The Toronto Jr. Aeros are a

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 ...

women's

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 hock ...

team based in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( ; or ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Ontario. With a recorded population of 2,794,356 in 2021, it is the most populous city in Canada and the fourth most populous city in North America. The city is the ancho ...

, Canada. The Aeros are members of the

Provincial Women's Hockey League The Provincial Women's Hockey League (or PWHL) is a Junior women's ice hockey league in Ontario, Canada that was founded in 2004. It is considered to be the highest level of junior women's amateur ice hockey in Ontario, and is sanctioned by Hocke ...

of the

Ontario Women's Hockey Association The Ontario Women's Hockey Association (OWHA) is the governing body of women's ice hockey in the Province of Ontario, Canada. The OWHA is a member of the Ontario Hockey Federation (OHF), the Ontario branch of Hockey Canada. The Association was form ...

. The Aeros are five-time PWHL regular season champions, six-time PWHL playoff champions, and four-time Ontario Intermediate AA champions. On two occasions (2005 and 2006) the Aeros won all three titles in one season.

Tradition

The Senior

Toronto Aeros The Toronto Aeros, often called Beatrice Aeros after their primary sponsor, the North York Aeros, and the Mississauga Aeros were a semi-professional women's ice hockey team that played in Toronto and Mississauga, Ontario. The team played its home ...

were founded in 1974 and existed until the folding of the

National Women's Hockey League The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF), formerly the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), is a women's professional ice hockey league located in the United States and Canada. The league was established in 2015 with four league-owned teams and ha ...

in 2007 (which it joined in 1999). The Aeros program raised up both of the two only Canadian female players in the

Hockey Hall of Fame , logo = Hockey Hall of Fame Logo.svg , logo_upright = 0.5 , image = Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto.jpg , caption = The Hall's present location on Yonge Street since 1992 , map_type = , former_name = , established = 1943 , location = 30 Y ...

Angela James Angela Diane James (born December 22, 1964) is a Canadian former ice hockey player who played at the highest levels of senior hockey between 1980 and 2000. She was a member of numerous teams in the Central Ontario Women's Hockey League (COWHL) ...

and

Geraldine Heaney Geraldine Heaney (born October 1, 1967) is an Irish-Canadian ice hockey coach and former defenceman. She played 18 seasons and over 1,000 games with the Toronto Aeros organization, won six Ontario provincial championships and was named Ontario W ...

. The Toronto Jr. Aeros were founded in 1991 and entered the

at its inception in 2004. The Midget Aeros, affiliated with the Junior Aeros, were founded in 2001. Currently, the Aeros only operate a Midget and Junior team.

History

The Junior Aeros entered the

during its first season, 2004–05, and won its regular-season championship as well as the Alumni Cup as the league's playoff champion. The Jr. Aeros also won the OWHA Intermediate AA Championship tournament to complete the triple crown. The 2005–06 season saw the Aeros double the feat, if not better it, by finishing the regular season with an undefeated (27–0–3) record. The Aeros also did not lose a game during the league playoffs. Future

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 ...

Olympian

Haley Irwin Haley Lyn Irwin (born June 6, 1988) is a Canadian ice hockey player. She was a member of the 2009–10 Hockey Canada national women's team and played for the Calgary Inferno and Montreal Stars of the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) and pla ...

was a star on the team those first two seasons. Irwin was named team most valuable player each of those seasons before being picked up by the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges an ...

Division I

Minnesota–Duluth Bulldogs The Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent the University of Minnesota Duluth. They were first named Bulldogs in 1933. Their colors are maroon and gold. The school competes in the NCAA's Division II in all sports except ic ...

Courtney Birchard Courtney Birchard (born July 14, 1989) competes for the Canadian national women's ice hockey team. She made her debut for Team Canada in the 2010 Four Nations Cup. She was drafted 6th overall by the Brampton Thunder in the 2011 CWHL Draft. Bircha ...

was a member of the Jr. Aeros lineup during the first two seasons before jumping to the

New Hampshire Wildcats The New Hampshire Wildcats, or 'Cats, are the American intercollegiate athletic teams representing the University of New Hampshire (UNH), located in Durham. The wildcat is the school's official mascot, the colors are UNH Blue and white. The Uni ...

ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United States. This relati ...

. Also,

Christina Kessler Christina Kessler (born May 28, 1988) has competed for the Canadian National women's ice hockey team. Her debut with Team Canada was at the 2010 Four Nations Cup where she was part of the gold medal-winning squadron. She played for th ...

starred in net for the Aeros during the 2005–06 season before jumping to the

Harvard Crimson The Harvard Crimson are the intercollegiate athletic teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate varsity sports teams for women and men at Harvard, more than at ...

hockey team. During Kessler's season with the team, she and Jamie Miller combined for the lowest goals-against average in the PWHL. Goalie Jamie Miller either led or co-led the PWHL in each of the league's first three seasons. Miller spent a season with the Division I Quinnipiac Bobcats and is now a member of the

Canadian Women's Hockey League The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; french: Ligue canadienne de hockey féminin ‒ LCHF) was a women's ice hockey league. Established in 2007 as a Canadian women's senior league in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, and Ottawa, the league ...

's Brampton Hockey Team. During the 2006–07 season, the Jr. Aeros won their third straight regular season championship and their third straight league playoff championship, but were upset in the preliminary round of the OWHA Provincials by the Aurora Jr. Panthers to deny them their third straight triple crown.

Season-by-season results

Professional and National Team alumni

* Celine Frappier *

* Jamie Miller *

Jillian Saulnier Jillian Pauline Saulnier (born March 7, 1992) grew up in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. She was the first female ice hockey player to represent Nova Scotia at the IIHF Women’s World Championship in 2015. She is a two-timOlympianfoTeam Canada w ...

* Sonja van der Bliekhttp://www.ecachockey.com/women/members/rensselaer/20112402_RPINotesCornellQtrs?dec=printer-decorator&$

References

External links

Jr. Aeros WebsitePWHL Website
{{Toronto Sports Provincial Women's Hockey League teams Ice hockey teams in Toronto