2016-17 AJIHL season

The 2016–17 AJIHL season is the fifth season of the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League. It will run from 17 December 2016 until a yet to be determined date in 2017, with the formal structure of the league having been changed to incorporate 3 additional teams, each from a different state or territory. The AJIHL is the highest Australian national junior ice hockey competition.
==League business==
Ice Hockey Australia made the announcement that the Australian Junior Ice Hockey League would be expanding in the 2016-17 season. It planned to include teams from Queensland, South Australia and Australian Capital Territory into the regular season format after the previous season using a Tier 2 tournament for the 3 new teams. Due to cost of travel after adding 3 additional cities to the league, the season format was changed to a multiple weekend tournament format and the league was divided into 2 conferences. Two other issues faced at the beginning of the season were that there was no ice availability reserved in Melbourne, Victoria to schedule games for the Melbourne Glaciers and Adelaide was again experiencing issues with its main rink cooling system. With the first schedule originally announced and ready for December, the Canberra Junior Brave pulled out of the weekend and it is unknown if they would return later in 2017 in a future weekend tournament. With a shrinking junior talent pool in Melbourne, the Melbourne Whalers suspended operations for the 2016-17 season, leaving only the Melbourne Glaciers to participate. The Perth Pelicans would also suspend operations for the 2016-17 season, leaving the Perth Sharks as the only representation for junior talent in Western Australia.
==Exhibition Games==
Exhibition games were planned for both the Sydney Sabres and the Sydney Wolf Pack to keep the teams active as neither team had any training sessions allocated for them to use. These games did not count as regular season games.
===February===
Game	Date 	Time 	Away 	Score 	Home 	Location 	Attendance	Recap
13 	5 February 2017 	17:00	Sydney Sabres 	2 - 0 	Sydney Wolf Pack	Penrith Ice Palace	- 	
14 	11 February 2017	17:00	Sydney Wolf Pack	4 - 3 (SO)	Sydney Sabres 	Penrith Ice Palace	- 	
15 	12 February 2017	17:00	Sydney Sabres 	1 - 2 	Sydney Wolf Pack	Penrith Ice Palace	- 	
==Regular season==
The regular season began on 15 December 2016 and will run as a weekend style tournament format for 2017.
===December===
Game	Date 	Time 	Away 	Score 	Home 	Location 	Attendance	Recap
1 	15 December 2016	19:15	Sydney Sabres 	5 - 4 	Sydney Wolf Pack	Penrith Ice Palace	- 	
2 	16 December 2016	15:15	Sydney Sabres 	1 - 9 	Brisbane Blitz 	Penrith Ice Palace	- 	
3 	17 December 2016	06:45	Brisbane Blitz 	4 - 1 	Sydney Wolf Pack	Penrith Ice Palace	- 	
4 	17 December 2016	17:00	Brisbane Blitz 	7 - 1 	Sydney Sabres 	Penrith Ice Palace	- 	
5 	18 December 2016	07:30	Sydney Wolf Pack	6 - 5 (SO)	Brisbane Blitz 	Penrith Ice Palace	- 	
6 	18 December 2016	17:00	Sydney Wolf Pack	5 - 2 	Sydney Sabres 	Penrith Ice Palace	- 	
===January===
Game	Date 	Time 	Away 	Score 	Home 	Location 	Attendance	Recap
7 	26 January 2017	15:00	Adelaide Generals 	10 - 2	Melbourne Glaciers	Cockburn Ice Arena	- 	
8 	27 January 2017	11:15	Melbourne Glaciers	6 - 3 	Perth Sharks 	Cockburn Ice Arena	- 	
9 	27 January 2017	18:15	Perth Sharks 	0 - 8 	Adelaide Generals 	Cockburn Ice Arena	- 	
10 	28 January 2017	11:15	Adelaide Generals 	9 - 1 	Melbourne Glaciers	Cockburn Ice Arena	- 	
11 	28 January 2017	14:00	Melbourne Glaciers	1 - 3 	Perth Sharks 	Cockburn Ice Arena	- 	
12 	29 January 2017	07:00	Perth Sharks 	4 - 5 	Adelaide Generals 	Perth Ice Arena 	- 	
===March===
Game	Date 	Time 	Away 	Score	Home 	Location	Attendance	Recap
13 	30 March 2017	17:45	Sydney Sabres 	 	Adelaide Generals 	IceArenA	- 	
14 	30 March 2017	19:30	Perth Sharks 	 	Brisbane Blitz 	IceArenA	- 	
15 	31 March 2017	7:15 	Melbourne Glaciers	 	Sydney Sabres 	IceArenA	- 	
16 	31 March 2017	10:45	Sydney Wolf Pack 	 	Adelaide Generals 	IceArenA	- 	
17 	31 March 2017	12:30	Brisbane Blitz 	 	Melbourne Glaciers	IceArenA	- 	
18 	31 March 2017	14:15	Perth Sharks 	 	Sydney Wolf Pack 	IceArenA	- 	
19 	31 March 2017	17:45	Brisbane Blitz 	 	Adelaide Generals 	IceArenA	- 	
===April===
Game	Date 	Time	Away 	Score	Home 	Location	Attendance	Recap
20 	1 April 2017	6:00	Sydney Sabres 	 	Perth Sharks 	IceArenA	- 	
21 	1 April 2017	7:45	Sydney Wolf Pack	 	Melbourne Glaciers	IceArenA	- 	
==Standings==
Note: GP = Games played; W = Wins; SW = Shootout Wins; SL = Shootout Losses; L = Losses; GF = Goals For; GA = Goals Against; GDF = Goal Differential; PTS = Points
The regular season league standings are as follows:
Team 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
Adelaide Generals 	4	4	0	0	0	32	7 	25 	12
Brisbane Blitz 	4	3	0	1	0	25	9 	16 	10
Sydney Wolf Pack 	4	1	1	0	2	16	16	0 	5
Perth Sharks 	4	1	0	0	3	10	20	-10	3
Melbourne Glaciers	4	1	0	0	3	10	25	-15	3
Sydney Sabres 	4	1	0	0	3	9 	25	-16	3
==References==
==External links==
*Ice Hockey Australia
*AJIHL Coverage - Hewitt Sports
AJIHL
Category:Australian Junior Ice Hockey League