Central Interior Senior Men's Hockey League expanded to nine teams and two divisions

The Central Interior Senior Men's AA Hockey League will grow to nine teams with the addition of two new teams for the 2006-07 season and the league will play as two divisions, East and West. The two new teams were accepted into the league at its annual general meeting in Burns Lake on Saturday (May 27). They are the Omenica Ice, which will operate and play out of both Vanderhoof and Fort Fraser (and will incorporate players from the former Coy Cup winning northern community of Fort St. James) and the Hazelton Wolverines, which will represent the area around Hazelton and New Hazelton. Some concern was expressed at the meeting about arena issues in Hazelton, but organizers agreed to conditions relating to player bench security and safety netting. The arena in Hazelton has a rated capacity of about 350. Representatives from the Omenica Ice show their home jersey. Representatives of the two new teams made detailed presentations on the team plans and displayed proposed team logos and colors. The Omenica Ice played six exhibition games during the 2006-06 season, including games against the Houston Luckies and Williams Lake Stampeders. The Ice will compete in the newly-designated four team Eastern Division of the CIHL, which will includes the three other existing teams in the eastern half of the playing region, the Mackenzie Moose, the Williams Lake Stampeders and the 100 Mile House Bears. The Hazelton Wolverines will play in the five-team Western Division, which also includes the Kitimat Ice Demons, the Terrace River Kings, the Smithers Steelheads and the Houston Luckies. No application was received from Prince Rupert for this season, but president Bill Blacklock told the meeting a group in Prince Rupert is targeting entering the league in 2007-08. All nine CIHL teams will again play a 20 game schedule, which will include at least two inter-divisional series for each team. The schedule maker will endeavor to cut travel time for the various teams by matching teams and scheduling games in the upcoming season on the basis of distance between teams. In subsequent seasons, teams will cross over with teams not played in the 2006-07 season. Thus western division teams like Smithers and Houston will likely cross over with Mackenzie, Williams Lake or 100 Mile House while teams like Kitimat, Hazelton and Terrace anticipate inter-division games with Vanderhoof and Mackenzie. In the playoffs, the top team in each division will advance, along with the next two teams from either division with the highest total number of points from the regular season. The team with most points overall will be the Lighting Cup regular season champion and will play the qualifying team with the lowest number of points, regardless of division. Only four teams will make the playoff rounds which will remain a best of three series. The Hazelton Wolverines logo as presented by team reps. Representatives of all teams, except the Mackenzie Moose attended the annual meeting, at which Bill Blacklock of the Houston Luckies was re-elected president of the CIHL. Kitimat Ice Demons president Allan Hewitson was re-elected as vice-president and Rose Ruffell of Burns Lake was re-elected treasurer. Shane Brienen of the Houston Luckies will take over the role of league secretary from Arnie Head, also of the Houston Luckies. It is to be confirmed that Dave Turford will remain as league statistician. Bill Blacklock acknowledged that the creation of a schedule under the new inter-division set up will be a challenge. Bobby Love, president of the Smithers Steelheads has agreed to work out a new schedule on the basis of available ice time to be submitted by the teams by August 15. A rule change passed at the meeting requires carded players to play at least five regular season games with a club to be eligible to participate in playoffs. In cases of players returning from long-term in jury, the executive will have discretion to waive the rule, designed to prevent import of out-of-town players for the playoffs only. The rule applies to the CIHL schedule only and not to Coy Cup qualifiers who may bolster rosters based on BCAHA rules for the Coy Cup provincial senior men's championship. Coy Cup rosters must be declared by February 10. The location of the 2007 Coy Cup is expected to be announced b y BCAHA shortly. The CIHL annual meeting discussed the shortage of qualified referees in the region to meet a schedule of additional games. A special referee clinic will be scheduled early in the fall and all clubs are asked to encourage participation from referees and linesmen across the region. The Kitimat Ice Demons reported plans to use new uniforms in the 2006-07 season.

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