Burns Lake Braves are back in CIHL while Smithers Steelheads move to West division for 2009-10 season

The Burns Lake Braves are back in the Central Interior Hockey League and will play in the League's East Division in the 2009-10 season, which gets under way this fall. To accommodate the resurrected Braves team in the East Division, the Smithers Steelheads will make a switch to the West Division. The Braves will play with the Williams Lake Stampeders, the Omineca Ice and the Houston Luckies. The Braves were welcomed back at the CIHL's annual general meeting, held in Smithers on May 9. Smithers, as the most westerly team in last year's East Division, was given its option of playing in either division and selected the West Division where they will compete against the Hazelton Wolverines, the Terrace River Kings, the Kitimat Ice Demons and the Prince Rupert Rampage. The teams will play in a 16-game schedule which will allow eight teams, four from each division, to extend the regular season in the league playoffs, using the same 1v4, 2v3 in the first round, with the winners playing for a division playoff championship and the two division leaders playing for the CIHL Rio Tinto Alcan championship trophy. The league also agreed that the fifth place team in the West Division, regardless of points total, will be eliminated from the playoffs in 2010. Depending on team numbers for 2010, the Steelheads may move back to the East Division next season to allow the last-place finishing team in the division to be dropped from the playoff picture the following January. League officials argued long and hard for a range of options for the coming season, including a 20-game schedule, a three division set-up, a six-team playoff schedule, an immediate cross-over of east and west division teams in the playoffs, but in the end voted for the two-division, eight team divisional playoff and elimination for one team at the end of the regular season. There were a number of changes in the League executive, with Allan Hewitson, former president of the Kitimat Ice Demons agreeing to take over the presidency of the League for the coming year, replacing past president, Stan Irvine of the Omineca Ice. Burns Lake Braves' Wes Hart was named league vice-president, while Lynn Hanson of Williams Lake Stampeders remains as secretary. Former league president and treasurer, Rose Ruffell has been named treasurer, and Duane Muir of the Williams Lake Stampeders will take on the role of league statistician for the coming season. Luis Borges of the Kitimat Ice Demons will take on the difficult job of trying to carve a schedule from teams' available ice times. The Terrace entry in the CIHL was represented at the meeting by last season's coach, Doug Richey, who assured the league that Terrace will have a senior team in the league this coming season. Some outstanding issues remain to be resolved about the Terrace team status, Richey told the meeting. In other business the league executive and other team representatives from all CIHL teams, reviewed some amendments to the League's constitution and bylaws to bring them into line with BCAHA and Hockey Canada regulations. The league will again use an immediate shootout to resolve tied games in the regular season, but will use overtime to settle playoff games. There will be no change to fight rules -players fighting will receive a game misconduct. The league has asked all teams to encourage referee development to the level needed for CIHL games and have set aside $1,500 to subsidize local referees seeking level 3 qualifications, needed for CIHL games. The League will also encourage development of team internet web sites to help improve communications among teams and with fans. Fines will be levied against teams failing to provide timely game sheet information to the league statistician. Kitimat's Allan Hewitson, the new league president, said, "I have attended the last six or seven annual meetings and it was exciting to see so many hockey people from the north and north-central area in one place to discuss the future of the league. This meeting saw some division among teams about a number of decisions, but we were able to come to successful conclusions on all of them. We are looking forward to a competitive season on all fronts."