The Greater Ontario Junior Hockey League’s Western Conference is no more.
The league announced this morning that it is realigning its conferences, to now include two larger conferences as opposed to three like in previous years.
All of the former teams from the west including the St. Thomas Stars, Chatham Maroons, Komoka Kings, LaSalle Vipers, London Nationals, Sarnia Legionnaires, St. Marys Lincolns, and Strathroy Rockets will remain in the same conference- however they’ll have some company!
The Elmira Sugar Kings, Kitchener-Waterloo Siskins, Listowel Cyclones, and Stratford Warriors have all been added to the conference, bringing the number of teams to 12. The GOJHL’s other conference will only consist of 11 teams.
Teams will still play 50 games in the regular season and the top eight teams in each conference will now qualify for the playoffs.
GOJHL Interim Commissioner Tim Simmons says this will make the regular season more important, and eliminate the three-team Sutherland Cup Round Robin, which over the last three seasons has included winners from all three conferences.
The names of the two newly-formed conferences will be released in the coming weeks.
The full list of teams in each conference can be found below.
Written by: Matt Latour/Kennedy Freeman
