The Charlottetown Abbies were a Tier II Junior "A" team based in Charlottetown , Prince Edward Island . They played in the IJHL and the Maritime Junior A Hockey League . Their home rink from 2003 to 2008 was the MacLauchlan Arena on the campus of UPEI . Before then, it was the Charlottetown Civic Centre (now Eastlink Centre ).
28-644: In 1972, the Charlottetown Abbies were a Midget Hockey program with little competition. They applied for entry into the Island Junior Hockey League in 1972. The IJHL turned down their application on the basis that they were too weak for Junior B competition. The Abbies, undeterred, applied for entry into the Southeast New Brunswick Junior B Hockey League instead. The New Brunswick league allowed
56-702: A defunct Tier II Junior "A" ice hockey team that was based out of Detroit , Michigan . They played out of the Southern Ontario Junior A Hockey League and were the feeder team for the National Hockey League 's Detroit Red Wings . The Jr. Red Wings started out in 1958 as a member of the Border Cities Junior B Hockey League . When the league folded in 1964, the team went back to the United States to play in
84-522: Is an umbrella term for amateur ice hockey which is played below the junior age level. Players are classified by age, with each age group playing in its own league. The rules, especially as it relates to body contact, vary from class to class. In North America , the rules are governed by the national bodies, Hockey Canada and USA Hockey , while local hockey associations administer players and leagues for their region. Many provinces and states organize regional and provincial championship tournaments, and
112-631: The Michigan Junior Hockey League . During this time, 1964–1970, the team was known as the Detroit Olympia. After the last great schism of Canadian junior hockey in 1970, the Detroit Jr. Red Wings became the first team to ever be crowned Tier II Junior "A" Central Canadian Champions, winners of the very first Dudley Hewitt Cup . The Championship allowed them entry into the 1971 Centennial Cup Playdowns. The team
140-639: The 1976-77 season, the team played out of Olympia Stadium with a facilities next to the Red Wings. They entered the newly formed Great Lakes Junior Hockey League (later known as the North American Hockey League ) in 1976 and were called the Detroit Junior Wings. In the 1976-77 season Wilson was GM and ex-IHL referee veteran Skeets Harrison was head coach. Dave Feamster (Chicago Blackhawks) led the 1976 team that later sent
168-401: The 2020–21 season), it would refer to its age categories by their age limits (with "midget" being renamed "U18", for example) rather than by names. It stated that the new names would be more concise, while there had also been concerns over use of the term " midget " in this context—as the word is now considered a pejorative towards dwarfism . To qualify in a category, the player must be under
196-748: The 5-team New Brunswick provincial championship round robin because they lost the Southeast New Brunswick qualifier to the independent Moncton Flyers 2-games-to-none (4-3, 3-1). In 1973, the IJHL was promoted to Junior A and the Abbies were granted expansion into the league. The Abbies were an institution in Junior hockey in Charlottetown for several decades. In the 70s the Island Junior Hockey League (IJHL) boasted two Charlottetown teams,
224-693: The Abbies to join and after a slow start the Abbies ended up finishing second in the regular season (to the Dieppe Voyageurs ) and winning the league playoffs. To win the playoffs, the Abbies defeated the Bouctouche Seals 3-games-to-none (9-3, 9–3, forfeit) in the semi-final and then defeated the Memramcook Legionnaires 3-games-to-none (8-1, 10–2, forfeit) in the League Final. The Abbies then failed to qualify for
252-733: The Generals who played in the old Charlottetown Forum, and the Abbies who were based at the Simmons Sports Centre. The league also included at one time or another the Kings County Kings, Summerside Crystals ( Summerside Western Capitals ), West Prince Bluefins, North River North Stars, and the Sherwood-Parkdale Metros. Eventually the two Charlottetown teams merged, maintaining the Abbies moniker. As costs became prohibitive for an Island wide league at
280-846: The Junior A classification and the Islanders and their league found themselves in the Tier II level playing for the Centennial Cup . Their first year of Tier II saw them go deep and win the Eastern Canadian Championship in six games over the Detroit Jr. Red Wings of the Southern Ontario Junior A Hockey League , but lose the inaugural 1971 Centennial Cup 4-games-to-2 to the Alberta Junior Hockey League 's Red Deer Rustlers . In 1971,
