Jeff Moore
Record Staff
OTTAWA—The National Capital Junior Hockey League has gone through some changes since last season with teams being sold and teams moving. In the 2017-18 regular season 12 teams started the year and this season the league will operate with 10 teams with two taking a one-year hiatus.
Since the end of the 2017-18 season, the Blackburn Inferno was sold to a group in Carp and they will play this season as the West Carleton Inferno. The Inferno will play in the West Division with the Metcalfe Jets, the Morrisburg Lions, the South Grenville Rangers and the North Dundas Rockets and will play out of the W. Erskine Johnston Arena in Carp.
The Cumberland Bandits decided to sit out a season and hope to return for the 2019-20 season. The Papineau Vikings were sold to a group from West Carleton called the Ottawa Valley Lightning and they have had a hard time getting started up.
The Lightning after heated debates decided that they would sit out for one year either to find another buyer or get its act together and ice a team. Before they decided to take a year of absence they traded eight players from the league winning Vikings (who they owned the rights to) to the Gatineau Hull-Volant.
After claiming they were unable to ice a team this season the remaining players were put into a draft and were dispersed. The league will officially open with their annual showcase on Sat., Sept. 22, featuring five games.
The game will be the Clarence Castors vs the Metcalfe Jets at 9 a.m., the St. Isidore Eagles vs the West Carleton Inferno at 11:30 a.m., the South Grenville Rangers vs the Gatineau Hull-Volant at 2 p.m., the Morrisburg Lions vs the Vankleek Hill Cougars at 4:30 p.m. and finally the Bytown Royals vs the North Dundas Rockets at 7 p.m.
The games will all take place at the Robert Guertin Arena in Gatineau.
