Buchans Miners

The Buchans Miners hockey team developed from local senior hockey in Buchans, Newfoundland, after the Buchans Mining Company converted an ore storage shed into a hockey rink in 1929. The rink used natural ice and was narrow by standard rink dimensions, and in its early years the building returned to ore-storage use after each hockey season. By the mid-1930s, renovations added boards, spectator stands, dressing-room space, benches, lighting, and other rink features.

The Miners were competing in Newfoundland senior hockey playoffs by the 1930s and became regular Herder Memorial Trophy contenders. The Herder Memorial Trophy was Newfoundland’s senior hockey championship trophy and served as the province’s leading measure of senior amateur hockey success. Buchans reached the Herder final in 1937 and appeared in the provincial championship series repeatedly, including nine consecutive seasons from 1948 through 1956. The team was the first in Newfoundland senior hockey to bring in import players from mainland Canada, beginning with players from Kirkland Lake, Ontario, in 1948, though residence rules initially affected their playoff eligibility.

Buchans won the Herder Memorial Trophy in 1950, 1951, 1952, 1954, and 1963. The Miners also finished as runners-up in several other Herder competitions, including 1948, 1953, 1955, 1956, 1964, 1968, and 1969. The team played in the old natural-ice rink until 1961, when Buchans received an artificial ice surface. After ASARCO ended its support following the 1968–69 season, the Miners withdrew from the Newfoundland Senior Hockey League and later returned for one season in 1977–78 before disbanding.