By the 1998–99 season, the RMJHL had fallen to four teams and was playing a lot of interleague with the America West Hockey League.

The Creston Thunder could not afford the travel and opted to leave the RMJHL, effectively forcing the league to fold, at the end of the 1999 playoffs.

Prior to the 2000–01 season, the team was renamed the Creston Valley Thunder Cats and joined the Kootenay International Junior Hockey League.

The Creston Valley Thunder Cats hired newcomer coach Josh Hepditch upon his retirement of semi-pro hockey.

Although the Thunder Cats played a high tempo competitive brand of hockey during the 2012–2013 season, the team fell short of making the playoffs.

In game seven, the Thunder Cats made up a three-goal deficit in the third period and take the lead with less than 2 minutes in the third in front of a sell out crowd at the Johnny Bucyk Arena.

However, the Thunder Cats only won the first game of the Conference finals to lose to the eventual KIJHL Champions Beaver Valley Night Hawks.