Grande Prairie Storm

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Grande Prairie Storm
City: Grande Prairie, Alberta
League: Alberta Junior Hockey League
Division: North
Founded: 1995
Home Arena: Canada Games Arena
Colors: Navy blue, yellow and white

The Grande Prairie Storm are an ice hockey team in the Alberta Junior Hockey League. They play in Grande Prairie, Alberta, Canada at the Canada Games Arena, capacity 3228, also known as the Crystal Centre.

Founded: 1995-96
First AJHL Season: 1996-97
Division titles won: 2003-04
League Championships won: 2004
Doyle Cup Titles: None
Royal Bank Cup Titles: None

Contents

[edit] History

The Grande Prairie Storm franchise is the successor to the Grande Prairie Chiefs of the Rocky Mountain Junior Hockey League. The Storm came into being after a community led group bought the team with the goal of paying off its $150,000 in debts, and restoring junior A hockey to prominence in the Peace Country.

Already having a brand new arena, the Canada Games Arena, built for the 1995 Canada Winter Games, the group was quickly able to retire the debt, and the Grande Prairie Storm took to the ice for its first season in 1995-96 in the RMJHL, winning the league championship.

In 1996, the Storm jumped to the AJHL, where they have competed since. In their ten year tenure, the Storm have never failed to qualify for the post season. In 2004, the Storm won their first AJHL championship. They also hosted the Royal Bank Cup tournament that season, however they failed to win the Canadian national championship.

The Storm have been a major success off the ice as well, as the franchise perennially leads the AJHL in attendance, and often leads the entire Canadian Junior A Hockey League in attendance.[1] The Storm broke the previous attendance record for the Royal Bank Cup by over 9000 fans in 2004.

[edit] Season-by-season Record

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

Season GP W L T/OTL SOL Points GF GA Finish Playoffs
1996-97 60 28 27 - 5 88 236 227 5th Overall ---
1997-98 60 42 15 - 3 87 277 205 2nd Overall ---
1998-99 62 33 22 - 7 73 238 203 4th North ---
1999-00 64 36 26 - 2 74 218 203 4th North ---
2000-01 64 39 22 3 - 81 279 244 2nd North ---
2001-02 64 34 21 9 - 77 233 214 5th North ---
2002-03 64 40 23 1 - 81 267 193 4th North ---
2003-04 60 40 14 6 - 86 241 139 1st North Won Championship
2004-05 64 38 21 5 - 81 216 160 5th North Lost in second round
2005-06 60 38 18 4 - 80 211 148 4th North Lost in first round
2006-07 60 41 15 4 - 86 247 176 2nd North Lost in third round
2007-08 62 38 18 6 - 82 207 161 2nd North In progress

[edit] NHL alumni

The following former Storm have gone on to play in the NHL:

[edit] See also

[edit] References

Alberta Junior Hockey League website
Grande Prairie Storm website