Markham Thunder

The Markham Thunder is a professional women's ice hockey team in the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL). From 1998 through 2017, the franchise was known as the Brampton Thunder and Brampton Canadettes-Thunder before relocating from Brampton, Ontario, to Markham, Ontario, for the 2017–18 season.
==Team history==
The city of Brampton had a long history of women's ice hockey, starting with the creation of the Brampton Canadettes in 1963, whose management created the Dominion Ladies Hockey Tournament in 1967 (operating today as the Canadettes Easter Tournament).
In 1998, after local athlete Cassie Campbell returned home from her silver-medal victory with Team Canada in the successful introduction of women's ice hockey at the 1998 Nagano Olympics, she commiserated with Brampton acting mayor Sue Fennell about the lack of a top level women's team in Brampton. Fennell purchased a franchise, which she named the Brampton Thunder, in the Central Ontario Women's Hockey League (COWHL), a league which had operated since 1980. From its first 1998–99 COWHL season, the Thunder played its home games in the Brampton Centre for Sports & Entertainment (renamed the Powerade Centre in 2005), which also started operation in 1998.
On 15 February 1999, during the 1998–99 COWHL season, Fennell was instrumental in turning the COWHL into the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), becoming its first President.
The Brampton Thunder won the first NWHL Championship Cup, in 1998–99. The Thunder would also win the final NWHL Championship Cup, in 2006–07. In between, the Thunder appeared in three other NWHL Championship Cup finals, but were defeated by the Beatrice Aeros in 2002, the Calgary Oval X-Treme in 2004, and the Montreal Axion in 2006. They also played in the Esso Women's Nationals and were victorious in 2006, defeating the Montreal Axion to claim the national title. The Thunder also had the distinction of having their home arena serve as the site of all NWHL Championship Cup games.
The Brampton Thunder was a significant contributor to the roster of the Canadian national women's hockey team at the 2006 Winter Olympics, with three players (Vicky Sunohara, Jayna Hefford, and Gillian Ferrari) contributing to Canada's gold medal win. Brampton Thunder player Kathleen Kauth also participated in the 2006 Winter Olympics, playing for the bronze medal-winning American national women's hockey team. A fifth Brampton Thunder player, goaltender Cindy Eadie, also participated in the Olympics, in 2004, with the Canadian softball team.
In 2007, the NWHL suspended operations. Players from the seven disbanded NWHL teams joined seven corresponding teams in the new Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL). Players from the NWHL Brampton Thunder joined the new CWHL franchise Brampton Canadettes-Thunder (generally called the Brampton Thunder), continuing the legacy of Brampton's women's ice hockey teams, starting with the 1963 Canadettes team and the 1998 Thunders team.
On January 18, 2011, the Thunder competed against the Montreal Stars at the Invista Centre in Kingston, Ontario - team captain Jayna Hefford’s hometown. Her number 15 was raised to the rafters of the Invista Centre on behalf of the Kingston Area Minor Hockey Association. As of 2012, no sweaters bearing Hefford’s number will be used in Kingston Minor Hockey. On November 2, 2011, Jesse Scanzano appeared in one game for the Brampton Thunder, on loan from the Toronto Aeros. The game was an exhibition contest versus her alma mater, the Mercyhurst Lakers. In the second period of said contest, Scanzano scored the game-winning goal as the Thunder defeated the Lakers 3–1.
In the CWHL championship game of the 2012 Clarkson Cup, Brampton fell to the Montreal Stars 4–2. Two Thunder players earned awards for their play in the 2012 Clarkson Cup, with the Outstanding Defender award going to Molly Engstrom, while netminder Liz Knox earned the Outstanding Goaltender award.
At the 3rd CWHL All-Star Game, Jess Jones of the Thunder, along with Jillian Saulnier both scored a hat trick, becoming the first competitors in CWHL All-Star Game history to achieve the feat.
Before the start of the 2017–18 CWHL season, the Brampton Thunder relocated 36km east, to Markham, Ontario. The team plays its home games at the Thornhill Community Centre, in Markham's Thornhill neighbourhood. The renamed Markham Thunder won the 2018 Clarkson Cup as CWHL Playoffs Champions.
