Neepawa Titans

Neepawa Natives
Neepawa Natives
City	Neepawa, Manitoba
League	Manitoba Junior Hockey League
Founded	1989
Home arena	Yellowhead Centre
Colours	Black, Red, White
General manager	Myles Cathcart
Head coach	Dustin Howden (2016–17)

The Neepawa Natives are a Canadian Junior "A" ice hockey team from Neepawa, Manitoba, Canada. They are members of the Manitoba Junior Hockey League (MJHL), a part of the Canadian Junior Hockey League.

History

The Neepawa Natives were founded in 1989 and play home games at the Yellowhead Centre. They were members of the MJHL's Sherwood Division until the league merged its two divisions after the 2013–14 season. The team has never won a league championship.

The creation of the Neepawa Natives team name is rooted in the early 1960s, with the then-named Neepawa Intermediates hockey team. In 1963, Ron Guinn and Cecil Pittman suggested the Neepawa Intermediates should create an actual team name for the Neepawa-based hockey club. A name that would connect to Neepawa (a Cree name meaning abundance or plenty) was explored. The name 'Natives' was selected because Neepawa and Natives both start with the letter 'N', and were seven letters long, which led Pittman and Guinn to believe it was a good fit for the team.

The name would go on to be used by the intermediate team, who would play in the Inter Ridge Hockey League, the Central Plains Hockey League and the South West Hockey League in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 1989, Neepawa was accepted into the MJHL and was in need of creating its own team name and identity. Wanting to respect the hockey history created by that Neepawa Intermediates team, it was decided to use the Natives name for the community's new Junior 'A' Hockey club. The Natives name has since been gradually adopted by Neepawa Minor Hockey for its youth teams.

The Neepawa Natives have had many successful seasons reaching the MJHL Finals in 1996 and the meeting in the division finals seven times.

Neepawa keeps close ties with it alumni and celebrate the accomplishments on a regular basis. These accomplishments include many players who have moved onto higher levels of hockey like the NCAA, Major Junior, CIS and professional ranks. Three Natives alumni have played in the National Hockey League. In 11 NHL seasons, Shane Hnidy played for six different teams, appearing in 550 regular season and 40 playoff games, and in his final year won the Stanley Cup with the Boston Bruins. Mark Kolesar played in 28 games with the Toronto Maple Leafs. Triston Grant appeared in 11 games with the Philadelphia Flyers and Nashville Predators.^[1]

Hazing incident

In October 2011, a 15-year-old Natives player came forward with allegations of sexual-based rookie hazing within the team's locker room. The victim's mother said her son was forced to walk around the team locker room with a set of water bottles tied to his scrotum and that assistant coach Brad Biggers was allegedly present in the dressing room at the time.^[2]^[3] As a result, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police opened an investigation of the incident and the MJHL hired an independent investigator to look into the incident.^[4]^[5] No charges were laid.^[6]

Following its investigation, the MJHL levied a record $5000 fine against the team and a total of 18 suspensions to team players and personnel, as well an indefinite suspension to Biggers, preventing him from coaching for any team affiliated with Hockey Canada.^[7]^[8] Head coach and general manager Bryant Perrier, who initially reported the incident to the league, left his post shortly thereafter and also received an indefinite ban from the MJHL (which has since been rescinded).^[9]^[10] The team later issued an apology to the hazing victims, its staff, sponsors, fans, and local community.^[11]^[12]

Season-by-season record

Note: GP = games played, W = wins, L = losses, T = ties, OTL = overtime losses, GF = goals for, GA = goals against, DNQ = did not qualify

Season	GP	W	L	T	OTL	GF	GA	Points	Finish	Playoffs
1989–90	52	10	42	0	-	240	291	20	9th MJHL
1990–91	48	12	34	2	-	212	331	26	8th MJHL
1991–92	48	15	31	1	1	198	252	32	8th MJHL
1992–93	49	21	25	2	1	222	206	45	6th MJHL
1993–94	56	27	25	2	2	–	–	58	5th MJHL
1994–95	56	32	20	2	2	237	218	68	2nd MJHL
1995–96	56	28	22	4	2	248	241	62	5th MJHL
1996–97	55	23	30	1	1	242	280	48	7th MJHL
1997–98	60	28	29	3	0	264	272	59	6th MJHL
1998–99	62	12	49	0	1	187	360	25	10th MJHL
1999–00	64	30	30	-	4	244	270	64	10th MJHL
2000–01	64	41	20	-	3	286	246	85	3rd MJHL
2001–02	64	40	20	-	4	271	221	84	4th MJHL
2002–03	64	28	30	-	6	286	300	62	9th MJHL
2003–04	64	37	18	-	9	236	193	83	3rd MJHL
2004–05	63	37	18	-	8	251	194	82	2nd MJHL
2005–06	63	14	41	-	8	179	269	36	10th MJHL	DNQ
2006–07	63	41	19	-	3	266	220	85	4th MJHL	Lost Semi-final
2007–08	62	16	40	-	6	172	288	38	10th MJHL
2008–09	61	24	29	-	8	182	237	56	8th MJHL
2009–10	62	34	24	-	4	205	189	72	6th MJHL	Lost Quarter-final
2010–11	62	24	32	-	6	170	208	54	9th MJHL	DNQ
2011–12	61	12	45	-	4	168	289	28	11th MJHL	DNQ
2012–13	60	13	40	-	7	143	293	33	11th MJHL	DNQ
2013–14	60	14	41	-	5	149	274	33	11th MJHL	DNQ
2014–15	60	15	42	-	3	141	255	33	11th MJHL	DNQ
2015–16	60	13	45	-	2	132	312	28	11th MJHL	DNQ
2016–17	60	21	33	-	6	173	229	48	8th MJHL	Lost Quarter-final
2017–18	60	25	31	-	4	215	250	54	9th MJHL	DNQ

