Some early NOJHL story lines
Seven of the 11 teams in the Northern Ontario Jr. Hockey League are at or above the .500 mark through the opening few weeks of the ’26-27 regular season. Meanwhile, for the first time since September of 2023, the Elliot Lake Vikings played a game at their newly repaired and refurbished home arena.
Parity. Heading into play this week, the Soo Thunderbirds are perched atop the standings with a record of 6-1-0. Up next — and with games in hand on the Thunderbirds — are the Timmins Rock at 4-0-1, the Kirkland Lake Goldminers at 3-1-1, the Powassan Voodoos at 3-0-0 , the Soo Eagles at 3-1-0, the Blind River Beavers at 3-3-0 and the Hearst Lumberjacks at 3-3-0. Rounding out the 11 member loop are the Elliot Lake Vikings at 1-2-1, the Iroquois Falls Storm at 1-3-1, the Espanola Paper Kings at 1-4-0 and the French River Rapids at 0-6-0.
Home Sweet Home. A crowd of about 430 fans were on hand as the NOJHL returned to Elliot Lake on September 25 following a three year shutdown due to structural issues at Rogers Centennial Arena. And the Vikings overcame 2-0 and 3-2 deficits to edge Espanola by a 4-3 score. Landen Lake-Rego scored the game winner and Jacob Kirstein made 41 saves for the Vikings.
Net Worth. The pace-setting Thunderbirds of the Soo have been getting superb goalie work from local lads Cam Boville and Nathan Maguire. Boville has a record of 3-1-0 with a 1.51 goals against average and .953 save percentage while Maguire has 3-0-0, 1.67 and .934 numbers.
