-4 New Westminster Royals suffered possibly the biggest upset in Tier II Junior "A" history. The Centennial Cup host, Vernon Lakers, had finished 36 points behind the New Westminster in the BCJHL regular season standings, and had lost to New Westminster in the league finals. This did not deter Vernon at the Centennial Cup Tournament as they battled hard in the round robin, defeating Le Collège Français de Longueuil of the Quebec Junior AAA Hockey League 6-1, they defeated the Nipawin Hawks of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League 2-1 in Overtime, lost to New Westminster again 5-3, and smoked the Amherst Ramblers of the Maritime Junior A Hockey League 8-2. They went into the semi-final and took out Nipawin with relative ease, 11-5. And again, they came face-to-face with the yet undefeated New Westminster Royals, this time pulling off the massive upset and winning the Centennial Cup with a 6-5 win in overtime.

Since then, the BCHL has been possibly the most dominant league in the CJAHL. Every year they either win the Royal Bank Cup or are a chief contender.

The most notable star to come from the BCHL is Olympian and National Hockey League Superstar Paul Kariya of the Nashville Predators, who played for Penticton.

Teams

2005-06 BCHL Fred Page Cup Playoffs

BCHL Fred Page Cup Champions

Former Member Teams

• Abbotsford Falcons
• Kamloops Rockets
• Kelowna Buckaroos
• Kelowna Spartans
• Revelstoke Rangers
• Richmond Sockeyes

External links

• British Columbia Hockey League

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