Playoffs

1990 DNQ
1991 Lost Quarter-final
Winnipeg South Blues defeated Neepawa Natives 4-games-to-none
1992 Lost Quarter-final
St. James Canadians defeated Neepawa Natives 4-games-to-1
1993 Lost Quarter-final
Portage Terriers defeated Neepawa Natives 4-games-to-none
1994 Lost Quarter-final
Dauphin Kings defeated Neepawa Natives 4-games-to-2
1995 Lost Semi-final
Neepawa Natives defeated Portage Terriers 4-games-to-none

Winkler Flyers defeated Neepawa Natives 4-games-to-3
1996 Lost Final
Neepawa Natives defeated Portage Terriers 4-games-to-3

Neepawa Natives defeated Dauphin Kings 4-games-to-2

St. James Canadians defeated Neepawa Natives 4-games-to-3
1997 Lost Quarter-final
Winkler Flyers defeated Neepawa Natives 4-games-to-3
1998 Lost Quarter-final
Winkler Flyers defeated Neepawa Natives 4-games-to-1
1999 DNQ
2000 DNQ
2001 Lost Semi-final
Neepawa Natives defeated Portage Terriers 4-games-to-3

OCN Blizzard defeated Neepawa Natives 4-games-to-1
2002 Lost Quarter-final
Portage Terriers defeated Neepawa Natives 4-games-to-1
2003 DNQ
2004 Lost Quarter-final
Swan Valley Stampeders defeated Neepawa Natives 4-games-to-2
2005 Lost Semi-final
Neepawa Natives defeated Dauphin Kings 4-games-to-2

Portage Terriers defeated Neepawa Natives 4-games-to-1
2006 DNQ
2007 Lost Semi-final
Neepawa Natives defeated Portage Terriers 4-games-to-3

Dauphin Kings defeated Neepawa Natives 4-games-to-2
2008 DNQ
2009 Lost Quarter-final
Winnipeg Saints defeated Neepawa Natives 4-games-to-none
2010 Lost Quarter-final
Dauphin Kings defeated Neepawa Natives 4-games-to-none
2011 DNQ
2012 DNQ
2013 DNQ
2014 DNQ
2015 DNQ
2016 DNQ
2017 Lost Quarter-final
Steinbach Pistons defeated Neepawa Natives 4-games-to-2
2018 DNQ

References

External links

Neepawa Natives Official Website

[1] ttp://www.neepawanatives.com/pages/team.asp?ID=96

[2] ttp://www.winnipegfreepress.com/breakingnews/Hazing-victim-had-water-bottles-tied-to-genitals-mother-132648138.html

[3] ttp://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/hazed-and-now-no-place-to-play-132680298.html

[4] ttp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2011/10/18/rcmp-neepawa-hockey.html

[5] ttp://www.mjhlhockey.ca/news/5-news/444-mjhl-names-independent-investigator-for-hazing-complaint

[6] ttp://www.winnipegfreepress.com/local/rcmp-decide-against-charges-in-neepawa-hazing-incident-134657608.html

[7] ttp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2011/10/31/mb-neepawa-hockey-hazing-manitoba.html

[8] ttp://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/neepawa-team-loses-more-players-over-hockey-hazing-1.985417

[9] ttp://thejuniorhockeynews.com/?p=731

[10] ttp://www.mjhlhockey.ca/news/5-news/448-neepawa-natives-perrier-resigns

[11] ttp://www.mjhlhockey.ca/news/5-news/449-native-players-issue-apology

[12] ttp://www.mjhlhockey.ca/news/5-news/447-neepawa-natives-issue-apology

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v t e Manitoba Junior Hockey League
Teams	Dauphin Kings Neepawa Titans Niverville Nighthawks OCN Blizzard Portage Terriers Selkirk Steelers Steinbach Pistons Swan Valley Stampeders Virden Oil Capitals Waywayseecappo Wolverines Winkler Flyers Winnipeg Blues Winnipeg Freeze
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