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Superior International Junior Hockey League

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Centennial Cup Changing Formats This Year

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Whoever wins the Bill Salonen Cup will book a trip to Estevan, Saskatchewan.

The Superior International Junior Hockey League (SIJHL), in conjunction with Hockey Canada and the Canadian Junior Hockey League (CJHL), announced a revised format for the 2022 Centennial Cup.

The tournament will begin May 19th and will feature the host Bruins (SJHL), as well as all nine champions of the other leagues.

As a result, traditional CJHL regional championships – including the Dudley-Hewitt Cup, previously scheduled to be hosted by the Red Lake Miners – will not be contested this season.

“We just weren’t sure what the traditional format would look like in this environment,” said SIJHL Commissioner Darrin Nicholas. “With leagues giving indications they weren’t going to be able to participate in regionals this season as a result of the delays in completing their schedules, the CJHL board recognized it needed to find a way to relieve some pressure and uncertainty from the host committees.”

As of now, there is no plan for a 10-team national championship beyond this year, and Red Lake would have the first right-of-refusal to host a rescheduled Dudley-Hewitt Cup in May of 2023.

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Superior League Hopes To Resume In February

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The local Junior ‘A’ hockey league remains optimistic that they’ll be back on the ice next month.

The province will enter a stay at home order on Thursday morning. In addition to the lockdown announcement on January 7th, Northern Ontario will remain in Code Grey until at least January 23rd. That means hockey facilities are closed and all Hockey Northwestern Ontario programming is paused.

Commissioner Darrin Nicholas says right now the plan is to have the players stay put.

“My vision would be that we keep the players in the community and find a way on a local level to keep them engaged in the season. That way we don’t have to go through [the quarantine process] again,” says Nicholas. “For instance if the restrictions are lifted on February 11th, we can get the players on the ice for a few days and we could be playing games as quickly as February 14th or 15th.”

The Commissioner admits the idea of bubbling up all of the teams in a central location has been floated if and when they get the green light to resume the season.

“If we only have a short window to play games, maybe we can put together two or three showcase events back to back with three games in a day,” adds Nicholas. “Any and all options remain on the table. If there’s a way to give some meaningful hockey to the league and to our players we’ll be committed for that.”