Current season or competition: 2025–26 SIJHL season | |
 | |
| Regions | Northwestern Ontario Michigan |
|---|---|
| Commissioner | Dean Thibodeau |
| Founded | 2001 |
| No. of teams | 7 |
| Associated titles | Centennial Cup Dudley Hewitt Cup |
| Recent champions | Kam River Fighting Walleye (2nd) (2024–25) |
| Most successful club | Thunder Bay North Stars (6) |
| Headquarters | Thunder Bay, Ontario |
| Website | sijhlhockey |
TheSuperior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL) is ajunior Aice hockey league and a member of theCanadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL) andHockey Canada. The league operates in the Canadian province ofOntario and the U.S. state ofMichigan. Winners of the SIJHL playoffs compete for theCentennial Cup, the Canadian Junior A championship. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, the winner of each tier 2 junior A league across Canada shows up to the national championship.
Founded in 2001, the SIJHL is successor of several formerThunder Bay junior A hockey leagues and teams. TheFort William War Veterans were the first representatives of the Thunder Bay region, winning the 1922Memorial Cup as Canadian National Junior A Champions.[1] Although there is not abundant information on the subject, theThunder Bay Junior Hockey League may date back to the War Veterans and existed until 1980. From 1980 until 2000, the region (Hockey Northwestern Ontario) was represented by a single team at the junior A level: theThunder Bay Flyers. The Flyers played their regular season games in theUnited States Hockey League (USHL), aUSA Hockey junior A league, and returned to Canada for the playoffs. The Flyers won theDudley Hewitt Cup as Central Canadian Junior Champions in 1989, 1991, 1992, and 1995.[2] The Flyers were also National Champions in 1989 and 1992, winning theCentennial Cup.[3] The Flyers folded after the 1999–2000 USHL Season.[4]
The Northwestern Ontario region has also been represented in the past in theManitoba Junior Hockey League. From 1968 until 1982, the city ofKenora, Ontario, was represented by theKenora Muskies/Thistles and in the mid-1980s,[5] Thunder Bay had an entry with theThunder Bay Hornets.[6]
The folding of the Thunder Bay Flyers led to the rebirth of junior A hockey in the Thunder Bay region. The league started under the "Superior International" label in 2001 with five teams, including theDryden Ice Dogs,First Nation Featherman Hawks,Fort Frances Borderland Thunder,Thunder Bay Bulldogs, and theThunder Bay Wolves.[7]
In 2006, theFort William North Stars won theDudley Hewitt Cup with a 7–6 overtime win over theNorthern Ontario Junior Hockey League'sSudbury Jr. Wolves to earn the team and the league its first regional title and its first shot at the national title in the2006 Royal Bank Cup.[8] The North Stars were eliminated in the Royal Bank Cup semifinal inBrampton, Ontario, with a 3–2 overtime loss to theBritish Columbia Hockey League'sBurnaby Express led by eventual NHL playerKyle Turris.
The presence of the SIJHL in Northwestern Ontario marks the first time since the 1970s that the region has effectively supported a junior hockey league. In 2007, the SIJHL expanded east of Thunder Bay with theSchreiber Diesels[9] andMarathon Renegades.[10] AWawa, Ontario, franchise was also in the works, but never came to fruition.[11]
On December 17, 2007, theSchreiber Diesels folded mid-season claiming lack of fan support. On December 21, the team was bought by a group of local fans in an effort to keep the Diesels alive.[12] TheMarathon Renegades at one point were as high as third place in the SIJHL during the 2007–08 season, but after 37 games played were forced to cancel the rest of its season citing a lack of players through injuries and player defections to other leagues. Al Cresswell, team president, claimed that the shortage of players had become a health risk.
Although the 2008–09 season did not see a return to Marathon, the SIJHL did add theSioux Lookout Flyers. In the 2008 off-season, theThunder Bay Bulldogs elected to retract to embolden theThunder Bay Bearcats.[13] Despite a strong year from the Bearcats and theSchreiber Diesels, both teams elected to cease operation in the summer of 2009. TheFort Frances Jr. Sabres claimed that they would be back for 2009–10, but their owners sold the rights to their players to teams across Canada. In a last-ditch effort, the town of Fort Frances bought the team and renamed them theFort Frances Lakers, but were forced to find all new players due to the actions of the previous ownership. TheThunder Bay Wolverines elected to apply for promotion to the SIJHL for 2009–10 fresh off of their silver medal performance at theKeystone Cup Canadian Jr. B Championships.[14][15] Back up to five teams, the SIJHL also made a 20-game interleague setup with theMinnesota Junior Hockey League'sWisconsin Mustangs to diversify the league's competition.[16]
The 2010–11 season was the tenth season of the SIJHL. The SIJHL received applications for expansion by twoAmerican teams: theDuluth Clydesdales andWisconsin Mustangs.
In June, theThunder Bay Wolverines pulled out of the SIJHL. A few days laterUSA Hockey rejected the transfer bid by theWisconsin Mustangs to join the SIJHL and the expansion bid of the potential ofDuluth, Minnesota, despite approval byHockey Canada and the SIJHL. The league sat at four teams.[17] The two teams appealed the decision and won, officially giving the league six teams and making the league an international league.[17]
The Fort William North Stars were dominant early in 2010–11, but due to financial difficulties, the team was sold to new ownership and became the Thunder Bay North Stars. TheWisconsin Wilderness jumped into the lead mid-season and won the regular season and playoff titles in their first season in the league.
