Summerside Western Capitals
| Summerside Western Capitals | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| City | Summerside, Prince Edward Island, Canada |
| League | Maritime Junior A Hockey League |
| Division | Meek |
| Founded | c. 1970 (Summerside Crystals) |
| Home arena | Consolidated Credit Union Place |
| Colours |
Blue, red, white |
| General manager | Pat McIver |
| Head coach | Billy McGugian |
| Franchise history | |
| 1976-1980, 1981-82, 1983-85 | Summerside Crystals |
| 1982-83, 1986-Present | Summerside Western Capitals |
Blue, red, white
The Summerside Western Capitals are a Junior "A" hockey team based out of Summerside, Prince Edward Island. They play out of the Maritime Junior A Hockey League. The team currently plays their home games at the Consolidated Credit Union Place. Until 2007 the team played at the former Cahill Stadium.
The Capitals started out in the Island Junior Hockey League. Thus, the reference to 'western' in the original team name, The Capitals joined the MJAHL in 1991. They hosted the Centennial Cup 1989 on behalf of the IJHL. This team was coached by former NHL coach, General Manager, & former Team President of the Columbus Blue Jackets, Doug MacLean, a Summerside native.
The 1996-97 Summerside Western Capitals created a come from behind story book during the year. They were coached by former Detroit Red Wings player, Gerard Gallant, and they dominated the MJAHL Roger Meek Division during the regular season. In the first round of the playoffs they routed the Restigouche River Rats in five games. They beat out the Charlottetown Abbies in the second round before going on to win the Callaghan Cup by clinching a seven-game league final in Dartmouth. Following the tough playoffs came a long bus trip to Brockville, Ont for the 1997 Fred Page Cup. The winner of that tournament would advance to the Royal Bank Cup, which the Capitals were hosting that year. They would go on to lose all 3 games in the round robin and be eliminated.
At the 1997 Royal Bank Cup in Summerside, the Western Capitals won the first game, 5-1n over the Rayside-Balfour Sabrecats. They would then hit a stumbling block, losing their second and third games 7-5 and 8-2 to the Kanata Valley Lasers and the Weyburn Red Wings. They would finish the round robin by losing 3-2 to the South Surrey Eagles in overtime. Because the Rayside-Balfour Sabrecats had already lost 4 games, the overtime loss game, the Capitals 3 points which was good enough for 4th place. After being shut out of the player awards, the Capitals had to come together as a team. In the regulation round, the Capitals did just that defeating the tournament's MVP and future NHLer, Mark Hartigan, and his Weyburn Red Wings 4-3 in a very exciting overtime. The Capitals used that win as a moral boost to defeat another Future NHLer, Scott Gomez, and his South Surrey Eagles by a very close score of 4-3. With that win the Summerside Western Capitals would become the first team in Eastern Canada to win the national jr. A (Tier II) junior championship, Royal Bank Cup.
...
Wikipedia