{{Unreferenced, date=September 2012 The International Independent Hockey League (IIHL) was an independent semi-professional

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

league that played for less than one month in the

Great Lakes Region The Great Lakes region of North America is a binational Canadian–American region that includes portions of the eight U.S. states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin along with the Canadian p ...

of the United States in December 2003 and January 2004.

History

Six teams made up the IIHL, but only three teams Lansing, Northern Michigan and Soo City played more than six games. The first IIHL game was played on December 7, 2003 in

Harbor Springs, Michigan Harbor Springs is a city and resort community in Emmet County, Michigan. The population was 1,194 in the 2010 census. Harbor Springs is in a sheltered bay on the north shore of the Little Traverse Bay on Lake Michigan. The Little Traverse Lig ...

, between the Northern Michigan Predators and the Lansing Ice Nuts. The league quickly gained a reputation for fluctuating schedules, folding teams and instability, and after just 16 games were played, folded in January 2004. Former

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

and minor league player Darren Banks served as head coach of the Motor City Snipers.

Teams

* Lansing Ice Nuts (11-1) * Motor City Snipers (0-2) * Northern Michigan Predators (4-4) * Ohio Valley Ice Cats (0-4) * Soo City Mavericks (1-5) * Tri-State Hurricanes - never played a league game

References

Defunct ice hockey leagues in the United States 2003–04 in American ice hockey by league

History

Teams

See also

References