The Sherbrooke Cougars of Collège Champlain are a junior

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

team from

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( , ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François River, Saint-François and Magog River, Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territ ...

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

, Canada. They were part of the

Quebec Junior AAA Hockey League The Ligue de Hockey Junior du Québec (LHJQ) or Quebec Junior Hockey League (QJHL) is a Hockey Québec Canadian Junior A ice hockey league and is a member of Hockey Canada and the Canadian Junior Hockey League. The winner of the QJHL playoffs c ...

from 2002 to 2015.

History

The Champlain Cougars were founded in the 1970s, and played in collegiate leagues until 2002, when they joined the QJAAAHL in 2002. The team played its first season as the Lennoxville Cougars, using the W.B. Scott Arena on the

Bishop's University Bishop's University () is a small English-language Liberal arts college, liberal arts university in Lennoxville, a borough of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Canada. The founder of the institution was the Anglican Diocese of Quebec, Anglican Bishop of Quebec ...

campus as their home arena, before moving to Sherbrooke in 2003 to fill in for the departed

Sherbrooke Castors The Sherbrooke Castors or Beavers (in English) was the name of two different junior ice hockey teams in the Quebec Major Junior Hockey League and another team in the Quebec Eastern Provincial Hockey League. Both later franchises played at the Pal ...

who relocated to

Lewiston, Maine Lewiston (; ) is the List of municipalities in Maine, second most populous city in the U.S. state of Maine, with the city's population at 37,121 as of the 2020 United States census. The city lies halfway between Augusta, Maine, Augusta, the sta ...

. In 2012, the Cougars moved out of the

Palais des Sports Palais des Sports (French: Palace of Sports) is a generic name of comprehensive indoors sports venue, mostly in the French-speaking world, including: ; France: *Palais des Sports de Beaulieu, Nantes * Palais des sports Ghani-Yalouz, Besançon * Pal ...

to make way for the

Sherbrooke Phoenix The Sherbrooke Phoenix are a Canadian junior ice hockey team based in Sherbrooke, Quebec, that plays in the Quebec Maritimes Junior Hockey League (QMJHL). The team plays its home games at the Palais des Sports Léopold-Drolet. History The fr ...

. The team now plays in the Thibault GM Complex. In 2002–03, the Cougars won the Napa Cup as LHJAAAQ champions. They defeated the Longueuil Collège Français in the finals. Lennoxville won the

Fred Page Cup The Fred Page Cup was a championship ice hockey trophy, won by a tournament conducted by the Canadian Junior Hockey League. The award was given to the winner of a round-robin and playoff between the Bogart Cup champions of the Central Canada ...

by defeating the CJHL's

Nepean Raiders The Nepean Raiders (French: Raiders de Nepean) are a Junior A ice hockey team based in Ottawa, Ontario. The Raiders compete in the Central Canada Hockey League (CCHL) as a member of the East Division. The team plays its home games at the Nepean S ...

in the final and traveled to Charlottetown for the

Royal Bank Cup Royal may refer to: People * Royal (name), a list of people with either the surname or given name * A member of a royal family or royalty Places United States * Royal, Arkansas, an unincorporated community * Royal, Illinois, a village * Royal, ...

, where they bowed out of the semi-finals to the

Camrose Kodiaks The Camrose Kodiaks are a Canadian Junior "A" ice hockey team in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL). They play in Camrose, Alberta, Canada, with home games in the EnCana Arena, which has a seating capacity for approximately 2300 people. H ...

of the AJHL. In 2008 and 2009, the Cougars returned to the Fred Page Cup, but did not make the finals. In 2014, the Cougars played a close series with the

Granby Inouk Les Inouk de Granby are a Canadians, Canadian Junior ice hockey, Junior ice hockey team from Granby, Quebec, Granby, Quebec, Canada. They are a part of the Quebec Junior Hockey League. History The Frontaliers were Quebec champions in 1998 and 200 ...

, who lost the series in 7 games. Sherbrooke came close again, against the Longueuil Collège Français in the 2015 Napa Cup finals losing in 7 games, despite leading the series 2-0 and 3–2. In 2015 the hockey team made a request to return to the re-established collegiate league for the 2016–2017 season. Following acceptance, the Sherbrooke Cougars were expelled by the QJAAAHL, so they would not be able to participate in the draft or play in the 2015–2016 season. The Sherbrooke Cougars were one of the most-dominant teams in the QJAAAHL. The Director of Athletics at Champlain College Lennoxville then made a special request to rejoin the collegiate league for the 2015–2016 season (not the required two-year wait), and it was accepted. The Champlain Cougars will play all home games at the new arena in the recently renovated John H. Price Sports Complex on campus.

Season-by-season record

''Note: GP = Games Played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime Losses, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against''

External links

Cougars Webpage
Ligue de Hockey Junior AAA Quebec teams

Cougars The cougar (''Puma concolor'') (, '' KOO-gər''), also called puma, mountain lion, catamount and panther is a large small cat native to the Americas. It inhabits North, Central and South America, making it the most widely distributed wild ...

Defunct ice hockey teams in Quebec Ice hockey clubs established in the 1970s Ice hockey clubs disestablished in 2015 1970s establishments in Quebec 2015 disestablishments in Quebec {{Canada-icehockey-team-stub