1971–72 WKJHL season
| 1971–72 WKJHL season | |
|---|---|
| League | KIJHL |
| Sport | Ice hockey |
| Duration | September–February |
| Games | 32 |
| Teams | 6 |
| League champions | Trail Smoke Eaters |
| Runners-up | Rossland Warriors |
The 1971-72 West Kootenay Junior Hockey League season was the fifth in league history. The League compensated for the loss of the Castlegar Apollos the previous season by adding the first two expansion franchises in league history, the first was in Cranbrook BC, who began play as the Cranbrook Colts, the other was the first, and to date only, American-based team adding international tastes, in the Spokane Valley Kings playing out of Spokane WA.[1] The Colts and Valley Kings played an incomplete schedule of just 19 games to begin their existence.
Season
Regular season
- Full members
- Nelson Plaza Oilers1
- Trail Smoke Eaters2
- Rossland Warriors3
- Grand Forks Border Bruins4
- Partial members
- Cranbrook Colts5
- Spokane Valley Kings6
The 1971/72 season was the first to have a playoff and not just end at the completion of the regular season
| Team | W | L | T | PTS |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Rossland Warriors | 23 | 9 | 0 | 46 |
| Trail Smoke Eaters | 21 | 11 | 0 | 42 |
| Cranbrook Colts* | 19 | 0 | 0 | 38 |
| Nelson Plaza Oilers | 11 | 21 | 0 | 22 |
| Grand Forks Border Bruins | 9 | 23 | 0 | 18 |
| Spokane Valley Kings* | 0 | 19 | 0 | 0 |
*The Colts and Valley Kings played an incomplete 19-game schedule due to increased travel distances and costs, and were therefore ineligible to make the playoffs
Playoffs
The playoff format remained unchanged from the previous season with all four full members making the playoffs, Spokane and Cranbrook did not compete in the playoffs
| Semi-Finals | Championship | ||||||||
| 1 | Rossland | 3 | |||||||
| 3 | Nelson | 0 | |||||||
| 1 | Rossland | 1 | |||||||
| 2 | Trail | 4 | |||||||
| 2 | Trail | 3 | |||||||
| 4 | Grand Forks | 0 | |||||||
Sources
- ^ "League History". www.kijhl.ca. Retrieved 2025-06-27.
- ^ "Kootenay International Junior Hockey League (Design, Hosting, Registration & Administration tools by esportsdeskpro.com)". www.kijhl.ca. Archived from the original on 2012-05-26. Retrieved 2025-06-27.