The Toronto Jr. Aeros are a women's

junior ice hockey Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's national junior ice hockey team are the defending champions from ...

team based in

Toronto, Ontario Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...

, Canada. They are members of the

Ontario Women's Hockey League The Ontario Women's Hockey League U22 Elite (OWHL), formerly the Provincial Women's Hockey League, is a women's junior ice hockey league in Ontario, Canada. Founded in 2004, it is considered to be the highest level of amateur women's ice hockey ...

(OWHL). The Aeros are six-time OWHL regular season champions, seven-time OWHL playoff champions, and five-time Ontario Intermediate AA champions. On three occasions (2005, 2006, 2018) they won all three titles in one season.

Tradition

The Senior

Toronto Aeros The Toronto Aeros, often called Beatrice Aeros after their primary sponsor, the North York Aeros, and the Mississauga Aeros were a semi-professional women's ice hockey team that played in Toronto and Mississauga, Ontario. The team played its home ...

were founded in 1974 and existed until the folding of the

National Women's Hockey League The Premier Hockey Federation (PHF) was a women's professional ice hockey league in the United States and Canada that operated from March 2015 until June 2023. The league was established in 2015 as the National Women's Hockey League (NWHL), com ...

in 2007 (which it joined in 1999). The Aeros program raised up both of the two only Canadian female players in the

Hockey Hall of Fame The Hockey Hall of Fame () is a museum and hall of fame located in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Dedicated to the history of ice hockey, it holds exhibits about players, teams, National Hockey League (NHL) records, memorabilia and National Hockey Le ...

Angela James Angela James (born December 22, 1964) is a Canadian former 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 markin ...

and

Geraldine Heaney Geraldine Heaney (born October 1, 1967) is an Irish-Canadian ice hockey coach and former defenceman. She played 18 seasons and over 1,000 games with the Toronto Aeros organization, won six Ontario provincial championships and was named Ontari ...

. The Toronto Jr. Aeros were founded in 1991 and entered the

Provincial Women's Hockey League The Ontario Women's Hockey League U22 Elite (OWHL), formerly the Provincial Women's Hockey League, is a women's junior ice hockey league in Ontario, Canada. Founded in 2004, it is considered to be the highest level of amateur women's ice hockey ...

at its inception in 2004. The Midget Aeros, affiliated with the Junior Aeros, were founded in 2001. Currently, the Aeros only operate a Midget and Junior team.

History

The Junior Aeros entered the

during its first season, 2004–05, and won its regular-season championship as well as the Alumni Cup as the league's playoff champion. The Jr. Aeros also won the OWHA Intermediate AA Championship tournament to complete the triple crown. The 2005–06 season saw the Aeros double the feat, if not better it, by finishing the regular season with an undefeated (27–0–3) record. The Aeros also did not lose a game during the league playoffs. Future

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

Olympian

Haley Irwin Haley Lyn Irwin (born June 6, 1988) is a Canadian ice hockey player. She was a member of the 2009–10 Hockey Canada national women's team and played for the Calgary Inferno and Montreal Stars of the Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL) and pla ...

was a star on the team those first two seasons. Irwin was named team most valuable player each of those seasons before being picked up by the

NCAA The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates College athletics in the United States, student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, and Simon Fraser University, 1 in Canada. ...

Division I

Minnesota–Duluth Bulldogs The Minnesota Duluth Bulldogs are the athletic teams that represent the University of Minnesota Duluth. They were first named Bulldogs in 1933. Their colors are maroon and gold. The school competes in the NCAA's Division II and the Northern Sun ...

Courtney Birchard Courtney Birchard-Kessel (; born July 14, 1989) is a Canadian ice hockey coach and former player, currently serving as the head coach of the Princeton Tigers women's ice hockey team. During her playing career, she was a member of the Canadian n ...

was a member of the Jr. Aeros lineup during the first two seasons before jumping to the

New Hampshire Wildcats The New Hampshire Wildcats, or 'Cats, are the College athletics in the United States, American intercollegiate athletic teams representing the University of New Hampshire (UNH), located in Durham, New Hampshire, Durham. The Bobcat, wildcat is the ...

ECAC Hockey ECAC Hockey is one of the six conferences that compete in NCAA Division I college ice hockey, ice hockey. The conference used to be affiliated with the Eastern College Athletic Conference, a consortium of over 300 colleges in the eastern United ...

. Also,

Christina Kessler Christina Kessler (born May 28, 1988) has competed for the Canadian National women's ice hockey team. Her debut with Team Canada was at the 2010 Four Nations Cup where she was part of the gold medal-winning squadron. She played for the ...

starred in net for the Aeros during the 2005–06 season before jumping to the

Harvard Crimson The Harvard Crimson is the nickname of the college sports teams of Harvard College. The school's teams compete in NCAA Division I. As of 2013, there were 42 Division I intercollegiate Varsity team, varsity sports teams for women and men at Harva ...

hockey team. During Kessler's season with the team, she and Jamie Miller combined for the lowest goals-against average in the PWHL. Goalie Jamie Miller either led or co-led the PWHL in each of the league's first three seasons. Miller spent a season with the Division I Quinnipiac Bobcats and is now a member of the

Canadian Women's Hockey League The Canadian Women's Hockey League (CWHL; ) was a women's ice hockey league. Established in 2007 as a Canadian women's Senior ice hockey, senior league in the Greater Toronto Area, Montreal, and Ottawa, the league expanded into Alberta (2011) and ...

's Brampton Hockey Team. During the 2006–07 season, the Jr. Aeros won their third straight regular season championship and their third straight league playoff championship, but were upset in the preliminary round of the OWHA Provincials by the Aurora Jr. Panthers to deny them their third straight triple crown.

Season-by-season results

Professional and National Team alumni

* Celine Frappier *

* Jamie Miller *

Jillian Saulnier Jillian Pauline Saulnier (born March 7, 1992) is a Canadian ice hockey forward (ice hockey), forward for the Boston Fleet of the Professional Women's Hockey League (PWHL). She is a two-time Olympian for Canada, winning a gold medal in 2022 and a ...

* Sonja van der Bliek

References

External links

Jr. Aeros WebsitePWHL Website
{{Toronto Sports Ontario Women's Hockey League teams

Aeros Aeros is a Ukrainian aircraft manufacturer founded by a group of ex-Antonov engineers in the early 1990s to build hang gliders. It is located in Kyiv.Bertrand, Noel; Rene Coulon; et al: ''World Directory of Leisure Aviation 2003-04'', page 41. Pag ...

Ice hockey clubs established in 1991 1991 establishments in Ontario Women's ice hockey teams in Toronto 1991 in Toronto