308-669: The Junior A level in the late 80s, teams in the league folded. Eventually, in 1991 the Abbies and the Summerside Western Capitals left to join teams in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick to form the Maritime Junior Hockey League. In May 2008, it was announced that the Abbies' management had applied for a year's leave of absence from the Maritime Junior Hockey League, citing financial problems. The team almost relocated to Lewiston, Maine when
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#1732786739308336-601: The Lewiston Maineiacs (QMJHL) tried to relocate to Boisbriand, Quebec. In May 2009, the commissioner of the MHL stated in a newspaper interview that the Abbies would not operate again. On June 4, 2009, CBC reported the folding of the Abbies franchise. The end of the Charlottetown Abbies meant that, for the first time since 1972, the City of Charlottetown did not have a Junior A team. The Abbies have had many versions of
364-735: The MJAHL folded and the Islanders opted to play an independent schedule in instead of joining the neighbouring Junior A leagues in New Brunswick or Newfoundland . For the 1971–72 season, the Islanders did not play a game until March 1972, playing a two-game exhibition series against the Hamilton Red Wings of the Ontario Major Junior Hockey League (2-2 Tie and 4-3 Win) and then jumping directly into National Playdowns as PEI's only representative. In
392-882: The US and Canada, news stories pop up from now and then that describes physical abuse on youth officials, in addition to verbal abuse. These problems were addressed in Hockey Canada's "Relax, it's just a game" campaign, which started in 2002. A youth official can usually move up the ladder to juniors after about 2 years of officiating, and after a few years move up to senior hockey. This is, as with players, different for each individual as their skill-curves are differently shaped. Many current and former officials feel that their officiating career has aided them in their professional life as well as being more comfortable with handling critical decisions and upset individuals. Detroit Jr. Red Wings (SOJHL) The Detroit Jr. Red Wings are
420-666: The age limit as of December 31 of the current season. In Finland , the Finnish Ice Hockey Association roughly categorizes minor hockey players to under school-ages and school-ages . Children over 16 are considered as juniors , although the youngest juniors are still at the school-age. Starting of season 2020-21 names of the minor and junior levels has been changed to represent the standards used in international competitions and other minor hockey leagues. New minor and junior hockey levels, reference to old level in parentheses:. In France , hockey teams use
448-618: The bulk of its roster to D-1 College Hockey. They played at The Olympia until 1983, when they went on hiatus. The team would be resurrected in 1987 for another five seasons of play in the NAHL. In 1992, the Red Wings gave their name to the Detroit Compuware Ambassadors Ontario Hockey League team and ended their affiliation with the NAHL. The NAHL would replace the team in the Detroit market
476-561: The face of cross-ice mandates adopted by the USA Hockey district affiliate. During the 2012–2013 season, AAU junior and youth operations expanded rapidly and currently span coast to coast. More recently, AAU hockey has expanded their youth and Junior programs into Canada. Today, AAU is licensing playing opportunities at all youth age classifications, as well as scholastic, junior, collegiate and adult levels. Although some AAU clubs still use classification terms such as "mites" or "midgets",
504-432: The following levels : using terms from the national languages of Switzerland. This has nevertheless evolve recently to U9, U11 so this has to be updated. In the United States, USA Hockey designates the following levels: Girls hockey operates under their own age classifications, namely 10U, 12U, 14U, 16U and 19U. Many organizations and leagues that have larger numbers of registered players tend to delineate within
