CJHL Top 20 Rankings put on pause for January

CALGARY, Alta. – The Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL) announced Monday, that a pause has been put on with its Top 20 Rankings for the month January, due to COVID-19 provincial restrictions currently in place across eastern Canada.

These limitations are preventing six of its member leagues; the MHL, LHJAAAQ, CCHL, OJHL, NOJHL and SIJHL, from competing at the present time, thus it was deemed prudent to put the weekly listings on hold, until play resumes for the majority of those 76 clubs.

In the final CJHL rankings for 2021, 12 of those teams were slotted in them, with three more being tabbed as honourable mentions.

FLASHBACK

A look back into the archives, finds midway through the 1993-94 season, that the final Top 10 Rankings’ list for the ’93 portion of the campaign consisted of the following clubs:

RANK TEAM LEAGUE YEAR-END RESULT
1 Orillia Terriers OPJHL Lost to Caledon in Buckland Cup final
2 Olds Grizzlys AJHL Won Centennial Cup
3 Èlites de Châteauguay LHJAQ Won Dudley-Hewitt; Lost in Centennial Cup semifinal
4 Wexford Raiders MetJHL Lost to Caledon in MetJHL final
5 Hamilton Kilty Bees OPJHL Lost to Orillia in OPJHL final
6 Halifax Exports MarJHL Lost to Antigonish in 7 games in MarJHL final
7 Powassan Hawks NOJHL Won NOJHL; Lost out in Buckland Cup playdowns
8 Kelowna Spartans BCJHL Won BCJHL; Lost in Doyle Cup in 6 games; Lost Centennial Cup final
9 Powell River Paper Kings BCJHL Lost in 5 games in BCJHL semifinals
10 St. Boniface Saints MJHL Won MJHL; Lost in 7 games to Weyburn in ANAVET Cup final

As it played out, second-ranked Olds, at the time, would eventually take over the No. 1 slot to conclude the regular season.

The Grizzlys went on to win both the AJHL and Doyle Cup championships to go in through the front door of the 1994 Centennial Cup, which they also hosted.

Joining them at the five team-event were the Antigonish Bulldogs, title holders in the Maritimes, Châteauguay Èlites, who won the Dudley-Hewitt Cup, the Weyburn Red Wings who edged the MJHL-winning St. Boniface Saints, 3-2 in overtime, in Game 7 in an ANAVET Cup final that went the distance, and the Kelowna Spartans, the Doyle Cup runner-up who fell to the Grizzlys 4-2 in a best-of-seven affair, but got into the Centennial Cup due to Olds hosting.

Continuing their hot-hand, the Grizzlys ran the table and won all six games they played to win their one and only Centennial Cup to date.