The North Eastern Hockey League was a semi-professional ice hockey league from 2003 until 2008. It was created by entrepreneur Jim Cashman, who served as league president. The NEHL was built to focus on giving players that were not quite ready for the ECHL, United Hockey League, and the Central Hockey League a place to play and develop after their Junior and college careers had finished. In the 2003-04 season, nine total players moved up to the "AA" level and remained there and six of those players came from the

York IceCats York is a cathedral city with Roman Britain, Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers River Ouse, Yorkshire, Ouse and River Foss, Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many hist ...

alone.

History

The League started with four franchises, the

out of York, Pennsylvania,

Jamestown Titans The Jamestown Titans were a semi-professional ice hockey team in North Eastern Hockey League (NEHL) based in Jamestown, New York. A postmortem on the team and the league written by ''The Post-Journal'' noted that the team was not particularly we ...

out of Jamestown,

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

, Mohawk Valley Comets out of Whitestown,

and the

Poughkeepsie Panthers The Connecticut Cougars were a semi-professional ice hockey team in North Eastern Hockey League (NEHL). The team was originally the Poughkeepsie Panthers and was based in Poughkeepsie, New York Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Poug ...

out of Poughkeepsie, New York. After very low attendance in the first few games in Poughkeepsie, the team was to be relocated to Connecticut and renamed the

Connecticut Cougars The Connecticut Cougars were a semi-professional ice hockey team in North Eastern Hockey League (NEHL). The team was originally the Poughkeepsie Panthers and was based in Poughkeepsie, New York Poughkeepsie ( ), officially the City of Pough ...

but negotiations with an arena broke down and the Cougars finished as a road team for the remainder of the season. When concerns of Comets players not being available for the final month of the season due to their summer jobs starting, Coach Brett Boake requested a schedule change and the season was shortened a month. The Comets decided two days before the playoff weekend that they were not going to participate as not enough players were available and they had financial concerns. With the Comets as the league regular season leaders, they were to get a bye straight to the finals, which was to be played on Sunday. York and Jamestown (the second and third place teams) were to play on the Saturday to see who went on to face the Comets. Once the Comets had informed the league that they would not be playing, the league changed the playoff structure. York and Jamestown would play a two-game series that weekend. If there were a tie after the two games they would play a mini-game lasting twenty minutes. York won the opening game, 8-5. Jamestown defeated York 9-1 in the second game and then won a 20-minute tiebreaker game 6-1. As league champions, the Titans received the Herb Brooks Memorial Trophy. The league went dark for the 2004-05 season, then attempted to return in 2005-06 as the

Continental Professional Hockey League The North Eastern Hockey League was a semi-professional ice hockey league from 2003 until 2008. It was created by entrepreneur Jim Cashman, who served as league president. The NEHL was built to focus on giving players that were not quite ready ...

with teams in Canada and the United States. The regular 44-game season was supposed to start in early November 2005, was postponed, saw six games played, and was cancelled in mid-December 2005. In the 2006-2007 season, The New England Stars finished first with a record of 20-0, and cruised in the Championship series beating the Mohawk Valley Icecats 2 games to 0 (8-5 and 9-2) to capture the 2006-2007 NEHL Crown. The league announced on January 23, 2008 that it was suspending operations for the remainder of the 2007-08 season.

Teams

;2003–2004 *

* Mohawk Valley Comets (resurrected as the Copper City Chiefs 2007-08) *

(later known as the

) *

(relocated to St. Catharines, ON for 05-06) ;2005–2006 ''(teams only played six games until the league suspended operations for a season)'' *

Philadelphia Comets Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Since ...

(travel team) * Pittsburgh Pounders (became Danville Pounders for 06-07) * St. Catharines IceCats *

Sault Ste. Marie Stampede Sault may refer to: Places in Europe * Sault, Vaucluse, France * Saint-Benoît-du-Sault, France * Canton of Sault, France * Canton of Saint-Benoît-du-Sault, France * Sault-Brénaz, France * Sault-de-Navailles, France * Sault-lès-Rethel, Franc ...

;2006–2007 * Danville Pounders (relocated to Detroit/Brighton, Michigan for 2007–2008) *

Findlay Freedom The Findlay Freedom was a semi-professional ice hockey team. The team was a member of the now defunct NEHL team based in Findlay, Ohio. They played their home games at the Clauss Ice Arena on the campus of University of Findlay. The Freedom finis ...

: ''( Findlay, Ohio)'' * Mohawk Valley IceCats (relocated to Simcoe, ON for 2007–2008) * New England Stars ;2007–08 * Copper City Chiefs: ''( Rome, New York)'' *

: ''( Findlay, Ohio)'' *

Kensington Valley Pounders The Kensington Valley Pounders was a semi-professional ice hockey team in the North Eastern Hockey League. The team was based in Brighton, Michigan in the greater Detroit metropolitan area, and was temporarily known as the Detroit Pounders befor ...

: ''( Brighton, Michigan)'' * Norfolk IceCats: ''( Simcoe, Ontario)''

Previous NEHL

A previous league was also known as the

Northeastern Hockey League The points of the compass are a set of horizontal, radially arrayed compass directions (or azimuths) used in navigation and cartography. A compass rose is primarily composed of four cardinal directions—north, east, south, and west—each se ...

during the 1978-79 season. This league renamed itself the Eastern Hockey League for the 1979-80 season.

References

External links

NEHL website
{{NAProHockey Sports leagues established in 2003 Defunct ice hockey leagues in the United States Minor league ice hockey 2003 establishments in Canada 2003 establishments in the United States 2008 disestablishments in Canada 2008 disestablishments in the United States Defunct ice hockey leagues in Canada