1980-81 AQHL Season

 

After 2 seasons of being second place in the Atlantic division, the New Glasgow Highlanders finally hit the top of the division after making a solid 2nd half of the season, including staying unbeaten in the last 10 games of the season 8-0-2. “It was our goal to take 1st place in our division. Now our new goal is to win the Bronz Cup.” Highlanders head coach Doug Reid said at the league press conference in Moncton.

The Moncton Bears made some improvements, just enough to finish 2nd place, thanks to goalie Seth Taylor winning 20 out of 35 games didn’t get any shutouts, but many can see him making more wins down the road and could give this team a chance to go deep into the playoffs.

After playing in Membertou, the Warriors are back at the newly upgraded Warrior Arena. Fans got to finally see the rising of the 1979 Bronz Cup banner to start the season, they did alright, but the last 10 games were ugly for them, with a 2-6-2 to even losing the head-to-head season series to the Moncton Bears. “We need to get our “A” game going if not, we will be out in the first round in a heartbeat,” said Warriors head coach Lenny Copeland.

The Portland Clippers have once again finished 4th in the division, led by overage Frank Logan, who has been a great leader in the locker room. There will likely be some young players who can step up to the plate next season. For now, they are focusing on the playoffs and hoping to go all the way.

Rounding off the Atlantic division is the Manchester Americans finished 5th after being last place in their first two seasons, while the Fredericton Vikings may get a win more than the Americans, but the Vikings got three losses more to finish last place.

The Verdun Knights took both the Quebec Division and the league despite its 7 points less than last season, but they kept themselves ahead of everyone, including keeping the Highlanders from hitting the 80 points mark on the last game of the season, winning it in a dominating fashion 4-1.

For the third season in a row, the Sherbrooke Loups finished 2nd in the Quebec division. Josh Winter led the team with s 33 goals, and 89 points played a factor in their success. The biggest impact made for the Loups was rookie goalie Lenny Tardif winning 25 out of 40 games with a rookie league record of 18 shutouts. “What a great first year for us at our new Arena, with many broken records. What better way to cap it all is winning both the Bronz Cup and the Valor Cup.”  Allen Poulette Jr said after the team’s last game of the season.

After their first three years, the Shawinigan Voltages are heading to the playoffs after winning 25 games along with 4 ties to make the total of 54 points to make it happen. Team captain Vincent Leroux was on a roll for the Vols until he got called up by the Saskatchewan Pro hockey club midway into the season. After that news, the team put the “C” on Christian Gaudreau. He adapted to the role well in his second season, as his playmaker style boosted the team. They need to finish 3rd place and enter the playoffs 7th seed overall.

After missing the playoffs for 2 straight years, the Drummondville Les Rouges' 32 points were just enough to make it to the playoffs with most of the roster very young players, but they are hungry for wins, but many believe that if they enter the playoffs without the same fire that they got themselves in they will be out of the playoffs very early.

The Laval Tigers ended their season poorly, as they will miss the playoffs for the 2nd year in a row by finishing 5th. The once mighty Titans were on the top of the league but had just hit rock bottom. To make matters worse for the team, they lost their GM Leon Rheaume as he accepted a GM deal with the Quebec City Pro Hockey Club, “it’s a sad day for us, but I wish him the best as we will find ourselves a new GM that can build this team back to the top once again” Titans co-owner Lance Chouinard said.

1981 OMJHA Playoffs

Steel Division

1st Waterloo Maroons vs 4th Kitchener Legionnaires

Last season the Maroons beat the Legionnaires in six games. This season the Maroons are hoping for a sweep like they did in their season series, which they did, but game one, two, and three ended in overtime. In game four, Larry Arsenal scored 2 goals to help the Maroons win in regulation and move on to the next round 2-0. 

2nd Orangeville O’s vs. 3rd Peterborough Braves

Most games of the series were close ones, but the O’s rookie Dave Fortier scored back-to-back hat-tricks in both games five and six to give them those two wins to finish off the Braves in six games and ready for the Maroons in the Steel Division finals.

Hero Division

1st Barrie Admirals vs. 4th Oakville Oaks

The Oakville Oaks made it to the playoffs in hopes of giving the Admirals a hard time, but Barrie was the one that gave Oaks a hard time, mainly keeping them from scoring more than just one goal throughout the series, including the Admirals with a game four overtime win to complete the sweep.

2nd Oshawa Diamonds vs. 3rd Burlington Metros

Both Diamonds and Metros went back and forth all the way to game seven as the Diamonds' Adam Howell scored a hat-trick to tie the game at 3 after trailing behind 3-1 before the start of the 3rd period, in overtime Derek Kelly scored the OT winner to help the Diamonds win the series and keep the momentum going into the 2nd round to face the Barrie Admirals.

Steel Division Finals

1st Waterloo Maroons vs. 2nd Orangeville O’s

The Orangeville O’s top player is all over Maroons goalie Pat Hudson, but he held his ground as his teammates were scoring for the O’s they had to start four different goalies due to their top goalie Jack Glenn getting injured after the game six of the first round, game four the O’s kept it close but the Maroons was too much as once again they win the series in four games and headed to the Smyth Cup Finals for the first time since 1974.