532-575: The following levels: In Germany, German Ice Hockey Federation designates the following levels: The Swedish Ice Hockey Federation designates the following levels: Some levels (especially J18 and J20) are directly administered by the Swedish Ice Hockey Federation, while lower divisions of the Juniors and below are administered by the respective sub-federation in each landskap . The Swiss Ice Hockey Federation designates
560-500: The highest age groups in Canada and USA also participate in national championships. Minor hockey is not to be confused with minor league professional hockey . In Canada, the age categories are designated by each provincial hockey governing body based on Hockey Canada 's guidelines, and each category may have multiple tiers based on skill. In November 2019, Hockey Canada announced that beginning in 2020 (officially taking effect in
588-436: The official AAU youth designations indicate the age group with the format "xU", where "x" is the maximum age number and the "U" indicates "and under". Officials for youth hockey are often youth players themselves, calling games in lower levels than the one they participate in themselves. As with players who start out playing youth hockey, officials start their officiating career by officiating youth hockey, making it up through
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#1732786739308616-742: The playoffs, the Islanders dropped the Moncton Hawks of the New Brunswick Junior Hockey League 4-games-to-1 to advance to the Eastern Centennial Cup Final. In the final, they faced the Guelph CMC's of the Southern Ontario Junior A Hockey League and were swept in four games. The Islanders were disbanded prior to the start of the 1972–73 season. 1970 1971 1972 Minor ice hockey#Age categories Minor hockey
644-501: The ranks as their officiating skill increases. USA Hockey defines certain levels of their officials and so does Hockey Canada and the International Ice Hockey Federation . Currently, many youth officials quit after a few games, mainly due to verbal abuse from parents, coaches and players. The other issue faced by young referees is a reluctance from older officials to give them more advanced games. In
672-404: The same logo until the 2007–08 season when they switched to their current script logo. 1978 1985 1987 1990 1991 1999 2003 The Charlottetown Generals were members of the Island Junior Hockey League in the 1970s. They folded in the summer of 1977 after winning multiple league championships. The Generals folded due to financial trouble. The full name of
700-554: The sport of ice hockey. AAU began licensing scholastic ice hockey programs at the HS Varsity and JV classifications about 2009. Then during the 2011–2012 season the AAU began licensing junior and youth leagues as well. The Western States Hockey League (WSHL) moved their operations from USA Hockey into AAU and Hockey Michigan was formed, providing traditional full-ice playing opportunities at the 7U and 8U age classifications (aka mites) in
728-688: The team was the Charlottetown Colonel Grays from their founding up until 1976 as they were affiliated with Colonel Gray High School in Charlottetown. 1974 1975 1976 1977 The Charlottetown Islanders were founded in 1968 to represent the province of Prince Edward Island in the Memorial Cup playoffs. From 1968 until 1971, the Islanders played in the Maritime Junior A Hockey League . In 1970, Major Junior A and Tier II Junior A were created from
756-662: The two-year window allowed for each age group. In these situations, teams composed entirely or primarily of players in their second year of eligibility are designated 'major' teams, while those with players in their 1st year of eligibility are designated "minor" teams. (For example, ten-year-olds would be "squirt majors" while nine-year-olds would be "squirt minors".) This is especially true in "AAA". Some leagues separate players six years old and younger into their own group, often referred to using names like "Mini-Mites", "Mosquitoes", or "Microns." USA Hockey designates four skill levels: The Amateur Athletic Union has returned to licensing
784-710: Was led by league Most Valuable Player and Scoring Leader Mark Howe , son of hockey legend Gordie Howe . In the 1974-75 season the Junior Wings defeated the Minnesota Junior Stars in the finals to capture the American Junior A National Championship. The Junior Wings were headed up by Tom Wilson (General Manager) who had put together a team that included such notables as Ken Morrow of New York Islander fame (4 Stanley Cups and an Olympic Gold Medal (1980)) and Mark Wells (1980 Olympic Team). Through
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