New England Jr. Huskies

The Islanders Hockey Club are an American junior ice hockey organization from Tyngsborough, Massachusetts. They field teams in the Tier III Junior A United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) (Premier Division), the Junior B United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) (Elite Division), a second Junior B United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) (Empire Division) and youth leagues.

New England Huskies Junior Hockey Club
The New England Huskies Junior Hockey Club is a non-profit 501-3 organization which chartered in 1995 as the Tyngsboro Huskies as a charter member of the Eastern Junior Hockey League. The New England Junior Huskies trace their roots to 1981 and Fitchburg's "Wallace Wallopers" of the now-defunct New England Junior Hockey League (NEJHL). The team was renamed the Tyngsboro Huskies in 1993 and renamed again in 2000 to the Lowell Junior Lock Monsters, before adopting their current identity in 2004.

The stated purpose of the program is to provide a vehicle for athletes to develop as hockey players and to use these gifts to further their educational careers. Players are prepared for the long-term future as productive citizens while being constantly reminded to give the game of hockey its due respect for lessons learned.

The team's players are mainly drawn from local towns, but our roster has included players from such outreaches as Alaska, California, Ohio, Michigan, Illinois, Florida, North Carolina, Canada and numerous European countries. The player alumni list includes professional hockey players as well as professional and corporate businessmen and spans four decades (1970s to 2000s).

All Junior Huskies players are required to be in school and/or work, and are required to take the Scholastic Aptitude Test (SAT) tutorial classes that are provided by the organization.

In September 2010, the New England Huskies and the Middlesex Islanders announced that their programs would be merging creating one of the premier developmental and competitive hockey programs in New England. Two years later the program announced that they were becoming the Islanders Hockey Club.

The next major change for the Islanders was in the fall of 2012 when they announced that they would be one of the founding members of the new United States Premier Hockey League.

Junior A Team
The Junior A team competes in the Premier League of the USPHL. Prior to the 2013-14 season the Islanders were members of the Northern Division of the Eastern Junior Hockey League.

Team Members and Regular Season
The Junior Huskies typically hold tryouts in late April. The Junior Huskies team is usually composed of 12 to 13 forwards, six to seven defensemen, and two goalies on the active roster. All players are between the ages of 16 and 20. The season starts the day after Labor Day and playoffs finish during the third week of March each year. The team typically practices 3 to 4 times per week.

The schedule includes regular season schedule games plus three rounds of playoffs.

Coach
The head coach for the Islanders Elite League team is Paul Jenkins, a 1987 graduate of Colgate University where he served as captain and won the Dan Coley "Barrell" Award as Colgate's top defenseman. Upon graduating, Jenkins signed as a free agent with the New York Rangers and played with their top affiliate in Colorado in the IHL before moving to Holland and playing for two seasons with the Geleen Smoke Eaters in the Dutch First Division. Prior to attending Colgate, Coach Jenkins attended Saint Mark's Preparatory School, where he was an ISL All-League selection in both his junior and senior years. He was also named to the New England Prep All-Star team as a junior and senior, named Hockey Night in Boston All-Scholastic both years, was awarded the Flood Shield as ISL MVP. In addition to coaching the Huskies, Jenkins serves as a New England area scout with Central Scouting Bureau, and is the Founder and Director of Competitive Edge Hockey School. Coach Jenkins was also named EJHL Coach of the Year for 2006-2007.

Junior B Team
The Islanders also field teams in the USPHL Elite and USP3 Divisions (equivalent to the former Tier III Junior B designation). The former Junior B team competed in the Eastern Conference of the Empire Junior Hockey League (EmJHL) prior to its joining the USPHL as the Empire Division (now USP3 Division).