2015-16 HJBHL Season

This is the 2015-16 Heritage Junior B Hockey League season.  This is the league's 29th season

Franchise Changes

• The Medicine Hat Cubs were forced to cease operations in mid-January for the balance of the season due to a lack of players.  The league had stated in a press release after the announcement that they were expecting the team to attend the league annual general meeting in May with a plan in place to be able to restart the team for the 2016-17 season

Current Teams (2015-16)

The HJHL has 2 divisions for the 2015-2016 season.

Team	Centre	Arena
North Division
Airdrie Thunder	Airdrie	Ron Ebbesen Arena
Blackfalds Wranglers	Blackfalds	Blackfalds Arena
Mountainview Colts	Didsbury	Didsbury Recreation Complex
Ponoka Stampeders	Ponoka	Ponoka Culture & Recreation Complex
Red Deer Vipers	Red Deer	Red Deer Arena
Stettler Lightning	Stettler	Stettler Recreation Centre
Three Hills Thrashers	Three Hills	Three Hills Centennial Place
South Division
Banff Academy Bears	Banff	Banff Recreation Centre
Coaldale Copperheads	Coaldale	Coaldale Arena
Cochrane Generals	Cochrane	Spray Lakes Sawmills Family Sports Centre
High River Flyers	High River	Bob Snodgrass Recreation Complex
Medicine Hat Cubs	Medicine Hat	Kinplex
Okotoks Bisons	Okotoks	Murray Arena
Strathmore Wheatland Kings	Strathmore	Strathmore Family Centre

Standings

Eastern Division
Team	GP	W	L	T	OTL	SOL	GF	GA	PIM	P
Mountainview Colts	38	27	10		0	1	193	121		55
Airdrie Thunder	38	26	10		2	0	193	120		54
Red Deer Vipers	38	25	9		1	3	162	113		54
Blackfalds Wranglers	38	22	12		2	2	163	121		48
Three Hills Thrashers	38	19	16		0	3	155	158		41
Ponoka Stampeders	38	11	25		2	0	122	217		24
Stettler Lightning	38	9	26		1	2	112	207		21
Western Division
Team	GP	W	L	T	OTL	SOL	GF	GA	PIM	P
Cochrane Generals	38	29	5		3	1	198	112		62
Okotoks Bisons	38	29	9		0	0	214	119		58
Coaldale Copperheads	38	26	10		1	1	213	144		54
Banff Academy Bears	38	14	23		1	0	129	189		29
Strathmore Wheatland Kings	38	13	23		1	1	142	184		28
High River Flyers	38	11	24		3	0	106	205		25
*Medicine Hat Cubs	38	5	33		0	0	89	181		10

• The Medicine Hat Cubs suspended operations for the balance of the season in mid-January.  The league announced on January 16th that the balance of the games will be treated as a 1-0 victory for the Cubs opponent.  The Cubs had a record of 5-28-0 and 89 goals for and 176 allowed when they suspended operations.

Playoffs

Format

The top six teams in each divison qualify for the playoffs.  The top two seeds earm a bye into the division semifinals. The 3rd place team plays the 6th place team and the 4th place team plays the 5th place team in a best-of-three qualifying round.  The teams are re-seeded for the  best-of-seven divison semifinal round.  The division semifinal winners meet in the best-of-seven division final round.  The divison winners meet in the best-of-seven league championship series.  For overtime play the league uses one ten minute overtime period folllowed by 20 minute overtime periods.

North Conference Elimination Round

• Red Deer defeated Ponoka 2 games to none (7-0, 10-1)
• Blackfalds defeated Three Hills (4-3 (2ot), 8-2)

South Conference Elimination Round

• Coaldale Defeated High River 2 games to none (5-1, 8-2)
• Strathmore defeated Banff 2 games to none (7-5, 4-3)

North Conference Semifinals

• Mountainview defeated Blackfalds 4 games to none (5-2, 7-3, 7-1, 4-3 (ot))
• Airdrie defeated Red Deer 4 games to 3 (2-3, 7-4, 4-6, 4-3, 1-2, 4-2, 4-5)

South Conference Semifinals

• Cochrane defeated Strathmore 4 games to none (7-2, 4-0, 9-2, 5-4 (ot))
• Okotoks vs Coaldale defeated Okotoks 4 games to 2 (6-3, 4-5, 7-6, 6-7, 7-6 (ot), 4-2)

North Conference Final

• Mountainview defeated Airdrie 4 games to none (5-1, 4-3, 3-1, 6-3)

South Conference Final

• Cochrane defeated Coaldale 4 games to 1 (6-1, 11-5, 1-4, 3-2, 6-5 (3 ot)

League Championship

• Mountainview defeated Cochrane 4 games to 2 (1-2, 5-3, 1-5, 4-3 (ot), 5-4, 4-2)

Both league finalists Mountainview Colts and Cochrane Generals qualify for the 2016 Russ Barnes Trophy.

2016 HJBHL champs Mountainview Colts