===NCAA exhibition===
Date 	NCAA school 	Score 	Goal scorers
Oct. 25, 2011	Cornell Big Red women's ice hockey 	Cornell, 6-0http://cornellbigred.com/documents/2011/10/14/final_stats.pdf	None
Nov. 2, 2011 	Mercyhurst Lakers women's ice hockey	Brampton, 3-1 	Jayna Hefford, Jesse Scanzano, Vicki Bendus
==CWHL Draft Picks==
*The following is a listing of their top draft picks. For full draft information, please see the respective draft pages.
Draft 	Pick	Player 	Former Team
2010 CWHL Draft	5 	Delaney Collins 	Alberta Pandas women's ice hockey
2011 CWHL Draft	4 	Vicki Bendus 	Mercyhurst Lakers women's ice hockey
2011 	6 	Courtney Birchard	New Hampshire Wildcats women's ice hockey
==Season-by-season==
Year 	GP	W 	L 	T/OTL	GF 	GA 	Pts	Finish 	Playoffs
1998–99	40	30	7 	3 	203	76 	63 	2nd, Western	Won NWHL Championship
1999–00	40	29	5 	6 	208	64 	64 	2nd, Western	Lost Western Division Final
2000–01	40	30	7 	3 	223	82 	63 	2nd, Western	Eliminated in first round
2001–02	30	8 	14	8 	223	82 	63 	3rd, Western	Did not qualify
2002–03	36	27	9 	0 	152	71 	54 	2nd, Central	Lost first round
2003–04	36	28	6 	2 	190	72 	58 	2nd, Central	Lost first round
2004–05	36	30	4 	2 	165	70 	63 	1st, Central	Lost first round
2005–06	36	19	12	5 	113	97 	43 	3rd 	Lost in final game
2006–07	16	8 	8 	0 	71 	66 	16 	3rd 	Won NWHL championship
2007–08	30	22	7 	1 	111	59 	45 	1st, Central	Won CWHL championship, 4–3 (OT) vs. Mississauga Chiefs
2008–09	26	19	6 	1 	n/a	n/a	39 	2nd 	Lost first round vs. Mississauga Chiefs
2009–10	29	9 	19	1 	n/a	n/a	27 	4th 	Lost semifinals, 2–3 vs. Montreal Stars
2010–11	26	19	6 	1 	111	69 	39 	2nd 	Lost first round
2011–12	27	18	7 	2 	102	80 	40 	3rd 	Lost 2012 Clarkson Cup, 2–4 vs. Montreal Stars
2012–13	24	10	12	2 	71 	83 	22 	3rd 	Eliminated 2013 Clarkson Cup round-robin
2013–14	24	5 	16	3 	43 	99 	13 	5th 	Did not qualify
2014–15	24	6 	16	2 	46 	98 	14 	5th 	Did not qualify
2015–16	24	16	7 	1 	91 	67 	33 	3rd 	Lost 2016 Clarkson Cup semifinals, 0–2 vs. Calgary Inferno
2016–17	24	13	10	1 	76 	63 	26 	3rd 	Lost 2017 Clarkson Cup semifinals, 0–2 vs. Les Canadiennes de Montreal
2017–18	28	14	7 	7 	80 	68 	35 	4th 	Won 2018 Clarkson Cup championship game, 2–1 (OT) vs. Kunlun Red Star WIH
2018–19	28	13	11	4 	85 	80 	30 	3rd 	Lost 2019 Clarkson Cup semifinals, 1–2 vs. Les Canadiennes
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, Pts = Points.
Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, Pts = Points.
