The original Maritime Junior A Hockey League was a Canadian Junior ice hockey league from 1968 until 1971 in the provinces of New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The league competed for the Memorial Cup until 1970 when it was relegated to Tier II Junior A and then competed one year for the Centennial Cup before closing its doors.
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History
Founded in 1968, the MJAHL was meant to be the Atlantic answer to the Ontario Hockey Association and Western Canada Junior Hockey League. In 1970, when Junior A was split into Major Junior A and Tier II Junior A, the MJAHL was found on the Tier II side of things. The league lost interest without Memorial Cup eligibility and folded in 1971, right after the Charlottetown Islanders came within two games of claiming the 1971 Centennial Cup.
The creation of the league spawned competition in 1969 with the creation of the New Brunswick Junior Hockey League. Other leagues filled the gap of the league when it folded: the Island Junior Hockey League (1973–1991) in 1973 and the Metro Valley Junior Hockey League in 1977.
In 1991, the Maritime Junior A Hockey League was created through the merger of the aforementioned NBJHL, IJHL, and MVJHL as the NBJHL and MVJHL merged in 1983 and the IJHL joined the fold in 1991 to reconsolidate Maritime Junior A.
Of the team that played in the Original MJAHL, only the Moncton Beavers still exist under the name Dieppe Commandos in the current MJAHL.