1981-82 OMJHA Season

 

The Waterloo Maroons dominated the league once again. For the first time since John Herbco in the 1978-79 season, a player finished a season with over 100 points as Larry Arsenal scored 50 goals and 65 assists for a total of 115 points, talks are that Larry could be eligible for the pro hockey draft after this season many staff in the Maroons club wants him to stay for one more year, but reports said that Larry will decide on his future once the playoffs are over. The big story this season was the Buffalo Bees; the first three-pick plan works, and the results show it as the Bees took 2nd place in the Steel Division and went to the playoffs for the first time since the 1977-78 season when they were the Guelph Crusaders, Bees GM Ryan Byron Jr. gave the Toronto Hornets their 3rd, 4th, and 5th round picks for a 1st round pick, reports believe that the Bees could be the team to have a dynasty pretty soon the way Junior is putting the team together the right, but some said that Ryan Byron Sr. felt different about the moves. Taking third place in the Steel Division is the Orangeville O’s after winning 7 of the last ten games to take that spot. Missing the playoffs last season woke the Arrowbirds up, and they bounced back and took the 4th place and the final playoff spot. Finishing 5th was not what Peterborough had in mind as they announced that they replaced their name. The Braves will be called the Bolts for the 1982-83 season, in 6th place Kitchener Legionnaires, as winning games isn’t the only thing they got problems with; for some odd reason, they are having financial problems as well and just like the Burlington Metros they want answers on why they haven’t received any money from the bank what so ever as Tom Van Ryan is dodging everyone with these issues. Finally, the Toronto Neon takes last place.

Over at the Hero Division, many teams switch places this season; taking 1st place is the Oakville Oaks taking a big jump from 4th place last season. Keith Dunn leads the team well, and rookie d-man Jake Johannsson plays like he is in the pros; head coach Leon Cowern believes that the Oaks will have a deep run come playoff time. The Milton Micmacs jumped a big leap and went to the playoffs for the first time since the 1974-75 season, led by Kurt Jenkins, who made 25 goals and 89 points and would go on and win this season's Rookie of the Year award. As many top players move on to the pro level to even collages, the Barrie Admirals decline themselves down to 3rd place; both Phillip Smith and Ty Joly got their work cut out this season as talks that one of them could be traded this off-season as the Admirals shopping to improve the defences in hopes to stay afloat before thinking of rebuilding the team. With the drama between John Lewis and Tom Van Ryan to the breaking point, the Metros kept it together as they won enough games to take 4th place and headed to the playoffs. From finishing 1st place even with the Admirals last season to finishing 5th this season as the Gems did not do well as rumours are making rounds that they could start the rebuild stage come off-season, the Toronto Hornets made some good moves but not strong enough to move up the ladder, taking last place overall the Kitchener Generals on ice was poor this season but overshadowed by team owner Todd Holmes as he fired three GMs in one season. He made contact with a former GM of a pro hockey club with no word on who it is, but he will get answers in the off-season.

1981-82 AQHL Playoffs

 

1st Round

1st New Glasgow Highlanders vs. 8th Laval Tigers

The Laval Tigers hit a brick wall badly as the Highlanders took the series in their hands by sweeping them in four games; only in game three did the Tigers score one goal, while the rest all shutouts. New Glasgow wins the series 4-0.

2nd Sherbrooke Loups vs. 7th Shawinigan Voltages

The Loups thought that they got this series in the bag, but the Volts had other ideas in games one and two in Sherbrooke; the Volts won both of them, to the Loups took it as a wake-up call that the Loups turned it around and won four straight to win the series, “I hope that we don’t take any team that we play against lightly and keep our “A” game going.” Josh Winter said after game six. Sherbrooke wins the series 4-2.

3rd Moncton Bears vs. 6th Cape Breton Warriors

Last season it took the Bears six games to beat the Warriors; this time, it took only four games to beat the Warriors as they didn’t stop scoring goals and holding the offence up. The Bears would be ready for the second round hungrier than ever. Moncton wins the series 4-0.

4th Verdun Knights vs. 5th Fredericton Vikings

In game one, the Knights had a 3-0 lead going into the third period Tom Acomb suffered a sprained knee after his skate blade broke on him; five minutes later, Rob Grand-Pierre took a check very hard and headed to the locker room and didn’t came back, and Andre Perreault try to check a player miss it and crash to the boards and was out cold and got carried out. With those injuries, the Vikings took advantage and scored four unanswered goals to win game one. Since then, the Vikings would go on and take the last three games to shock everyone as they swept the Knights in four games. Fredericton wins the series 4-0.

2nd Round

1st New Glasgow Highlanders vs. 5th Fredericton Vikings

Both teams know that they are one step closer to the Bronz Cup finals, and they’ll do whatever it takes to get there. The first two games were all Highlanders; in games three and four, the Vikings got their wins, but in game five, the Highlanders won 6-5 in overtime; it took a lot out of the Vikings; in game six, the Highlanders finished the series with a 4-1 win, and for the second time in three seasons, the New Glasgow Highlanders is going to the Bronz Cup finals. New Glasgow wins the series 4-2.