In the summer of 2011, the SIJHL elected to expand with theIron Range Ironheads awaiting the permission ofUSA Hockey andMinnesota Hockey. USA Hockey again denied the league. The decision was appealed and on July 12, 2011, expansion was allowed by USA Hockey as well as the continuation of the Duluth and Spooner franchises. Wisconsin won their second straight league title, coming from behind in the final to beat theFort Frances Lakers in seven games.
The 2012–13 season was a season of decline for the league's American expansion. During the off-season, USA Hockey allowed the league to transfer Iron Range to new ownership and rename it theMinnesota Iron Rangers. Wisconsin was sold and relocated into the same market as Duluth and renamed theMinnesota Wilderness. Three games into the season, theSioux Lookout Flyers ceased operations and eventually their franchise when a scandal over the carding of players by their new general manager and coach left them without enough players to continue. In early 2013, the league, after multiple cancelled games, stripped theDuluth Clydesdales of their franchise. Then, after clinching their third regular season and playoff crowns, the Wilderness won the league's second everDudley Hewitt Cup as Central Canadian champions. Minnesota Wilderness became the first American team to win the Dudley Hewitt Cup and the first to gain berth into theRoyal Bank Cup Canadian Junior A Championship. After winning the Central Canadian Championship, it was announced that the Wilderness would leave the SIJHL at the end of the Royal Bank Cup to join theNorth American Hockey League, a USA Hockey-sanctioned Tier II league. The Wilderness finished fourth in the National Championship round-robin, earning a berth into the semi-final. Despite leading 4–2 in the third, the Wilderness took too many penalties and lost their lead with seconds to go in the third period. TheAlberta Junior Hockey League'sBrooks Bandits scored in overtime to win the game 5–4 eliminating the Wilderness. With the Wilderness and Clydesdales gone, theMinnesota Iron Rangers were the remaining American team with membership in the league.
In the spring of 2013, the SIJHL announced expansion toEar Falls, Ontario, with theEnglish River Miners and on July 11, 2013, admitted a new team inSpooner, Wisconsin, also called theWisconsin Wilderness.[18] The new Wilderness lasted one season.
In the summer of 2014, commissioner and president Ron Whitehead was relieved of his post. Whitehead held his position from 2005 until 2014 and had been a member of the league executive since its inception in 2001. In 2011,Hockey Northwestern Ontario named Whitehead their Central Zone volunteer of the year.[19]
The league added a second team in Minnesota and their sixth franchise for 2016–17 season with theThief River Falls Norskies. In 2019, the league added another team in Spooner, Wisconsin, called the Wisconsin Lumberjacks for the 2019–20 season. After several seasons of ownership issues and lack of player recruitment, the Minnesota Iron Rangers ceased operations for the 2019–20 season, returning the league to six teams.[20] The 2019–20 season was then curtailed by theCOVID-19 pandemic with one week left in the regular season and no postseason tournaments were held. The ongoing pandemic border-crossing restrictions caused the two American teams to withdraw from the 2020–21 season while the league added a new team called theKam River Fighting Walleye. The five Canadian teams would play a few games in November and December 2020 along with twoU18 minor teams, the Kenora Thistles and Thunder Bay Kings, to fill in the schedule before the season was cancelled entirely.[21]
In 2024, theWisconsin Lumberjacks relocated fromSpooner, Wisconsin, toIronwood, Michigan, and were renamed theIronwood Lumberjacks.[22][23]
The league comprised seven franchises as of the2025–26 SIJHL season.[24] TheKenora Islanders, which debuted as an expansion franchise in2023, suspended operationsmidseason in January 2025 and announced they were seeking a new owner to take over the franchise, citing a conflict with the board of governors.[25][26]
| Team | Centre | Arena | Joined |
|---|---|---|---|
| Dryden Ice Dogs | Dryden, Ontario | Dryden Memorial Arena | 2001 |
| Fort Frances Lakers | Fort Frances, Ontario | Memorial Sports Center | 2009 |
| Ironwood Lumberjacks | Ironwood, Michigan | Pat O'Donnell Civic Center | 2019 |
| Kam River Fighting Walleye | Oliver Paipoonge, Ontario | NorWest Arena | 2020 |
| Red Lake Miners | Red Lake, Ontario | Cochenour Arena | 2013 |
| Sioux Lookout Bombers | Sioux Lookout, Ontario | Sioux Lookout Memorial Arena | 2022 |
| Thunder Bay North Stars | Thunder Bay, Ontario | Fort William Gardens | 2001 |
The winners of the SIJHL Playoffs are awarded the Bill Salonen Cup. Although the Jack Adams Trophy is supposed to be awarded to the branch Junior A champion,Hockey Northwestern Ontario will not bring it out unless there are two leagues vying for the branch championship.[27]
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Media related toSuperior International Junior Hockey League at Wikimedia Commons
