British Columbia Hockey League

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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 two conferences, known as the Coastal and the Interior. The winner of the BCHL playoffs (BCHL Fred Page Cup) 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.

1 History
2 Teams
3 2006-07 BCHL Fred Page Cup Playoffs
4 BCHL Fred Page Cup Champions
5 Former Member Teams
6 External links

[edit] 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.This argument could be made until the 1998-99 season when the Vernon Vipers franchise skated into the record books. The Vipers rocked the BCJHL winning 52 games losing only 6 tying the record number of points set by New Westminster. During that season the Vipers also set league records in goal allowed and goals against average. What made this even more impressive was the fact that many experts viewed this seasons version of the BCHL as the strongest group of talent in over a decade. After rolling over the competition throughout the regular season the Vipers continued their dominance losing only twice in route to the BCHL title. After making quick work of the Kimberley in the Mowett cup, Vernon turned its attention to the Calgary Canucks. Ranked in the top 5 teams in Canada all year and led by CJAHL player of the year (Dany Heatley) the vipers took it the boys for Alberta winning the serious in five games. However, it’s how you deal with adversity that proves a team’s greatness. After losing the first 3 games of the Royal Bank Cup round robin the Vipers advanced only by winning the Abbott Cup (Western Canadian Champion) and moved on the Semi-finals. There they faced a tough Bramalea Blues team, in a hard fought game that saw the Vipers come out on top 3-2. The final is where the Vipers showed their true colors destroying the second ranked team in Canada, the Charlottetown Abbies 9-3. There can be no discussion 1998-1999 Vernon Vipers are the gold standard in the history of the British Columbia Hockey League.

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 hall of famer Brett Hull who played for Penticton. Hull holds the BCHL record for most goals in a season (105), which he set in 1983-84, a record that still stands today. Other NHLers who once played in the BCHL include Scott Gomez of the New Jersey Devils, who played for South Surrey, and Paul Kariya of the Nashville Predators who played for Penticton.

[edit] Teams

Interior Conference
Team	Centre	2006-07 Record	Finish
Merritt Centennials	Merritt	25-27-1-7	6
Penticton Vees	Penticton	41-14-2-3	1
Prince George Spruce Kings	Prince George	34-19-2-5	5
Quesnel Millionaires	Quesnel	8-47-0-5	9
Salmon Arm Silverbacks	Salmon Arm	36-21-0-3	4
Trail Smoke Eaters	Trail	35-19-0-6	3
Vernon Vipers	Vernon	37-19-1-3	2
Westside Warriors	Westbank	23-25-3-9	7
Williams Lake TimberWolves	Williams Lake	18-39-0-3	8
Coastal Conference
Team	Centre	2006-07 Record	Finish
Alberni Valley Bulldogs	Port Alberni	21-32-1-6	7
Burnaby Express	Burnaby	34-25-0-1	4
Cowichan Valley Capitals	Duncan	36-16-2-6	3
Langley Chiefs	Langley	29-27-1-3	5
Nanaimo Clippers	Nanaimo	41-12-2-5	1
Powell River Kings	Powell River	25-27-3-5	6
Surrey Eagles	Surrey	17-39-1-3	8
Victoria Grizzlies	Victoria	39-17-3-1	2