Little Britain Merchants | |
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City | Little Britain, Ontario |
League | Provincial Junior Hockey League |
Conference | East |
Division | Orr |
Founded | 1978 |
Home arena | Little Britain Community Centre |
Colors | Red and White |
General manager | Kerri Phillips |
Head coach | Rob Louttit |
Affiliate(s) | Lindsay Muskies |
League Champions | 1998, 2010 |
The Little Britain Merchants are a Canadian Junior ice hockey team based in Little Britain, Ontario, Canada. They played in the Central Ontario Junior C Hockey League of the Ontario Hockey Association until the 2016-17 season when the league became the Orr Division of the Provincial Junior Hockey League.
The Little Britain Merchants were founded in 1978 as members of the Southern Counties Junior D Hockey League.
In 1984, the Merchants made the jump to the Central Lakeshore Junior C Hockey League. Two year later, the league merged with the Quinte-St. Lawrence Junior C Hockey League and formed the Central Ontario Junior C Hockey League. The expansion of the Merchants was to fill the void left by the folding of the Stouffville Clippers. The Merchants surprised many when they advanced to the Central Lakeshore Final that season. They would be swept by the Bowmanville Eagles who went on to the CSC SF.
In the 1997-98 season, the Merchants finished first overall in the Central Ontario league regular season with twenty-seven wins in forty games. The Merchants went on to win their first league championship that year. They would advance to the CSC SF where they were put out of business by the eventual Schmalz Cup Champions - Glanbrook Rangers of the Niagara District League.
The 2005-06 seasons saw the Little Britain Merchants finish the regular season in second place overall. In the league semi-final, the Merchants drew the third seeded Uxbridge Bruins. The series went the distance with the Bruins pulling out the game 7 victory to clinch the series 4-games-to-3 and ruin any form of Merchant playoff run.
The 2006-07 regular season ended with the Merchants finishing in third place overall. Their semi-final opponent would prove to be the second seeded Port Perry Mojacks. In a long, hard fought series, the two teams pushed on to the bitter end where the Mojacks came out victorious winning game 7 and the series 4-games-to-3 to advance to the league final.