The Fort McMurray Oil Barons are a Junior A ice hockey team in the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL). They play in Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada at the Centerfire Place. The Oil Barons have won three AJHL playoff championships, three regular season titles, and one National Junior A Championship. History The team first played in the 1981–82 season as an expansion franchise the Alberta Junior Hockey League (AJHL) and is one of the more successful teams in the league having won three league titles and has appeared in the league finals 12 times. In 2000, the Oil Barons hosted the Royal Bank Cup and won the National Junior A Championship. In November 2010, the Oil Barons hosted the Northern Classic against the Drayton Valley Thunder as the first known outdoor game in AJHL history and set the league's attendance record. In August 2011, the Oil Barons traveled to Omsk, Russia, to play in the Junior Club World Cup tournament hosted by teams of their top tier Junior Hockey League (MHL). On August 26, the Oil Barons defeated Mytishchi Atlantes 4–2 in an exhibition game. On August 27, the Oil Barons played 2011 Russian Champion Red Army in another exhibition game, losing 7–0. The tournament ran from August 30 until September 4. On August 30, Fort McMurray played Belarus's Dinamo-Shinnik and lost 3–0, on August 31 Sweden's Malmö Redhawks and lost 3–2, and September 2 they lost to the Czech Republic's Energie Karlovy Vary 4–1; for a 0–3 record and finishing last in their division. These teams are all top tier European clubs, while Fort McMurray are members of the Canadian Junior Hockey League, the second highest level of Canadian junior hockey behind the major junior Canadian Hockey League. In the summer of 2014, after one of the best regular seasons in franchise history, the Oil Barons released head coach and general manager Gord Thibodeau. After a lengthy search, the Barons hired former Ottawa Senators' assistant coach Curtis Hunt to replace him. Hunt added former Senators goalie Mike Brodeur to the staff as the team's new goaltending and video coach. In 2015, the Oil Barons hosted the third Western Canada Cup, earning an automatic berth in the tournament against the champions of British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba, with two spots open to qualify for the Royal Bank Cup Junior A national championship tournament. They were eliminated in the semifinal game