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1997–98 WCHL Season
The 1997-98 West Coast Hockey League season was the third season of the West Coast Hockey League, a North American minor professional league. Nine teams participated in the regular season, and the San Diego Gulls were the league champions. In addition to league play, WCHL teams played regular season games against the Russian Superleague team CKA-Amur (now Amur Khabarovsk). Four new teams joined the WCHL as of the 1997–98 season, nearly doubling the league's size: the Tacoma Sabercats, Idaho Steelheads, Phoenix Mustangs and Tucson Gila Monsters. From this expansion, as of 2014 only the Idaho Steelheads remain operational as an ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ... team. Regular season Taylor Cup-Playoffs External links Season 1997/98on hockeydb.com {{DEFA ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
West Coast Hockey League
The West Coast Hockey League was a professional minor ice hockey league active in the western United States from 1995 to 2003. The number of teams ranged from six to nine. The teams were located in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada and Washington. The surviving teams of the West Coast Hockey League are part of the ECHL. History Beginnings The WCHL was a successor organization of the semi-professional Pacific Hockey League. Three former PHL teams, the Alaska Gold Kings (Fairbanks, Alaska), Anchorage Aces (Anchorage, Alaska), and Fresno Falcons (Fresno, California) were joined by the Bakersfield Fog (Bakersfield, California), Reno Renegades (Reno, Nevada) and San Diego Gulls (San Diego, California) to become the founding member teams of the WCHL. The league retained these teams in a single division for its first two seasons, and played regular season games against a "Red Army" team from Russia (CKA-Amur, now Amur Khabarovsk) for the 1995–96 and 1996–97 s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Russian Superleague
The Russian Superleague (russian: Чемпионат России Суперлига, ''Russian Championship Superleague''), commonly abbreviated as RSL, was the highest division of the main professional ice hockey league in Russia. It was considered the second best league in the world, after the National Hockey League (NHL) of North America. It was a part of the Russian Pro Hockey League which was composed of three divisions — the Superleague, Major League (''Vysshaya Liga''), and First League (''Pervaya Liga''). The league was rebranded after the 2007/2008 season as the KHL. The KHL absorbed all 20 teams from the previous RSL season, for a total of 24 for its inaugural campaign. History The origins of the Superleague are in the old Soviet League, which was founded in 1946. The Soviet era was dominated by the Red Army-affiliated CSKA Moscow, who won 32 of the 46 championships. The league lasted until 1992 due to the Soviet Union's collapse. After its transformation into th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Amur Khabarovsk
Hockey Club Amur (russian: Хоккейный клуб Амур), commonly referred to as the Amur Khabarovsk, is a Russian professional ice hockey team based in Khabarovsk. They are members of the Chernyshev Division of the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL). Located in the Russian Far East, the team takes its name from the Amur River, and plays its home games at the Platinum Arena. History Amur Khabarovsk was founded in 1966 as SKA Khabarovsk; it only adopted its current name in 1996, a name that comes from the nearby river Amur. By its location in the Russian Far East, the team is pretty isolated from every other team in the KHL, making rivalries difficult; the nearest KHL team is Admiral Vladivostok. For a long time a lower division dweller, Khabarovsk won the championship of the Soviet League Division 3 in 1989, earning promotion to the upper level. The team played regular season games known as the "Red Army" against West Coast Hockey League teams for the 1995–96 and 1996–9 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tacoma Sabercats
The Tacoma Sabercats were an American professional minor league ice hockey team based in Tacoma, Washington. The team began play in the West Coast Hockey League as of the 1997–98 season. Tacoma immediately emerged as a power in the WCHL, winning the regular season Northern Division title and reaching the league finals in its first season. However the Sabercats were defeated by the defending champion San Diego Gulls in the league's Taylor Cup finals. The following season, 1998–99, Tacoma won its second WCHL Northern Division title and defeated the Gulls in the Taylor Cup finals, becoming the first team other than San Diego to win the WCHL title in the league's history. Although the Sabercats won the WCHL Northern Division a third time in 1999–2000, the team failed to win another league championship. Despite a strong following in the Tacoma area with over 1,500 season ticket holders, the Sabercats were folded in May 2002 by owner Coach-Sports. They had been eliminated by the I ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Idaho Steelheads
The Idaho Steelheads are an American professional minor league ice hockey team based in Boise, Idaho, and a member of the ECHL. The Steelheads play in the Mountain Division of the ECHL's Western Conference since the 2016–17 season. In 1996, the Steelheads were announced as a 1997–98 expansion team by Diamond Sports Management, headed by Cord Pereira, as a member of the West Coast Hockey League (WCHL). The Steelheads and the rest of the WCHL joined the ECHL in 2003. As of 2021, the Steelheads are the westernmost ECHL team. During the 2003–04 season and since the 2005–06 season the Steelheads have been an affiliate of the National Hockey League's Dallas Stars. The Austin-based Texas Stars have been the Dallas Stars AHL affiliate since the 2009–10 season. Home games are played at the 5,002-seat Idaho Central Arena in downtown Boise. The Steelheads are named for a species of seagoing rainbow trout native to Idaho streams and rivers and popular with local anglers. Despite t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Phoenix Mustangs
