Major update time!

1999 Pacino Cup Finals
Mount Faith Eruption vs. Dawn Mills Devil Rays

Mount Faith returns to the finals for the first time since winning it all in 1995, while the Devil Rays look for their second title in three years.The first 2 games were blowouts in both teams favour, as the Rays took Game 1 8-3 and the Eruption would bounce back in Game 2 with a 6-1 win.

Game 3 would go to Dawn Mills after Killian Mann scored on the powerplay in overtime for the 5-4 win. The Eruption would tie it in Game 4 again, doubling the Rays 6-3.

With the series down to a best of 3, both goalies knew they needed to stand on their head moving forward, and they did. However Lorenzo Ross would bury the game winner late in the third for the 1-0 win. In Game 6, with the Cup on the line, the Rays came out and put up an absolute dud, going down 6-0 headed to the third. The Devil Rays would storm back in the third with 4, but it wasn’t enough to tie the game. So we headed to Game 7,,,

Where the goalies were unbeatable again. With the game tied 0-0 in the second overtime, Ethan Brown hit Charles Austin with a pass down the wing and he buried one short side to give the Eruption their second title!



After the season, the league handed out their annual awards:




With the first 10 years down, the league announced it’s all decade team:



And with that, it was time to reveal our 4 expansion teams!

Central Valley Crusaders
Owner - Weston Fuller
The Central Valley Crusaders are the first expansion team announced for 2000. Wearing purple and gold, the Crusaders are playing their home games out of the Crowares Centre in Copetown. They have hired Daxton Keen, the former 2 time Pacino Cup champion to be their first head coach.



Crystal Beach Bullets
Owner - Max Piers
Playing out of the Pioneer Arena in Chosta, this rugged “cowboy” town team has hired Efrain Little to lead the team behind the bench. Fans are thrilled to have a former 2x MVP behind the bench. Will he be able to transfer his excellent playing career to a successful coaching gig?



Montane Boarders
Owner - Howard Sheldon
Playing out of the Galaxy Park Arena which is located at the bottom of the Montane mountains, the Boarders take the ice hoping to capture the love of winter sports in the community. Montane has the best skiing and snowboarding mountains in the country and the Galaxy Park resort is considered a destination for people who are looking for picturesque views while going down the mountain. They should have fantastic fan support.



Walker City Railers
Owner - Yorkland Rail Workers Association
Playing their games out of the Yorkland Transit Commission Arena (YTC Arena), the team is named after the union workers who have purchased the team. Walker City is known as the transit hub of Yorkland and is home to the largest airport and train station in the country.



With the addition of 4 new teams, the leagues alignment and playoff structure would be altering.
The league announced that they will be moving to a 2 conference, 4 division alignment. The top 2 teams from each division will meet in the conference semi-finals. All series are moving to Best Of 7 moving forward. The divisions breakdown as followed:

Western Conference
Keen Division:
Crystal Beach Bullets
Dawn Mills Devil Rays
Fort Theory Generals
Montane Boarders

Nevin Division:
Anchor City Sharks
Battlefield Braves
Bentley Stars
Brooklynn Blackhawks

Eastern Conference
Little Division:
Kelly City Lakers
Lake Hope Lions
Mount Faith Eruption
South Beach Seminoles

Wood Division:
Bayleigh Peach Kings
Cayuga Saints
Central Valley Crusaders
Walker City Railers

The early expert analysis is that Fort Theory has potential to run away with that division for a while with 2 expansion teams, while the Nevin Division should be a Bentley Stars run division. The Little Division has the toughest competition and with 2 expansion teams and a not great Bayleigh squad, the Saints may be lined up for years of success.

Yorkland Junior Development Hockey League

After an insane development process, the YHL has officially announced that the YJDHL will kick off their season on January 1st, 2000 along with the YHL season. Since the interest in joining the program was so high and the concern for travel was made clear, the league decided to launch 4 leagues who will compete among themselves. The league winners will meet annually in a 4 team round robin to determine the Belleau Cup Champions.



