The Pictou County Crushers (also commonly known as Weeks Jr. A Crushers
due to a sponsorship deal with Weeks Construction) are a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
junior
Junior or Juniors may refer to:
Arts and entertainment Music
* ''Junior'' (Junior Mance album), 1959
* ''Junior'' (Röyksopp album), 2009
* ''Junior'' (Kaki King album), 2010
* ''Junior'' (LaFontaines album), 2019
Films
* ''Junior'' (1994 ...
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...
team based in
New Glasgow, Nova Scotia
New Glasgow is a town in Pictou County, in the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. It is situated on the banks of the East River of Pictou, which flows into Pictou Harbour, a sub-basin of the Northumberland Strait.
The town's population was 9,075 ...
. They are in the
Maritime Junior Hockey League
The Maritime Junior Hockey League (MHL) is a Junior A ice hockey league under Hockey Canada, a part of the Canadian Junior Hockey League. It consists of five teams from New Brunswick and one team from Prince Edward Island, which make up the E ...
's Eastlink South Division along with five other Nova Scotia clubs. The Crushers play their home games at the
Pictou County Wellness Centre
The Pictou County Wellness Centre is a multi-purpose sporting facility located in Westville Road, Nova Scotia. The facility features 2 NHL sized hockey arenas, an olympic sized swimming pool, a fitness centre and, a gymnasium. The facility opene ...
.
History
The Crushers originated in
Halifax. The franchise, under various names in Nova Scotia's capital city, holds the MHL (formerly the MJAHL) record for most championships with 10. As the Halifax Oland Exports, they captured the 2002
Royal Bank Cup on home ice. Due to financial reasons, the team's name was changed to Halifax Team Pepsi for the 2003-2004 campaign.
In the spring of 2004, the Weeks Hockey Organization bought the club, moved it to New Glasgow and renamed it the Pictou County Weeks Crushers. The team's name and logo are tied to its founding sponsor, Weeks Construction.
After struggling to attract fans in Halifax's crowded hockey market, the Crushers soared up the attendance ladder in New Glasgow and are now one of the league's top draws at the gate.
The Crushers hosted the 2005 MJAHL All-Star Game and the 2006 MJAHL Entry Draft.
In April 2008, the Crushers were the
Fred Page Cup
The Fred Page Cup is a championship ice hockey trophy, won by a tournament conducted by the Canadian Junior Hockey League. The award is given to the winner of a round-robin and playoff between the Bogart Cup champions of the Central Canada Hoc ...
host team. They shocked everyone as the underdogs defeated the defending FPC champion
Pembroke Lumber Kings 4-1 in the championship game. With the victory, the Crushers advanced to their first ever
Royal Bank Cup, in Cornwall, Ontario. They went 1-4 at the RBC, losing the semifinal game 3-0 to the
Camrose Kodiaks
The Camrose Kodiaks are a Canadian Junior "A" ice hockey team in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL). They play in Camrose, Alberta, Canada, with home games at the Recreation Centre in the EnCana Arena, which has a seating capacity for app ...
.
In November 2012, the Crushers moved out of their former home
John Brother MacDonald Stadium The John Brother MacDonald Stadium (formerly New Glasgow Stadium) was a multi-purpose arena in New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada. With ice in, the capacity including mezzanine was 3,013, while without ice the arena held 3,723.
It was home to the Wee ...
that they used from 2004 to 2012 and into the new Pictou County Wellness Center.
The Crushers won their first Kent cup in 2016 defeating the Dieppe Commandos in the final, they have also come close back to back years (2010,2011)
by making it to the finals but they lost both times. In 2010 they lost to the
Woodstock Slammers
The Woodstock Slammers were a junior "A" hockey team based in Woodstock, New Brunswick. They played as part of the Maritime Junior Hockey League (MHL). The team played their home games at the Carleton Civic Centre, formally known to fans as "Sl ...
4-1 and, in 2011 they lost to the
Summerside Western Capitals 4-0.
Season-by-season record
Fred Page Cup
Eastern Canada Championships
''
MHL -
QAAAJHL -
CCHL - Host''
Round robin play with 2nd vs 3rd in semi-final to advance against 1st in the finals.
Notable alumni
*
Derrick Walser
Derrick Walser (born May 12, 1978) is a Canadian former professional ice hockey defenceman. He is currently an assistant coach of the Peterborough Petes of the Ontario Hockey League. Walser played 91 National Hockey League (NHL) games wit ...
(
NHL
The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...
,
KHL
The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL; russian: Континентальная хоккейная лига (КХЛ), Kontinental'naya khokkeynaya liga) is an international professional ice hockey league founded in 2008. It comprises member clubs b ...
,
NLA,
DEL
Del, or nabla, is an operator used in mathematics (particularly in vector calculus) as a vector differential operator, usually represented by the nabla symbol ∇. When applied to a function defined on a one-dimensional domain, it denotes ...
)
See also
*
List of ice hockey teams in Nova Scotia
The following is a list of ice hockey teams in Nova Scotia, past and present. It includes the league(s) they play for, and championships won.
Professional American Hockey League
Junior Quebec Major Junior Hockey League
Maritime Junior A Hockey ...
References
External links
Official Crushers WebsiteOfficial MHL Website
{{Nova Scotia Sports
Ice hockey teams in Nova Scotia
Maritime Junior Hockey League teams
New Glasgow, Nova Scotia
1967 establishments in Nova Scotia
Ice hockey clubs established in 1967