| West Nipissing Lynx | |
 | |
| City: | Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, Canada |
|---|---|
| League: | Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League |
| Founded: | 2010 |
| Home Arena: | Sturgeon Falls Arena |
| Colors: | Black, Gold, and White |
| Franchise history | |
| 2010–2016: | Sturgeon Falls Lumberjacks |
| 2016–present: | West Nipissing Lynx |
The West Nipissing Lynx are a Canadian Junior ice hockey team based in Sturgeon Falls, Ontario, Canada. They play in the Greater Metro Junior A Hockey League.
History[]
The Sturgeon Falls Lumberjacks were announced in the summer of 2010.[1] The Lumberjacks replaced the folded Nipissing Alouettes, who left the GMHL in 2009.
On September 10, 2010, the Lumberjacks played their first ever regular season game against the Elliot Lake Bobcats in Elliot Lake. The Bobcats won the game 7-2. On September 12, 2010, the Lumberjacks played on the road against the Powassan Dragons and earned their franchise's first victory with a 5-2 win.
In their second season, the Lumberjacks finished second place in the GMHL with a record of 35 wins and 7 losses. In the league quarter-final, the Jacks faced the 2010 league champion Deseronto Storm and survived a five-game series 3-games-to-2. In the semi-final, Sturgeon Falls defeated the league's only two-time champion, the Bradford Rattlers, in a four-game sweep. In the final, the Lumberjacks drew the first-seeded Temiscaming Titans. Despite being an expansion team, the Titans were created with the remnants of the Northern Ontario Junior Hockey League's Temiscaming Royals, and were a seasoned and tough team. The Titans finished the season ahead of the Jacks with a record of 38 wins and 4 losses and were undefeated through two rounds of playoffs (7-0). The Lumberjacks quickly went up two games on the Titans, but were defeated in game three. The Jacks took game four, but the Titans refused to lose the championship on home ice in game five. Game six was in Sturgeon Falls and the Jacks would not waste it, cruising to a 6-1 victory and their first Russell Cup as GMHL Champions.
On September 29, 2012, the Lumberjacks became the first GMHL club to ice a female hockey player. Goaltender Alyssa Moyer made her GMHL debut in a 7-5 loss to the Shelburne Red Wings, making 21 saves.[2]
The Sturgeon Falls Lumberjacks suspended operations for the balance of the 2015-16 season sometime in late January citing player injuries and a heavy school workload due to many of the players attending Nipissing University which had a faculty strike earlier in the school year and lead to a heavier school schedule due to a shorter school year. The ownership also issued in the same statement that they are taking the next few months to evaluate its' situation and make a decision on returning for the 2016-17 season. The teams last game was played on January 29th. The team forfeited a January 30th game to Parry Sound 3-0, which gave the team an 11-25-1 record at the time of their withdrawal.[3][4]
In June 2016, Lumberjacks' owner Lui Ricci sold the team to two local owners looking to re-energize the team. The team was then re-branded as the West Nipissing Lynx.
Season-by-season records[]
| Season | GP | W | L | OL | GF | GA | P | Standings | Playoffs | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010–11 | 42 | 10 | 28 | 4 | 146 | 273 | 24 | 12th GMJHL | Lost Qualifier | |||
| 2011–12 | 42 | 35 | 7 | 0 | 312 | 170 | 70 | 2nd GMJHL | Won League | |||
| 2012–13 | 42 | 15 | 27 | 0 | 195 | 234 | 30 | 12th GMJHL | Lost Division Quarterfinals | |||
| 2013–14 | 42 | 6 | 34 | 2 | 130 | 321 | 14 | 17th GMJHL | Lost Qualifier | |||
| 2014–15 | 42 | 11 | 31 | 0 | 130 | 292 | 22 | 5th North | Lost Quarterfinals | |||
| 2015–16 | 37 | 11 | 25 | 1 | 196 | 244 | 23 | 7th GMJHL-N (Ceased play mid-season) | ||||
| West Nipissing Lynx | ||||||||||||
| 2016–17 | 42 | 13 | 28 | 1 | 184 | 268 | 27 | 9th North | Lost Qualifier | |||
| 2017-18 | 42 | 15 | 24 | 3 | 198 | 228 | 33 | 7th North | Lost Division Quarterfinal | |||
| 2018–19 | 42 | 20 | 19 | 3 | 189 | 203 | 43 | 6th North | Lost Div. Semifinals | |||
| 2019–20 | 42 | 16 | 25 | 1 | 177 | 231 | 33 | 8th North | Lost Division Quarterfinals | |||
| 2020-21 | Unable to get in any games due to local restrictions related to COVID-19 pandemic | |||||||||||
| 2021-22 | 38 | 11 | 24 | 3 | 115 | 191 | 25 | 7th North | Lost Divison Quarterfinals | |||
| 2022-23 | 42 | 16 | 26 | 0 | 136 | 197 | 32 | 6th North | Lost Division Quarterfinals | |||
| 2023-24 | 42 | 26 | 4 | 237 | 151 | 56 | 3rd North | Lost Division Final | ||||
References[]
- ↑ http://www.baytoday.ca/content/sports/details.asp?c=36701
- ↑ Local female goalie first to play in GMHL. Midland Free Press. October 11, 2012. Section B Page 1.
- ↑ Sturgeon Falls Lumberjacks Statement. Sturgeon Falls Lumberjacks. Retrieved on 1 February 2016.
- ↑ THE DEATH POOL – GMHL STURGEON FALLS LUMBERJACKS MERCIFULLY KILLED OFF. The Junior Hockey News (1 February 2016).
External links[]
| This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at West Nipissing Lynx. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA). |