With the announcement of the Belleau Cup out of the way, the league revealed the 44 teams who will be kicking off the YDJHL campaign:

Central Junior Hockey League




East Coast Junior Hockey League




Northern Major Junior Hockey League




Western Junior Hockey League




And with the announcement of teams listed, the first Top 5 prospect list has been revealed. These prospects are draft eligible in the 2001 entry draft and therefore will be spending 2000 in the YJDHL:



Up next…
The 2000 expansion draft
The 2000 entry draft
Off-season news and notes

** As always, C&C is appreciated. This was a major task to take on but I felt I needed to develop a minors system in order to produce better players moving forward with my simulation. I wont be revealing all 44 jerseys for the juniors but the plan is to reveal them when I do the prospect lists which will be pre-season, mid-season and post-season/pre-draft. There are some really exciting prospects coming in the next few years. Appreciate any reads I’ve gotten so far and hopefully we can continue to build on this as I’m totally committed to the YHL **

2000 Regular Season

The season kicked off in Mount Faith where they raised their 2 new banners to the rafters after winning it all in 1999:



With the expansion teams now in play and new division and playoff formatting on the table, it was more important than ever to take care of business in your own conference.

In the Little Division (Named after 2 time league MVP Efrain Little), the South Beach Seminoles would run the division easily, finishing nearly 20 points up on 2nd place Mount Faith. The Kelly City Lakers would finish 3rd and the Lake Hope Lions would finish 4th. With the defending champions and the hot young Seminoles both qualifying for the playoffs, there’s a good chance the 2000 Pacino Cup Champions could come from this division.

In the Wood Division (Named after 2 time Pacino Cup Champion Kade Wood), the Bayleigh Peach Kings would finish in first place, 43 points up on the 2nd place expansion Walker City Railers. This was of course a major upset as the Railers beat the Cayuga Saints in the final game of the season to finish 1 point ahead of them in the standings. Despite this, the Railers did not have enough points to miss the playoffs. In last place was the Central Valley Crusaders, who were what we expected.

The opening round of the playoffs will feature the South Beach Seminoles hosting the Kelly City Lakers and the defending champions Mount Faith Eruption will head to Bayleigh to take on the Peach Kings.



In the Western Conference, the Keen Division (Named after 2 time Pacino Cup Champion Daxton Keen), was won by the Dawn Mills Devil Rays who are looking to overcome the demons of losing in the finals a year ago. They finished 50 points ahead of the expansion Crystal Beach Bullets who still managed to finish in 2nd place, shockingly ahead of the Fort Theory Generals in third and the Montane Boarders in 4th.

Finally, in the Nevin Division (Named after 3 time Pacino Cup Champion Kaiden Nevin) the playoff streak of the Bentley Stars expands to 9 straight years after winning the division. In second place was the Brooklynn Blackhawks, who finally broke through and have made the playoffs for the first time ever. In third place was the Anchor City Sharks and in dead last was the Battlefield Braves.

The opening round of the playoffs will feature the Dawn Mills Devil Rays hosting the Crystal Beach Bullets and the Bentley Stars hosting the Brooklynn Blackhawks.



2000 YDJHL Regular Season

The 32 teams across the 4 leagues making the playoffs are as follows with the playoff match-ups for all 4 leagues revealed.



Of course, the individual league champions will all compete for the Belleau Cup at the end of the playoffs.



And with the regular season completed, the final rankings for the top 10 draft picks have been revealed. While the top 5 hasn’t changed, the bottom 5 are revealed for the first time:




Up next:
The 2000 YHL Playoffs
The 2000 YDJHL Playoffs

Man, a lot has happened recently, too much to comment on, but nice work. I really like the Boarders. Unique scheme. Sad to see the Lions fall to the bottom of the pack. 

2000 Eastern Conference Semi-Finals
South Beach Seminoles vs. Kelly City Lakers

The Seminoles were not only heavy favourites to win the series but are heavy Pacino Cup favourites so a loss to the Lakers would have been shocking. Despite struggling in Game 1, the Seminoles found their groove in Game 2 and didn’t look back. Solomon Rollins looks to be back into MVP  form and Eugene Rogers showed why he’s one of the best forwards in the game today as the Seminoles roll in 5.



2000 Eastern Conference Semi-Finals
Bayleigh Peach Kings vs. Mount Faith Eruption

The other original expansion team from Bayleigh wouldn’t be outdone, despite taking on the defending champions from Mount Faith in the opening round. Westin Barker put on a goaltending clinic, including a 51 save overtime win in Game 5 to clinch the series and send the defending champions home.



The 2000 Eastern Conference Finals will feature two expansion teams for the first time in league history as the South Beach Seminoles take on the Bayleigh Peach Kings.

2000 Western Conference Semi-Finals
Dawn Mills Devil Rays vs. Crystal Beach Bullets

The Bullets shockingly got into the playoffs in their first year in the league, but still finished 50 points behind Dawn Mills who finished the season as Prime Minister’s Trophy winners. Despite a good showing from Bullets captain Christian Salinas, the Devil Rays were way too much to handle, as Killian Mann and Freddie Martin lead the Rays to a 4-1 series win.



