The Central Hockey League (sometimes called the 'Central Amateur Hockey Association') was an amateur

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an Ice rink, ice skating rink with Ice hockey rink, lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. Tw ...

league that was played by teams in

Minnesota Minnesota ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Upper Midwestern region of the United States. It is bordered by the Canadian provinces of Manitoba and Ontario to the north and east and by the U.S. states of Wisconsin to the east, Iowa to the so ...

and

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its Provinces and territories of Canada, ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, making it the world's List of coun ...

for one season.

History

The

United States Amateur Hockey Association The United States Amateur Hockey Association (USAHA) was an ice hockey governing body in the United States from 1920 to 1930, which operated an amateur league from 1920 to 1925. The league was filled with predominantly Canadian-born players, but ...

, which had operated since the end of

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, struggled through several years and finally dissolved in 1925. Three surviving teams from Minnesota: the

Duluth Hornets The Duluth Hornets were an amateur and professional ice hockey team in Duluth, Minnesota. History Amateur In 1914, in order to compete against several string amateur teams from Michigan and Canada, Joe Linder formed the Duluth Hockey Club. Th ...

, Eveleth-Hibbing Rangers and

St. Paul Saints The St. Paul Saints are a Minor League Baseball team of the International League and the Triple-A affiliate of the Minnesota Twins. They are located in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and have played their home games at CHS Field since 2015. They previ ...

, were joined by a fourth team, the

Minneapolis Millers The Minneapolis Millers were an American professional minor league baseball team that played in Minneapolis, Minnesota, through 1960. In the 19th century a different Minneapolis Millers were part of the Western League. The team played first in ...

as well as two teams from

: the Sault Ste. Marie Greyhounds and the Winnipeg Maroons to form a new league. The schedule was slated for 40 games with each team playing the others eight times during the season. Sault Ste. Marie soon found itself trailing in the standings but the club had an even bigger problem. As it was the team that was furthest away from all the other clubs, Sault Ste. Marie had a higher operating cost just with the travel times and the team got into financial difficulties before season's end. Sault Ste. Marie suspended operations with 6 games left on their schedule, leaving the league as a 5-team circuit. Minneapolis, who had played its full schedule, had the best record at the end of the season. Their lead was such that, even if the other teams had won all of their cancelled matches against the Greyhounds, Minneapolis would have still won the title. After the season, four of the remaining teams decided to switch from amateur to professional hockey and dissolved the league. In its place, they became founding members of the Central Hockey Association. Eveleth-Hibbing decided against turning professional and became an independent team.

Standings

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Central Hockey League (1925-1926) Defunct ice hockey leagues in the United States Ice hockey in Minnesota Ice hockey in Manitoba Ice hockey in Ontario