2nd Sherbrooke Loups vs. 3rd Moncton Bears

This series is what everyone wants to see, a rematch from last season's Bronz Cup finals. Moncton got their payback after losing game one in overtime from Sherbrooke; after that, it was all the Bears as they won four straights to take the series, and for the second season in a row, the Moncton Bears head to the Bronz Cup finals. Moncton wins the series 4-1.

Bronz Cup Finals

1st New Glasgow Highlanders vs. 3rd Moncton Bears

With the Sherbrooke Loups out of the picture, the only way that both Highlanders and the Bears can get to this season's Valor Cup tournament is to win the Bronz Cup. In game one, Highlanders Kyle Patrick scored 2 goals, 5 points to give New Glasgow a 6-3 win over the Bears. Game two The Bears fought back to win 4-3 overtime. The Bears Andrew Jones scored a hat-trick to take game three 5-2 over the Highlanders. In game four, the Highlanders turned it around with the help of Roman Klatt held his ground by letting in just one goal as New Glasgow took it 4-1. Roman Klatt held his ground again but didn’t let in any goals as the Highlanders shut out the Bears 3-0 in game five. Game six was a back and forth making shots; in the third period, Brad Edmundson scored to break a deadlock even score, and the Highlanders held on to the lead until the clock hit zero, and the game was over with the score of 3-2. The New Glasgow Highlanders are the 1982 AQHL Bronz Cup Champions; the players and coaches celebrate while in the press box, GM Ray Carter had to soak it all in after years of building this team from the ground up and finally win the Bronz Cup title and now they are going to Sherbrooke Quebec for the Valor Cup Tournament. New Glasgow wins the series 4-2. 

1981-82 AQHL season

 

The New Glasgow was the talk of the league this season, from scoring goals made by both Jaune Poulette and Kyle Patrick, holding up the blue line by Brad Edmundson in his second year, to even goalie Roman Klatt who took over the net in the second half of the season with a 17-5-3 and becoming the first rookie goalie to reach 10 shutouts in AQHL history. With the formula in place, the Highlanders finished 1st overall with the team’s best 81 points. Team’s GM Ray Carter had a moment for himself and looked back 5 years ago when his team was at its lowest point and turned it around and hopes that this season's success can lead them to a championship.

The defending Bronz Cup champions Sherbrooke Loups had a short hangover early into the season but got themselves back on track only to finish 2nd overall. With the Valor Cup tournament being on their home turf, the Loups hope to have the same success as the Waterloo Maroons did the previous season.

Being behind the Highlanders for the second season in a row, the Bears, however, won a season series with the Verdun Knights to take 3rd place. What is better for them is that Alec Dahlin was sent back from the Pittsburgh Pro Hockey Club after they went on bad losing streaks that placed them out of the playoff picture. Alec hopes that he will make one more run in this season's AQHL playoffs and bring the Bronz Cup back to Moncton.

The Verdun Knights had a good run in the first half, but the team struggled, losing ten of the last fifteen games; luckily, they finished 4th place, with some top players on the roster getting called up from Minor to Pro teams for playoffs, the Knights could have a hard time in this season playoffs.

With good draft picks and trades, the Fredericton Vikings expected to win enough games to make it to the playoffs, but everyone did not expect them to finish 5th place at all, and the Vikings showed everyone how they are a real contender by beating the Verdun Knights three of four season series matchups. Many believe that they are the dark horse come this season's playoffs.

Finishing in 6th place is the Cape Breton Warriors; after losing some top players in his second season, Neil Eaton was named captain of the team. It was very hard for him to lead them to the top despite being the league's top scorer, but it only ended with a record of 23-20-7. Lucky for them, they won 10 of the last 15 games in order to make it to the playoffs. If not, they would be out of the playoff picture.

For the second year in a row for the Shawinigan Voltages, this time they move up from 8th to 7th with some key wins to stay as much as they can, and Trevor Corbet really did what he could after starting 40 games only to win just 20 games while having five different back goalies that ended up being sent to lower-level leagues to injuries, the Volts hope to be healthy by the time for the playoffs.

The Laval Tigers may get 22 wins, but it’s enough for them to finish 8th place and head to the playoffs after missing it for two years, they had the highest 7-game winning streak this season, and it helped them to keep pace and hope to try the unthinkable and hope to go deep.

For the second time in four years, the Portland Clippers missed the playoffs finishing 9th (18-27-5). It was painful as they had some youths just getting some good experience, but they hope next year will be their time to shine. This season for the Manchester Americans was a disaster. They had a terrible start by losing the first 20 games after that. It was downhill, they barely finished 10th, but John Rome was not a happy camper; where the Americans made bad trades, even losing some good draft picks, including the 1st round pick to New Glasgow for a forward who never even played one game as he got called up to the pros, many believe that the office is going to be clean out very soon. After squeezing in the playoffs last season, there were no improvements for the Drummondville Les Rouges as they went on finished 11th. Rounding off in last place, the Trois-Rivieres Titans as they tried to turn it around and to even avoid hitting rock bottom, but it didn’t work.