2000 Western Conference Semi-Finals
Bentley Stars vs. Brooklynn Blackhawks

The Blackhawks finally make the playoffs and are taking on perennial playoff contenders in Bentley. Despite outplaying the Hawks from the opening puck drop of the series, Orion Stevenson was almost unbeatable, giving up just 8 goals in 5 games to lead the Blackhawks to the upset. With another disappointing finish in Bentley, fans are already questions whether Chuck Butera is the right man to be behind the bench.



The 2000 Western Conference Finals will feature the Prime Minister’s Trophy winners in Dawn Mills taking on the Brooklynn Blackhawks who are going into their second ever playoff series.

2000 YJDHL Playoffs Update:

2000 Western Junior Hockey League Playoffs

Alvin Nystrom leads to the Faye Warriors to first ever WJHL Championship, taking the finals 4-1 against the Bentley Constellations after barely squeezing by the Leaside Lobos in the semi-finals. They will represent the WJHL in the Belleau Cup tournament.



2000 East Coast Junior Hockey League

Joel George and the Eastdale Hurricanes take the ECJHL Championship in a hard fought final against the Drayton Bulldogs, taking it in 6. George definitely bumped up his draft stock for now and will be looking to improve even further  as they head towards to Belleau Cup tournament. Nyles Meyer from the Brady Shamrocks had a disappointing playoff overall, we’ll see if that changes his draft position at all.



Up next:
The 2000 YHL Conference Finals
The CJHL Playoffs
The NMJHL Playoffs

2000 Belleau Cup Tournament

Arjun Riley and the Parkdale Kings go 3-0 in the round robin and get the bye directly to the finals. His stock in the meantime exploded, putting him from out of the Top 10 into a Top 5 position. The Hillside Bucks turned out to be the worst team as expected, going 0-3 and not showing much fight at all.

In the semi-finals, Joel George led the Eastdale Hurricanes over Alvin Nystrom and the Faye Warriors, revenging a loss in the round robin portion of the tournament to reach the finals.

In the winner take all finals, Joel George balled out again, improving his draft stock in the process and scored the opening goal of the finals to lead the Eastdale Hurricanes to a 4-1 win over Parkdale and become the first ever Belleau Cup Champions and the YDJHL Champions.




After the Belleau Cup, the final Top 5 for the draft were revealed:



2000 Pacino Cup Finals
Dawn Mills Devil Rays vs. South Beach Seminoles

One of the most anticipated finals in league history started with a bang as Charlie Woods and Aldan Davis dropped the gloves and threw some absolute bombs on each other as the Statis Arena was shaking. Minutes later, Killian Mann scored the series opener to give the Devil Rays a 1-0 lead. They would take the lead to the third, where Eugene Rogers and Andrew Burns scored two quick goals to take a 2-1 lead. Lorenzo Ross tied it half way through the third but Aidan Davis scored the game winner with 2 minutes to play to give the Seminoles the 1-0 series lead. And then they didn’t look back…

Solomon Rollins made a mere 16 saves in a Game 2 shutout as the Seminoles took a 2-0 series lead, beating Dawn Mills 4-0. The Dawn Mills fans filed out of the arena with under 5 minutes to go, booing their team off the ice, completely devastated that they are on the brink of blowing back to back finals.

In Game 3, the Seminoles had the MDBY Arena shaking as they entered the rink, and rode the crowd wave to another absolute destruction of Dawn Mills. The Rays broke Rollins shutout streak late in the third, but the Seminoles took a 3-0 lead with a 6-1 win.

In Game 4, with the cup in the building, the Devil Rays did everything possible to stay alive and finally broke through, scoring 4 goals in the first 2 periods … but they were still tied 4-4 after 2. The Seminoles took a 6-4 lead early in the third, but Dawn Mills fought back to cut the lead to 1. With 45 seconds left, the Rays pulled Aidan Hall and the extra attacker, Arian Fisher, ended up tipping home the game tying goal to give the Rays life and head to overtime. In the overtime period, Solomon Rollins had an insane pad save on a 2 on 1 just 4 minutes into the period to send the Seminoles the other way. South Beach went in on a 3 on 1 and Leonidis Manning kept and buried one short side high to give South Beach their first Pacino Cup!



South Beach is the first expansion team to win the Pacino Cup, and become the first team since Battlefield in 1994 to win the Cup without winning the Prime Minister’s Trophy. Fun stat, that same year, Dawn Mills won the Prime Minister’s Trophy and failed to win the Pacino Cup.

After the season, the league announced their yearly awards winners:





Up next, the 2002 off-season, entry draft and league news.