The Vikings survived from 1981 through to 1997, and were renamed the Ice in the summer of 1997. Their stretch in the league started off promising. They won the league in their second year and 6 of their first 9 seasons had above .500 records. In the 1982–83 season, the Vikings, as NOJHL Champions, took on the Ontario Provincial Junior A Hockey League Champions, the North York Rangers, for the Ontario Hockey Association championship and the right to play the Thunder Bay Flyers for the Dudley Hewitt Cup. Elliot Lake lost the series 3-games-to-2. When the team was at its peak in the 1980s, fans either packed Centennial Arena or listened to Bobby Alexander calling the game on CKNR radio.