The 1981/82 season was the first regular season of the newly formed Atlantic Coast Hockey League . During the regular season, the seven teams should play 48 games each, but the schedule had to be revised early in the season due to the early, financially-related, departure of the Fitchburg Trappers and Schenectady Chiefs . In the final phase of the season, the Cape Cod Buccaneers prematurely stopped playing. In the play-offs, the Mohawk Valley Stars prevailed and won the Bob Payne Trophy for the first time in their club's history .
