2015-16 ACH Season

This is the 2015-16 Allan Cup Hockey Season.  This was the league's 5th season under this name and 26th season overall.  The league was previously known as Major League Hockey from 2004 to 2011, Ontario Senior AAA Hockey League from 2003 to 2004, and Southwestern Senior A Hockey League from 1990 to 2003.

Membership Changes

On May 15,2015 the league announced the addition of a team to be based in Hamilton to play out of the Dave Andreychuk Mountain Arena and a team to be based out of Thorold, Ontario to play out of the Thorold Community Arena]. On June 3rd the Hamilton team announced they would be called the Steelhawks.  The Steelhawks name was previously used by the city's OHL franchise from 1984 to 1988.    The teams were later announced as being renamed the Hamilton Steelhawks and Thorold Athletics respectively

The Norwood Vipers ceased operations on October 16, 2015.

Format Changes

The league made several changes to its set up for the 2015-16 season. Among the changes are:

• A balanced schedule of 24 games per team, with each team playing each team 4 times, twice at home and twice away (the schedule was modified due to Norwood's withdrawal)
• overtime will now be a five minute 3-on-3 period
• teams will be awarded 3 points for a regulation win, two points for an overtime/shootout win, one point for an overtime/shootout loss, no points for a regulation loss.
• The playoff format has been modified to:

1. the seventh place team being eliminated from the post season.
2. The fifth and sixth place teams play a one game sudden victory game similar to Major League Baseball's Wild Card Round.
3. The winner of the "wild card game" advances to play the fourth place team in a best-of-three  series with the winner becoming the 4th seed.
4. The semifinal and final round will still be best-of-seven.
5. The playoff champion still advances to the Renwick Cup against the Hockey Northwestern Ontario representative in a best-of-three series to determine the Ontario representative at the 2016 Allan Cup in Steinbach, Manitoba. This series will not take place as the Kenora Thistles announced in January that they were ceasing operations and now the Allan Cup Hockey champion will advance directly to the 2016 Allan Cup.
6. With the withdrawal of the Norwood Vipers, the league announced on October 18th that this format would still be used with the first step now being irrelevant due to the league now having six teams.

Teams

Team	Centre	Founded
Brantford Blast	Brantford	2000
Dundas Real McCoys	Dundas	2000
Hamilton Steelhawks	Hamilton	2015
Stoney Creek Generals	Stoney Creek	2013
Thorold Athletics	Thorold	2015
Whitby Dunlops	Whitby	2004

Standings

Team	GP	W	L	T	OTL	SOL	GF	GA	PIM	P
Stoney Creek Generals	24	18	4	-	2	-	168	92	400	55
Brantford Blast	24	17	5	-	2	-	105	86	296	51
Whitby Dunlops	24	16	7	-	7	-	125	82	359	48
Thorold Athletics	24	11	11	-	2	-	110	115	406	32
Dundas Real McCoys	24	7	16	-	1	-	93	141	267	19
Hamilton Steelhawks	24	3	19	-	2	-	76	161	308	11
*-Norwood Vipers	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-	-

Note: the Norwood Vipers withdrew at start of the season

Playoffs

Wild Card Game

• Dundas Real McCoys defeated Hamilton Steelhawks 7 to 4

Quarterfinal

best-of-three series

• Dundas Real McCoys defeated Thorold Athletics 2 games to none (6-1, 6-4)

Semifinals

Best-of-Seven

• Stoney Creek Generals defeated Dundas Real McCoys 4 games to none (3-1, 5-4 (ot), 7-5, 7-3)
• Brantford Blast defeated Whitby Dunlops 4 games to 2 (3-2, 3-4, 6-4, 2-4, 3-2, 6-4)

Final

Best-of-Seven

• Stoney Creek Generals defeated Brantford Blast 4 games to 1 (2-1, 5-3, 4-5, 7-2, 5-3)

The Stoney Creek Generals advance to the 2016 Allan Cup.  The playoff champion was originally supposed to play the Kenora Thistles for the Renwick Cup and the Ontario Senior AAA championship and the province's spot at the Allan Cup but the Thistles announced they suspended operations on January 10, 2016 and  would not complete for the Renwick Cup. Also traditionally the senior AAA champion of the OHA would meet the champion of the Northern Ontario Hockey Association for the Ontario Hockey Federation championship and a spot in the Renwick Cup; but there have been no registered teams at the Senior AAA in Northern Ontario for several years.

Stoney Creek Generals 2016 ACH champs

Renwick Cup

The league playoff champion was originally scheduled to play the independent Kenora Thistles of Hockey Northwestern Ontario for the provincial championship and the region's berth in the 2016 Allan Cup.  However, the Thistles announced they would not compete in this season's Renwick Cup.  So the playoff champion of Allan Cup Hockey advances directly to the Allan Cup being held in Steinbach, Manitoba April 11-16th.