==Season standings==
	= Indicates First Place finish
	= Indicates championship
Year 	League 	Reg. Season 	Playoffs
1998–99 	National Women's Hockey League	2nd, Western Division 	Won the NWHL Championship
1999–2000	National Women's Hockey League	2nd, Western Division 	lost the Western Division Final
2000–01 	National Women's Hockey League	2nd, Western Division 	elimined in first round
2001–02 	National Women's Hockey League	3rd, Western Division 	no participation to playoff
2002–03 	National Women's Hockey League	2nd, Central Division 	lost in first round
2003–04 	National Women's Hockey League	2nd, Central Division 	lost in first round
2004–05 	National Women's Hockey League	First place, Central Division	lost in first round
2005–06 	National Women's Hockey League	3rd (one Division now) 	Finalist, lost in final game
2006–07 	National Women's Hockey League	3rd 	Won the NWHL Championship
2007–08 	Canadian Women's Hockey League	1st Overall Central Division 	Won the CWHL Championship
2008–09 	Canadian Women's Hockey League	2nd, (one division now) 	elimined in first round
2009–10 	Canadian Women's Hockey League	4th 	lost in Second round
2010–11 	Canadian Women's Hockey League	2nd 	lost in first round
2011–12 	Canadian Women's Hockey League	 	
==Team captains==
Year(s) 	Captain
2011–13 	Jayna Hefford
2013–14 	Tara Gray
2014-present	Jocelyne Larocque
==Coaching staff 2016–17==
* General Manager: Lori Dupuis
* Head Coach: Tyler Fines
* Assistant Coach: Kevin Stone
* Goal Coach: Rob Beatty
Reference 
==Scoring leaders==
===Year-by-year===
Season 	Leader (F) 	GP	G 	A 	Pts	Leader (D) 	GP	G	A 	Pts	PPG 	SHG 	GWG
2008–09http://www.hockeymedia.ca/Womens_2009_pdf.pdf	Jayna Hefford 	27	26	32	58 	Molly Engstrom 	28	9	11	20 	Engstrom (7) 	Lori Dupuis (2) 	Hefford (6)
2010–11 	Jayna Hefford 	27	25	23	48 	Molly Engstrom 	28	2	20	22 	Hefford (9) 	Jayna Hefford and Andrea Ironside (1) 	Jayna Hefford and Gillian Apps (4)
2011–12 	Gillian Apps 	27	19	20	39 	Molly Engstrom 	27	4	23	27 	Jayna Hefford (8) 	Cherie Piper (1) 	Apps (4)
2012–13 	Jayna Hefford 	21	15	12	27 	Courtney Birchard	24	0	9 	9 	Gillian Apps (5) 	Three tied with 1 	Apps (3)
2013–14 	Danielle Skirrow 	24	5 	10	15 	Ashley Pendleton 	22	1	9 	10 	Two tied with 2 	None 	Sasha Nanji (2)
2014–15 	Jess Jones 	24	7 	9 	16 	Laura Fortino 	24	5	10	15 	Jones, Carly Mercer (3)	Jones, Fielding Montgomery (1) 	Three tied with 1
2015–16 	Jamie Lee Rattray	22	13	16	29 	Laura Fortino 	24	8	20	28 	Rattray (5) 	Rebecca Vint (2)Fielding Motgomery (2)	Jess Jones (5)
2016–17 	Jess Jones 	24	17	20	37 	Laura Fortino 	20	6	13	19 	 	 	
===All-time leaders===
==Awards and honors==
* Brampton Canadettes Thunder won the first CWHL championship on 22 March 2008, winning 4-3 over the Mississauga Chiefs in the final.
* Lori Dupuis, Top forward in the 2010 Clarkson Cup
* Molly Engstrom, Top defender in the 2010 Clarkson Cup
*Bobbi-Jo Slusar, Player of the Game, 2010 Clarkson Cup Final
*Courtney Birchard, Outstanding Rookie of the Year, 2011
*Laura Fortino, Defensemen of the Year, 2015–2016
*Tyler Fines, Coach of the Year, 2015–2016
*Jess Jones, Co-winner, 2017 Angela James Bowl
*Laura Stacey, Rookie of the Year, 2016–17
==Notable players==
* Gillian Apps
* Delaney Collins
* Lori Dupuis
* Molly Engstrom
* Jayna Hefford
* Cherie Piper
* Dania Simmonds
* Vicky Sunohara
==References==
===See also===
* 2009–10 Brampton Thunder season
* 2007–08 Brampton Thunder season
==External links==
* 
Category:Women's ice hockey teams in Canada
Category:Ice hockey teams in Ontario
Category:Canadian Women's Hockey League teams
Category:Established in 1998