The Australian Junior Ice Hockey League (AJIHL) is an elite amateur national ice hockey league in

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

, open to players 20 years of age or younger.

History

The Australian Junior Ice Hockey League was first announced on 18 September 2012 by Ice Hockey Australia. The inaugural season consisted of four teams –

Melbourne Blackhawks The Melbourne Whalers are an Australian junior ice hockey team based in Melbourne, Victoria playing in the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League. They represent one of the two junior ice hockey teams from Victoria currently playing in the AJIHL, w ...

, Melbourne Red Wings,

Sydney Lightning The Sydney Sabres are an Australian junior ice hockey team based in Sydney playing in the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League. They represent one of the two junior ice hockey teams from New South Wales currently playing in the AJIHL, which is ...

and the

Sydney Maple Leafs The Sydney Wolf Pack are an Australian junior ice hockey team based in Sydney playing in the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League. They represent one of the two junior ice hockey teams from New South Wales currently playing in the AJIHL, which is ...

, with teams being operated by their respective state governing body. The first season started on 20 October 2012 at the Medibank Icehouse in Melbourne and ran until March 2013 with the finals to be held on 9 and 10 March 2013. The Sydney Maple Leafs won the inaugural AJIHL finals after beating the Melbourne Red Wings in a tie-breaking sudden overtime period after the teams leveled the two game series. The Maple Leafs had defeated the Sydney Lightning the week before in the Sydney semi-final, while the Red Wings won the Melbourne semi-final against the Blackhawks 7–3 to progress into the final. On 22 August 2013 it was announced that Ice Hockey Victoria were renaming the two Melbourne teams for the 2013–14 season. The Melbourne Blackhawks were renamed as the Melbourne Whalers and the Melbourne Red Wings became the Melbourne Glaciers. The following month the Sydney Maple Leafs were renamed the Sydney Wolf Pack and the Sydney Lightning changed their name to the Sydney Sabres. The changes were made in response to the National Hockey Leagues concern about the AJIHL using their team names and logos, as well as an opportunity to create new history for the teams.

First Expansion

In October 2013 the league expanded to six teams with two teams from Perth, the Sharks and the Pelicans, joining for the start of the 2013–14 season. It is expected that the AJIHL will further expand in 2015-16 to include 3 new teams from Adelaide, Brisbane and Canberra. The Sydney-based teams play their homes games at the

Penrith Ice Palace The Penrith Ice Palace (also known as Penrith Ice Rink.) was an ice sports and public skate centre, located west of Sydney in Penrith, New South Wales, Australia. It permanently closed on Wednesday 29 June 2022 It served as the home ice rink ...

Penrith, New South Wales Penrith is a city in New South Wales, Australia, located in Greater Western Sydney, 55 kilometres (31 mi) west of the Sydney central business district on the banks of the Nepean River, on the outskirts of the Cumberland Plain. Its elevati ...

, the Melbourne-based teams play out of the

O'Brien Group Arena The Icehouse (also currently known as O'Brien Icehouse due to naming rights) is an Australian ice sports and entertainment centre, located in the Docklands precinct of Melbourne, in Victoria, Australia.Docklands, Victoria. and the Perth-based teams play out of the

Xtreme Ice Arena Extreme may refer to: Science and mathematics Mathematics *Extreme point, a point in a convex set which does not lie in any open line segment joining two points in the set *Maxima and minima, extremes on a mathematical function Science *Extremop ...

in Mirrabooka, Western Australia.

Second Expansion

At the beginning of the 2015-16 AJIHL season, a proposal for the next expansion in the AJIHL was made by Ice Hockey Australia to include teams from the Australian states of Queensland and South Australia and the Australian Capital Territory. A Wild Card entry was created in the AJIHL playoff structure, but no further public information would be made available for months despite plans to form junior teams in each of these states being underway. On the 21 January 2016 a Tier 2 extension of the AJIHL was announced which would consist of a round robin style tournament and playoff to pick a wild card entry into the AJIHL finals. Currently 3 teams are in the AJIHL Tier 2 league, representing the Australian cities Adelaide, Brisbane and

Canberra Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

. By October 2016 no information about the

2016-17 AJIHL season 16-17 is a band from Basel, Switzerland. Their music combines punk rock, hardcore punk, jazz and industrial music. Biography 16-17 was founded in 1983 by Alex Buess, Knut Remond and Markus Kneubühler. When the group played its first conc ...

had been released and it was not until the very end of the month that information began to surface over social media involving a weekend schedule involving only the Sydney-based teams and the new expansion teams from Canberra and Brisbane. It was later revealed that the league would adopt a new state based weekend mini tournament style format with 2 conferences in order to minimise the added expenditure involved in having 3 additional cities joining the League. In the first week of December

Canberra Junior Brave Canberra ( ) is the capital city of Australia. Founded following the federation of the colonies of Australia as the seat of government for the new nation, it is Australia's largest inland city and the eighth-largest city overall. The ci ...

withdrew from the scheduled weekend tournament, leaving the remaining 3 teams to only play 4 games instead of the scheduled 6 and the status of the

unknown for the remainder of the season. On 17 December 2016, Brisbane Blitz goaltender Imogen Perry became the first female to play in the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League, facing 38 shots on goal against the

Sydney Sabres The Sydney Sabres are an Australian junior ice hockey team based in Sydney playing in the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League. They represent one of the two junior ice hockey teams from New South Wales currently playing in the AJIHL, which is th ...

and winning 7 - 1. On 6 January 2017, the next schedule was released involving the remaining teams in Melbourne, Perth and Adelaide. Due to a shrinking junior talent pool, the

Melbourne Whalers The Melbourne Whalers are an Australian junior ice hockey team based in Melbourne, Victoria playing in the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League. They represent one of the two junior ice hockey teams from Victoria currently playing in the AJIHL, w ...

suspended operations for the

and only the

Melbourne Glaciers The Melbourne Glaciers are an Australian junior ice hockey team based in Melbourne, Victoria playing in the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League. They represent one of the two junior ice hockey teams from Victoria currently playing in the AJI ...

would compete. No ice time was reserved to schedule AJIHL games in Melbourne. The Perth Pelicans also suspended operation for the

, leaving only the Perth Sharks to compete.

Teams

There are currently 6 teams in the AJIHL, representing the Australian cities Perth, Melbourne and

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

and Brisbane. There are currently 3 AJIHL teams that will be inactive since the

Champions

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

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Sydney Wolf Pack The Sydney Wolf Pack are an Australian junior ice hockey team based in Sydney playing in the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League. They represent one of the two junior ice hockey teams from New South Wales currently playing in the AJIHL, which is ...

2016 File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh ...

2017 File:2017 Events Collage V2.png, From top left, clockwise: The War Against ISIS at the Battle of Mosul (2016-2017); aftermath of the Manchester Arena bombing; The Solar eclipse of August 21, 2017 ("Great American Eclipse"); North Korea tests a ser ...

Adelaide Generals The Adelaide Generals are an Australian junior ice hockey team based in Adelaide, South Australia playing in the second tier of the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League referred to as AJIHL Tier 2. They represent the first junior ice hockey team ...

2018 File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...

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References

External links

Ice Hockey Australia website
{{Sports leagues of Australia 2012 establishments in Australia Sports leagues established in 2012 Junior ice hockey leagues junior Youth ice hockey