History
In the late 1990s, the Western Ontario Junior B Hockey League began complaining about their top level players being pulled from their teams at trade deadline time by Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League clubs without permission or compensation. The view in Southern Ontario is that Junior "A" and Junior "B" are the same skill level. In fact the OPJHL was known as the Central Ontario Junior B Hockey League until 1993, as well the Metro Junior A Hockey League which folded in 1998 was a Junior "B" league until 1991. The difference between the OPJHL and the MetJHL when compared to the Western, Mid-Western, and Golden Horseshoe leagues is that the OPJHL and MetJHL are Greater Toronto Area-based teams for the most part, while the other three leagues are more rural in nature.
During the 2006-07 season, the general managers of all Ontario Hockey Association Junior "B" teams came together and voted unanimously to merge and create the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League effective for the 2007-08 season. The GOJHL will become the sole competing body of the Sutherland Cup, which had as many as eight leagues competing for it at one time.
The 2007-08 season started off not as planned for the GOJHL. The management of the Mid-Western league resigned and needed to be replaced, and with a lack of organization due to the short time the new management had to get organized, the MWJHL had to opt out of an interlocking schedule. As a result, the entire GOJHL went without an interlocking schedule for 2007-08. The 2008-09 season saw the complete liquidation of all three divisional managements and a single governing body was put in place for the league. Additionally, inter-divisional play would also commence.
In the future, the league has stated that it will pursue club expansion, a reconfiguration that will move the league from three to four divisions, and possibly a move to join the Canadian Junior A Hockey League in future years.
On September 8, 2007, the Cambridge Winterhawks and the Guelph Dominators played the first ever game since the inception of the GOJHL. Despite leading 2-0 and outshooting Guelph, the defending Sutherland Cup Champions allowed five unanswered goals to drop the game 5-2. On May 3, 2008, the Tecumseh Chiefs finished a four game sweep of the Elmira Sugar Kings to win the first ever GOJHL championship.
On September 24, 2008, the GOJHL hosted its first ever interdivisional regular season game between the Golden Horseshoe's Wheatfield Jr. Blades and the Western's London Nationals in London, Ontario. The Nationals won the game 6-2.
The LaSalle Vipers, 2010 Sutherland Cup champions, were asked to represent the Ontario Hockey Association and Hockey Canada for "Canada Day" in Mexico. On December 16, 2010, the Vipers played the Mexican Under-20 National Team and defeated them 9-2 in Mexico City. In January 2011, the GOJHL's Golden Horseshoe Conference and Mid-Western Conference hosted the Russian Minor Hockey League's "Red Stars" who did not make their Under-20 Team. On January 1, the MHL Red Stars defeated the Golden Horseshoe Conference 7-4 and on January 3, the Red Stars defeated the Mid-Western Conference 11-3. The MHL is Russia's only top tier Junior league, while each conference of the GOJHL is a third of Southern Ontario's third tier of Junior hockey.
On October 10, 2012, the OHA announced its intention to expand East of Guelph and form a new fourth conference for the GOJHL. The announcement comes on the heals of the relocation of the Owen Sound Greys to Brampton by their sponsor, leaving the northerly city out of OHA junior hockey for the first time in ninety-nine years (not including wartime). In January 2014, the OHA announced that the plan to expand was on hold due to lack of serious parties. They announced that of eleven applicants, only four were substantial enough to play in the league. A Brantford group has applied for expansion none-the-less, while the other three parties are currently in limbo.
Read more about this topic: Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League
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