2015-16 NOJHL Season

This is the 2015-16 Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League season. This was the league's 46th season overall dating back to the founding of the NOHA Junior B Hockey League in 1970, and the league's 39th season under this name.

The league schedule will commence on September 11, 2015 and end of March 9, 2016.

The press release of the schedule made special mention of a Family Day match-up between the Soo Thunderbirds and the Soo Eagles being held at Pullar Stadium in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan (the home of the Eagles) and the Thunderbirds will serve as the home team.

Membership Changes[]

The Iroquois Falls based Abitibi Eskimos relocated to Timmins where they were renamed the Timmins Rock.
The Sudbury Nickel Barons relocated to Rayside-Balfour where they were renamed the Rayside-Balfour Canadians.
The Mattawa Blackhawks relocated to Iroquois Falls and became the Iroquois Falls Eskis
The Espanola Express were added as an expansion team.
The French River Rapids were added as an expansion team.
The Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan based Soo Eagles return to the league after having left the league to join the North American Hockey League in 2012.

Division Alignment[]

Eastern Division
Team	Joined	Centre	Arena
Cochrane Crunch	2012	Cochrane	Tim Horton Event Center
French River Rapids	2015	Noelville	Noelville Arena
Iroquois Falls Eskis	1988	Iroquois Falls	Jus Jordan Arena
Kirkland Lake Gold Miners	2003	Kirkland Lake	Joe Mavrinac Community Complex
Powassan Voodoos	2014	Powassan	Powassan Sportsplex
Timmins Rock	1991	Timmins	McIntyre Arena
Western Division
Blind River Beavers	1999	Blind River	Blind River Community Centre
Elliot Lake Wildcats	2014	Elliot Lake	Elliot Lake Centennial Arena
Espanola Express	2015	Espanola	Espanola Regional Recreation Complex
Rayside-Balfour Canadians	2000	Rayside-Balfour	Chelmsford Community Centre
Soo Eagles	2015	Sault Ste. Marie, MI	Pullar Stadium
Soo Thunderbirds	1999	Sault Ste. Marie, ON	John Rhodes Community Centre

Standings[]

Eastern Division

Team	GP	W	L	T	OTL	SOL	GF	GA	PIM	P
Cochrane Crunch	54	40	10	2	2	-	298	169	799	84
Powassan Voodoos	54	40	10	1	3	-	278	137	718	84
Kirkland Lake Gold Miners	54	39	19	1	2	-	247	135	728	81
Timmins Rock	54	29	24	1	0	-	257	219	759	59
Iroquois Falls Eskis	54	15	39	0	0	-	163	310	758	30
French River Rapids	54	2	49	1	2	-	124	347	602	7
Western Division
Team	GP	W	L	T	OTL	SOL	GF	GA	PIM	P
Soo Thunderbirds	54	48	5	0	1	-	247	84	672	97
Elliot Lake Wildcats	54	34	13	2	5	-	223	144	633	75
Rayside-Balfour Canadians	54	28	28	1	0	-	229	208	818	57
Soo Eagles	54	22	30	0	2	-	182	197	725	46
Espanola Express	54	12	39	0	3	-	132	243	735	27
Blind River Beavers	54	10	40	0	4	-	139	326	745	24

Copeland Cup-McNamara Trophy Playoffs[]

Format[]

The league announced the 2016 playoff format on February 4th. The top five teams in each division qualify for the playoffs. The number 4 and five seeds in each division meet in a best-of-three series. The winning teams meet the number 1 seed in the best-of-seven division semi-finals. The division finals and league final are also best-of-seven series. The playoff champion will advance to the 2016 Dudley Hewitt Cup (and the other finalist if the Kirkland Lake Gold Miners win the playoffs) which is being held in Kirkland Lake and being hosted by the Gold Miners who qualify as host. The tournament was originally awarded to Sudbury, Ontario to be hosted by the Sudbury Nickel Barons on October 7, 2014; but the team announced they were relocating to Rayside-Balfour prior to the 2015-16 season and there was deemed to be little support in the community of Sudbury. The tournament was then re-awarded to Kirkland Lake on April 27, 2015. The winner of the Dudley Hewitt Cup advances to the 2016 Royal Bank Cup being held in Lloydminster, Saskatchewan.

Eastern Division Preliminary Round[]

Timmins Rock defeated Iroquois Falls Eskis 2 games to none (8-1, 3-1)

Western Division Preliminary Round[]

Soo Eagles defeated Espanola Express 2 games to none (11-0, 10-2)

Eastern Division Semifinals[]

Cochrane Crunch defeated Timmins Rock 4 games to none (4-1, 12-2, 6-4, 5-2)
Kirkland Lake Gold Miners defeated Powassan Voodoos 4 games to 2 (2-1 (3ot), 3-4, 6-1, 2-1 (ot), 1-6, 4-1)

Western Division Semifinals[]

Soo Thunderbirds defeated Soo Eagles 4 games to none (9-3, 6-0, 1-0, 2-0)
Elliot Lake Wildcats defeated Rayside-Balfour Canadians 4 games to 1 (3-0, 5-4, 4-3, 4-10, 9-2)

Eastern Division Final[]

Kirkland Lake Gold Miners defeated Cochrane Crunch 4 games to 1 (5-2, 6-5 (ot), 5-3, 2-1, 4-3)

Western Division Final[]

Soo Thunderbirds defeated Elliot Lake Wildcats 4 games to 1 (3-2 (ot), 5-0, 5-0, 3-4 (ot), 7-2)

League Final[]

Soo Thunderbirds defeated Kirkland Lake Gold Miners 4 games to none (3-0, 3-1, 5-1, 7-0)

The Soo Thunderbirds qualify for the 2016 Dudley Hewitt Cup as NOJHL champs and Kirkland Lake also qualifies as they are hosting the tournament.