Notre Dame Hounds

Notre Dame Hounds
City	Wilcox, Saskatchewan
League	SJHL
Division	Sherwood
Founded	1987 (Rejoined SJHL)
Home arena	Duncan McNeill Arena
Colours	Red and white
General manager	Phil Roy[1] (2018–19)
Head coach	Phil Roy (2018–19)

The Notre Dame Hounds are a junior "A" ice hockey team based in Wilcox, Saskatchewan, Canada. They are members of the Saskatchewan Junior Hockey League (SJHL). The Hounds also had a junior "B" team that played in the South Saskatchewan Junior B Hockey League, but the team folded after the 2005–06 Season. The team plays its homes games in Duncan McNeill Arena, which has a seating capacity of 1,200. The team colours are red and white.

History

The Hounds entered the SJHL in 1970 until 1976 when, after a dismal season, they left the SJHL. Not much is known about the franchise between 1976 and 1987. It is known that they operated as a Midget "AAA" minor hockey team until 1987 and lost the final of the Canadian Midget Championship, the Air Canada Cup, to the Quebec seed in the tournament. The AAA team has continued and all parts of the Notre Dame Hounds are affiliated with Athol Murray college of Notre Dame.

In 1987, the Hounds came straight into Tier II Junior "A" from minor hockey. The team came out of the regular season with a series of tight victories, but enough of them to earn them a berth in the playoffs. The Hounds, operating well as a unit which had stayed mostly intact for the previous three seasons, found little trouble winning the SJHL Championship, with only the Yorkton Terriers taking the Hounds as far as six games before the Terrier were eliminated. The Hounds moved on to the ANAVET Cup to face the Winnipeg South Blues of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League. The Hounds swept the series in four games and moved on to face the Calgary Canucks of the Alberta Junior Hockey League for the Abbott Cup. The Hounds initially trailed in the series 3-games-to-1 before coming back in games five and six. In game seven with a 3–2 lead, future National Hockey League (NHL) goaltender Curtis Joseph led the team to a victory and a berth into the Centennial Cup. In the first game, the Hounds played the Halifax Lions of the Metro Valley Junior Hockey League, defeating them 6–5. In the second game, they played the Thunder Bay Flyers of the United States Hockey League, resulting in a 9–7 win. The Hounds then played the Pembroke Lumber Kings of the Central Junior A Hockey League and lost in triple overtime by a score of 4–3. The semi-final re-matched them against the Lumber Kings, and avenged the previous loss with a 7–3 win, seting up a final between the Hounds and the Lions. The Hounds trailed 2–1 after two periods of play. The score was evened in the third period until future NHL player Rod Brind'Amour assisted on Dwayne Norris' game winning goal for the Hounds. Brind'Amour won awards for being the Top Scorer, Most Valuable Player, and Top Centre, while another future NHL player, Joby Messier, won Top Defenseman.

Perhaps the team's best known contribution to the NHL is the Toronto Maple Leafs Hound Line of the 1985–86 season, when Gary Leeman, Wendel Clark and Russ Courtnall played on the same forward line. Although those individuals played for the AA midget team and not on the same line; Wendel Clark was actually a defenceman until he played with the world junior team.

From the 1987–88 championship team, 19 players graduated to the National Collegiate Athletic Association hockey teams, and some, like Rod Brind'Amour, Curtis Joseph, Joby Messier, Dwayne Norris, Jason Herter, and Scott Pellerin, made it all the way to the National Hockey League.

Since 1995, the Hounds have only failed to make the SJHL playoffs three times, but have yet to win their second league title.

Season-by-season standings

GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Lose, T = Tie, OTL = Overtime Lose, GF = Goals For, GA = Goals Against, P = Points

NHL alumni

• Rod Brind'Amour
• Wendel Clark
• Scott Daniels
• Jason Herter
• Curtis Joseph
• Brooks Macek
• Curtis McElhinney
• Joby Messier
• Mitch Messier
• Scott Munroe
• Tyler Myers
• Dwayne Norris
• Scott Pellerin
• Teddy Purcell
• Brad Richards
• Jaden Schwartz

See also

• List of ice hockey teams in Saskatchewan
• Athol Murray College of Notre Dame the home of the Notre Dame Hounds

References

External links

• Notre Dame Hounds Website