The Quad City Storm is a professional

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nor ...

hockey team to begin play in the 2018–19 season as a member of the

Southern Professional Hockey League The Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) is a professional ice hockey independent minor league based in Huntersville, North Carolina, with teams located primarily in the southeastern United States as well as Illinois and Indiana in the mid ...

. The team is based in the

Quad Cities The Quad Cities is a region of cities (originally four, see History) in the U.S. states of Iowa and Illinois: Davenport and Bettendorf in southeastern Iowa, and Rock Island, Moline and East Moline in northwestern Illinois. These cities are t ...

area of

Illinois Illinois ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern United States. Its largest metropolitan areas include the Chicago metropolitan area, and the Metro East section, of Greater St. Louis. Other smaller metropolita ...

and

Iowa Iowa () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States, bordered by the Mississippi River to the east and the Missouri River and Big Sioux River to the west. It is bordered by six states: Wisconsin to the northeast, Illinois to the ...

, with home games at the

Vibrant Arena at The MARK The Vibrant Arena at The MARK, formerly known as The MARK of the Quad Cities, the iWireless Center, and the TaxSlayer Center is a 12,000-seat multi-purpose arena located in Moline, Illinois. The facility opened in May 1993, under the name The MA ...

Moline, Illinois Moline ( ) is a city located in Rock Island County, Illinois, United States. With a population of 42,985 in 2020, it is the largest city in Rock Island County. Moline is one of the Quad Cities, along with neighboring East Moline, Illinois, East M ...

. The team replaced the

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 E ...

Quad City Mallards The Quad City Mallards were a minor league professional ice hockey team based in the Quad Cities area of Illinois and Iowa that competed in the International Hockey League, Central Hockey League and ECHL. They were named after the Mallards team ...

after the ownership ceased operations of the team in 2018. Due to the effects of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, the Storm was one of several SPHL teams to not participate in the 2020–21 season.

History

In 2018, the

' owner Jordan Melville stated he was folding the team after losing about US$4 million since he became the sole owner in 2013. On May 24, 2018, local ownership consisting of Ryan Mosley and John Dawson obtained a franchise in the

to replace the Mallards at the TaxSlayer Center for the 2018–19 season by purchasing the franchise rights of the defunct Louisiana IceGators. Former original Mallards' owner Howard Cornfield was brought on as a consultant. The team hired longtime SPHL player Dave Pszenyczny as their inaugural head coach. As the Mallards name was unavailable due to the ECHL retaining the trademark, the new team held a name-the-team contest with new name announced as the Quad City Storm on June 21.

Records

2018–19

The Storm finished their inaugural season in ninth place out of ten teams, missing the 2019 President's Cup playoffs. The team had a final record of 18–33–5, scoring an average of 2.55 goals per game and allowing an average of 3.45 goals against per game.

2019–20

The sophomore season for the Storm, the team fared slightly better with a final record of 16–20–8. The team was in seventh place out of the ten teams due to

points percentage Point or points may refer to: Places * Point, Lewis, a peninsula in the Outer Hebrides, Scotland * Point, Texas, a city in Rains County, Texas, United States * Point, the NE tip and a ferry terminal of Lismore, Inner Hebrides, Scotland * Point ...

, but was tied for last in the league in total points, before the

curtailed the 2019–20 season on March 15, 2020.

References

External links

Official Storm website
{{Illinois Sports Professional ice hockey teams in Illinois Southern Professional Hockey League teams Ice hockey clubs established in 2018 2018 establishments in Illinois Moline, Illinois