The Phoenix Mustangs were a professional minor league ice hockey team in the West Coast Hockey League (WCHL). The Mustangs played at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum on the grounds of the Arizona State Fair, from the 1997–98 season through the 2000–01 season. The Mustangs came into existence after the demise of the International Hockey League's Phoenix Roadrunners who lost funding from a local Indian community and ceased operations after the 1996–97 season. Their arrival rekindled a decades long rivalry between Phoenix and San Diego based teams in several minor leagues. The Mustangs were quite successful on the ice their first three seasons, including winning the WCHL's Taylor Cup Championship in 2000 with a four-game sweep of the Tacoma Sabercats The Tacoma Sabercats were an American professional minor league ice hockey team based in Tacoma, Washington. The team began play in the West Coast Hockey League as of the 1997–98 season. Tacoma immediately emerged as a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tucson Gila Monsters
The Tucson Gila Monsters were a short-lived American professional minor league ice hockey team based in Tucson, Arizona. The team played throughout the 1997–98 season, but folded after 21 games during the 1998–99 season. The Gila Monsters, named after the gila monster native to the southwestern United States, were a member team of the West Coast Hockey League The West Coast Hockey League was a professional minor ice hockey league active in the western United States from 1995 to 2003. The number of teams ranged from six to nine. The teams were located in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nev .... Season-by-season record ''Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, OTL = Overtime losses, SOL = Shootout losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes'' Final records.Hockeydb.comTucson Gila Monsters Statistics and History/ref> References {{reflist Ice hockey teams in Arizona Sports in Tucson, Arizona Ice hockey club ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
ECHL
The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams scattered across the United States and Canada. It is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ECHL and the AHL are the only minor leagues recognized by the collective bargaining agreement between the National Hockey League (NHL) and the National Hockey League Players' Association, meaning any player signed to an entry-level NHL contract and designated for assignment must report to a club in either the ECHL or the AHL. Additionally, the league's players are represented by the Professional Hockey Players' Association in negotiations with the ECHL itself. Some 662 players have played at least one game in the NHL after appearing in the ECHL. For the 2022–23 season, 28 of the 32 NHL teams have affiliations with an ECHL team with only the Nashville Predators, St. Louis Blues, Vancouver Canucks, and Winnipeg Jets having no official ECHL ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Alaska Aces (ECHL)
The Alaska Aces, known as the Anchorage Aces until 2003, was a professional ice hockey team in Anchorage, Alaska. Home games were played at Sullivan Arena in Anchorage. The Aces won three Kelly Cup championships, with their last championship following the 2013–14 ECHL season. The Aces were formed as a semi-professional team in the Pacific Southwest Hockey League (PSHL) in 1989 and became a charter member of the professional West Coast Hockey League (WCHL) in 1995. When the WCHL was absorbed by the East Coast Hockey League in 2003, the team joined the merged ECHL. The Aces official team mascot was a polar bear named Boomer. Aces fans were known for using small, ceremonial cow bells painted with the Aces insignia to show their support during games. In 2017, the ownership group announced that the 2016–17 season would be the team's last, after which the franchise would cease operations. The owners cited the struggling Alaskan economy, and sagging ticket sales among the reaso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Reno Renegades
The Reno Renegades were a short-lived American professional minor league ice hockey team based in Reno, Nevada. The team was a founding member of the West Coast Hockey League (WCHL). History The Renegades began play in the 1995–96 season in the WCHL. Although the Renegades never moved past the first round of the WCHL playoffs, the team achieved notoriety in 1996 by signing female goaltender Manon Rhéaume, who earlier in the decade played in preseason games for the NHL's Tampa Bay Lightning. Rhéaume appeared in 11 regular season games for the Renegades during the 1996–97 season. In 1997, the team was renamed the Reno Rage, but folded after the 1997–98 season. Possible return as an ECHL team In 2000, the rights to the defunct Renegades/Rage organization were purchased by businessman Larry Leasure of Boise, Idaho. When the WCHL was absorbed by the ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a mid-level professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
San Diego Gulls (1995–2006)
The San Diego Gulls were a professional ice hockey team in the West Coast Hockey League (WCHL) and later in the ECHL. The team, the third to use the ''Gulls'' nickname, was founded in 1995 immediately upon the departure of the IHL team of the same name. The Gulls played at the San Diego Sports Arena. History The Gulls were the dominant team throughout the WCHL's eight-year existence, winning the regular season championship five times. The Gulls never finished worse than second overall in WCHL league play, attaining the 100-point mark five times. The Gulls also won five of the league's Taylor Cup championships. No other WCHL team won the Taylor Cup more than once. In 2003, the WCHL was absorbed by the ECHL, formerly known as the East Coast Hockey League. In 2004, the Gulls became the ECHL affiliate of the Colorado Avalanche. The Gulls won the ECHL regular season title in 2003–04 but missed the playoffs for the first and only time in their history the following year. In stark ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fresno Falcons
The Fresno Falcons were a minor league hockey team. They were charter members of several long standing leagues in the western United States including the Pacific Southwest Hockey League and the West Coast Hockey League. In their final years, they were members of the ECHL (formerly East Coast Hockey League). They were located in Fresno, California. Early history The Fresno Hockey Club, originally known as the Flyers, was founded in 1946 as a charter member of the Pacific Coast Hockey League, where they played until the league folded in 1950. The all time goal leader is Adrian Marin with 40 goals in a season The team picked up in 1952 for a season in the Pacific Coast Senior League. Following just one season, hockey was dormant in Fresno until 1968, when the Fresno Aces were introduced for a season in the short-lived Cal-Neva Hockey League. Cal-Neva was a loosely linked group of professional and semi-pro teams from around the West Coast. The league lacked structure, and played g ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
