St. Catharines Falcons (1968–)



The St. Catharines Falcons are a Canadian junior ice hockey team based in St. Catharines, Ontario, Canada. They play in the Golden Horseshoe division of the Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League. The Falcons play their home games inside Jack Gatecliff Arena in downtown St. Catharines.

History
The current Falcons franchise originated in 1968. The league entered the "Niagara District Junior "B" Hockey League" that same year. The Niagara "B" became the Golden Horseshoe "B" in 1974. The Falcons have competed every year in the league since 1968.

In 2012, the Falcons would attempt to win the Sutherland Cup for the first time in six tries. They would end up defeating the Brantford Eagles 4-games-to-2 to clinch their first ever OHA Junior B championship.

The 2013-14 Falcons had won the 2013-14 Golden Horseshoe regular season crown with the best record by a Junior B team since the 1980s (45-3-1), but were caught with two many imports against the Caledonia Corvairs and Welland Jr. Canadians. Due to the protest by those two teams to the Ontario Hockey Association, the Falcons were stripped of the two victories, which slipped them back to second place in the standings (43-5-1) and allowed Caledonia a superior record (45-3-1) and playoff seed.

Memorable Games
On March 26th, 2006 the St. Catharines Falcons played one of the most memorable games in their history. In Game 6 of the semi-finals against the Thorold Blackhawks, the team played an epic four-overtime game. Ironically, if the falcons had won they would have played game 7 on the same day game 6 ended.

Sutherland Cup appearances

 * 1979: Streetsville Derbys defeated St. Catharines Falcons 4-games-to-none
 * 1990: Stratford Cullitons defeated St. Catharines Falcons 4-games-to-none
 * 1994: Waterloo Siskins defeated St. Catharines Falcons 4-games-to-2
 * 1997: Elmira Sugar Kings defeated St. Catharines Falcons 4-games-to-3
 * 2000: Cambridge Winterhawks defeated St. Catharines Falcons 4-games-to-none
 * 2012: St. Catharines Falcons defeated Brantford Eagles 4-games-to-2
 * 2014: Caledonia Corvairs defeated St. Catharines Falcons 4-games-to-3

Notable alumni

 * Steve Bancroft
 * Brian Bellows
 * Ryan Christie
 * Jeff Greenlaw
 * Paul Laus
 * Daultan Leveille
 * Rob Robinson
 * Andy Rymsha
 * Steve Rymsha
 * Riley Sheahan
 * Vic Teal
 * Jacques Michaud