Hero Division Finals

1st Barrie Admirals vs. 2nd Oshawa Diamonds

Both teams tied 1st in the Hero division but the Admirals took 1st place as they won the head-to-head series over the Diamonds, the battle was crazy and both teams was really push themselves to the next level, things got more interesting as that the Waterloo Maroons the host of the 1981 Valor Cup tournament has just swept the Orangeville O’s with that news means that who ever win this series win not only face the Maroons for the Smyth Cup championship but also automatically advance to the Valor Cup tournament, the news gave both teams the fire they need to go all the way to game seven as the Admirals had 2-0 lead going into the third period when out of nowhere the Diamonds scored two straight short-handed goals both made by Derek Kelly, then Adam Howell score a goal that questioned of how it happened, the Admirals was firing shots trying to tie the game up but the game ended with 3-2 Diamonds wins game seven and going to both the Smyth Cup finals to face the Maroons and hopes to be ready for the Valor Cup tournament.

Smyth Cup Finals

Waterloo Maroons vs. Oshawa Diamonds

In game one, the Diamonds played very well to keep it a 2-2 tie at the end of the third period. In overtime, the Diamonds made a mistake by taking a penalty that created a chance that the Maroons took, and Nick Ross scored the overtime winner. After game one, the Diamonds ran out of gas as the Maroons destroyed them 9-0 in game two. The Diamonds may score two goals, but the Maroons scored two more with a 4-2 game three win. In game four, the Maroons poured on with 7 goals; the Oshawa Diamonds came back but only scored 4 goals as the third period came to an end. The Waterloo Maroons are the OMJHA Smyth Cup Champions for the first time since 1972, a season before the CIHA was established and will be ready for the 1981 Valor Cup tournament.

1980-81 OMJHA Season

 

Fans of the defending Smyth Cup Champions, the Barrie Admirals, had to wait for the home opener as Barrie played their first 10 games on the road, including being both the Neon and the Hornets' first opponent for their inaugural season opener, both of them the Admirals won along with 6 more wins to make their first 10 games 8-1-1 then came to their first 5 home games played without a loss (3-0-2) everything was going go until last 15 games of the season where they had a hard time with 4-8-3 to finish 1st in the Hero Division.

The Oshawa Diamonds have announced a new name for next season. They will call themselves the “Oshawa Gem” and show the new logo, but the jerseys will be the same for the time being. The news may not sit well with many fans, but their 10-game winning streak changed many minds after that. They kept on winning good games here and there to finish with the same record as the Barrie Admirals, but the reason why they finished 2nd is that they lost the head-to-head series, but they showed grand results and gave Prime Motors a good reason to own the team.

Burlington Metros performed very well, led by captain Matthew Walton the Metros finished 3rd place in the Hero division, but this season is overshadowed by an ongoing war between team owner John Lewis and OMJHA President Tom Van Ryan, where John is still wanting answers on why his team and others are losing money in a bad way some said there were some meetings got heated between the two every time when Tom talked about financial issues. “It got ugly pretty fast; I’m just hoping things get settled soon if not, we might have long-term trust issues,” Barrie Admirals owner Luke Ashton said after the owners' meeting.

After many drafts picks, to front office changes, the results for the Oakville Oaks show great improvements, the gamble of naming Keith Dunn the teams captain worked wonders as he finished 3rd as the top scorer in the league and helped the Oaks finish 4th and headed to the playoffs after missing it for 2 years.

The Micmacs did some moves in hopes of turning it around, but it did not happen as for the 6th year in a row, they missed the playoffs by finishing 5th, followed by the newcomer team Toronto Hornets, who won just enough to pass the 30 points mark and enough to take 6th. The dead last of the Hero division title goes to the Kitchener Generals after losing their top stars and bad trades along the way to finish 7th.

The Waterloo Maroons became the top team in league with a 43-6-1 record; the biggest accomplishment the team ever did was winning their first 25 games in a row. They would lose to end a winning streak but would start a new one along the way with a 15-game winning streak. They would lose the last 4 games. Another accomplishment made by the Maroons was Larry Arsenal, who broke a record for the most assists in a season with 85 in a season with a career total of 220, Larry became the first player to pass the 200 assists within 3 seasons, and he got two more seasons to go.

Ron Green became a grand leader in the locker room, and it shows on the ice as he led the O’s to a 72-points 2nd place finish, one of the best in team history. The team and the city brought the good news that during the off-season, the Orangeville Arena is getting more seats added to the numbers from 2000 to 3000. With Waterloo hosting the 1981 Valor Cup tournament, the O’s is planning on doing more upgrades to the arena in hopes of being the host for the 1984 Valor Cup tournament.

The Peterborough Braves struggled throughout this season, but they won 8 of the last 10 games to sit in 3rd place in the Steel division. Losing 28 games didn’t sit well with head coach Rick Pine “we didn’t play well this season; we need to find a spark. If not come playoffs, we will have an early exit very quick,” Rick said during a press conference four days before they played their first playoff appearance in team history.

The Kitchener Legionnaires and the Toronto Neon shared the 4th place spot in the league as the season ended. Both got 38 points, but the Legionnaires got 1 win more than the Neon, so the Legionnaires are going to the playoffs while the Neon will not but on their last game of the season at home, the fans gave them a standing ovation after their first season.

 The Buffalo Bees made some improvements, but they got a long way to go. GM Ryan Byron Jr. believes that the first 3 picks at the 1981 draft could give them a chance to get over the big hump. Lastly, the Owen Sound Arrowbirds took a big dip from being in the top 5 overall last year to hitting rock bottom last place overall, it totally shows that the trade they did with Buffalo pretty much came back and bit them in the butt in a bad way they are hoping that their three 2nd round draft picks could turn them a round for the better.