Newmarket Hurricanes


The Newmarket Hurricanes were a Junior "A" ice hockey team from Newmarket, Ontario. They played in the Ontario Junior Hockey League. The franchise existed from 1972-2019, based in Newmarket starting in 1975.

History

In 1972, the Seneca Flyers became a part of the OPJHL. In 1975, they bought out the Newmarket Redmen of the Mid-Ontario Junior B Hockey League and moved to become the Newmarket Flyers. The Redmen dated back to the 1920s and were at one point a top level Junior "C" team.
Although the official story is that the Hurricanes got their start in the late 1980s as the Newmarket 87's, the franchise that spawned this team existed long before it. In 1986, the Newmarket Flyers folded. The OHA Junior "A" league was on rocky footing in the late 1980s and was no longer cost efficient for most member teams. Sensing the demise of the league, the Flyers went on hiatus. The league folded in 1987, their last champions happened to be the longtime Junior "B" team: Owen Sound Greys. As more Junior A teams had folded from the OHA-A, the more Junior "B" teams came in to fill the void. As the league ran almost completely out of original Junior "A" teams, the league decided it would be best to fold. The result was a mass expansion of local Junior "B" leagues—filling with both still-active teams and teams that had folded due to problems in the OHA-A. Newmarket pulled its franchise back together and joined the Central Junior "B" Hockey League as the 87's. After 1997, the 87's became the Hurricanes.
The 87's never did very well as a member of the Central "B", but no team exactly stacked up well to the powerhouse Barrie Colts who most notably pulled off an undefeated season in 1992-93. After the formation of the Ontario Provincial Junior "A" league in 1993, things started clicking for the franchise. They have never ranked less than 10th in a 37 team league, with 3 first place finishes in the regular season. They have also pulled off three seasons with less than 10 losses in the OPJHL.
Their best season was the 1995-96 season, after the Colts expanded into the Ontario Hockey League. The 87's finished in third place, won the Buckland Cup as league champions, and then took the Dudley Hewitt Cup as Central Canadian Junior "A" Champions. At the inaugural Royal Bank Cup in 1996 at Melfort, Saskatchewan, the 87's finished off in the round robin in second place with a 2-2 record. They defeated the BCHL's Vernon Vipers 7-5 in their first game. They then took out the SJHL's Yorkton Terriers 5-2. Everything was looking great, but the 87's soon fell apart. In the third game, the 87's were up against the only other undefeated team—the host, the SJHL's Melfort Mustangs. The Mustangs deflated the high-flying 87's with an 11-3 blow-out. Melfort finished perfect in the round robin, but the 87's were embarrassed again by the MJAHL's Moncton Beavers, 4-3. The embarrassment was not due to the score, but due to the Beavers standing as the only winless team left in the round robin until this point. The Moncton victory still left them eliminated from the tournament. Also, due to a tie breaker the 87's were still in second place. They ended up playing the Vipers again in the semi-final and lost by an uninspired score of 7-4. The Vipers knocked off the undefeated Mustangs 2-0 in the final.
In the 2005-06 season, the Hurricanes were excellent. They finished 7th overall in the league and 2nd place in the North Division with 32 wins. The Canes opened the playoffs with a 4 games to 1 series victory of the inconsistent Huntsville-Muskoka Otters. The Canes ran into tho a brick wall the next round, the division semi-final, when they ran into a Stouffville Spirit squad that was firing on all cylinders. The Spirit won the series in 6 games, beat the Aurora Tigers for the division title in 6 games, beat the Oakville Blades in 7 games in the Buckland Cup semi-final, but were out-lasted by the defending champion St. Michael's Buzzers 4 games to 2 in the league final.
On June 28, 2008 the Newmarket Hurricanes lost a key part of their team. Player KJ died as a passenger in a single car rollover. Ramolla was 5th for scoring during the 2007-2008 season and was set to return for the 2008-2009 season. The driver of the car, Ryan Burkholder, former captain of the Hurricanes survived the crash with minor injuries.
Newmarket hosted the 2008 Dudley Hewitt Cup, losing to the OJHL Champion Oakville Blades in the Final. .
In March 2019, the OJHL franchise was bought and will be moved to Milton. The team will now be known as the Milton Menace.

Season-by-season results

Playoffs

Original OPJHL
OJHL Years
The Newmarket Redmen and Newmarket Smoke Rings were different names of a Canadian junior hockey franchise that won four Clarence Schmalz Cups as Ontario Hockey Association Junior C champions. Based in Newmarket, Ontario, alongside rival Aurora Tigers, the spent their time in the Suburban Junior C Group. They changed their name to the Redmen in 1960 when the team accepted promotion to the Metro Junior B Hockey League.
Formed in 1955 as a Junior C team in the Suburban Junior C Group, the Smoke Rings would win provincial titles in three of their first four seasons.
From 1961 to 1970, the Redmen played in the newly formed Suburban Junior C Hockey League. In 1970, after winning a fourth provincial title, the team became a founding member of the Mid-Ontario Junior B Hockey League. After five seasons at Junior B, the Newmarket Redmen merged with the Seneca Flyers to form the Junior A Newmarket Flyers.

Statistics

Clarence Schmalz Cup appearances

Notable alumni