Southern Professional Hockey League

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The Southern Professional Hockey League ( "SPHL" for short ) is an ice hockey minor league in the southern United States . It has existed since the beginning of the 2004/05 season when some teams from the World Hockey Association 2 (WHA2) and the South East Hockey League (SEHL) founded it.

history

The South East Hockey League gave up game operations as Knoxville and Cape Fear (moved to Fayetteville before 2004/05) moved to WHA2 and the Huntsville Channel Cats like Winston-Salem signed off. From the WHA2, however, only the Jacksonville Barracudas, the Orlando Seals and the Macon Trax remained.

After the Columbus Cottonmouths' move (should compete in the ECHL as Gulf Coast Swords ) failed due to delays in the construction of the arena, they also joined the then renamed SPHL. Another side entry was the Asheville Aces, who joined the WHA2 as the sixth team and were thus the main reason for the great expansion of the WHA2, whereupon it changed its name to the Southern Professional Hockey League . Huntsville and Winston-Salem also formed new teams with the Havoc and the Polar Twins, which made the league grow to nine.

In 2009, the SPHL experienced further expansion with the addition of the Mississippi Surge , the Louisiana IceGators and the Pensacola Ice Flyers , three ECHL teams that had won either the championship or the title of best team of the regular season in this division .

For the 2010/11 season, the Augusta RiverHawks from Augusta , Georgia , were newly added to the league. A season later, the Mississippi RiverKings were added to the Central Hockey League . For the 2013/14 season, the league was expanded to include the Bloomington Blaze and Peoria Rivermen teams , while the Augusta RiverHawks were reported as inactive.

Hometowns of the SPHL teams in the 2013/14 season

Teams of the Southern Professional Hockey League 2013/14

team arena capacity Hometown accession
Bloomington Blaze US Cellular Coliseum 7,000 Bloomington , Illinois 2013
Columbus Cottonmouths Columbus Civic Center 7,500 Columbus , Georgia 2004
Fayetteville FireAntz Cumberland County Crown Coliseum 9,500 Fayetteville , North Carolina 2004
Huntsville Havoc From Braun Center 6,200 Huntsville , Alabama 2004
Knoxville Ice Bears James White Civic Coliseum 4,973 Knoxville , Tennessee 2004
Louisiana IceGators Cajundome 11,433 Lafayette , Louisiana 2009
Mississippi RiverKings DeSoto Civic Center 8,400 Southaven , Mississippi 2011
Mississippi Surge Mississippi Coast Coliseum 8,858 Biloxi , Mississippi 2009
Pensacola Ice Flyers Pensacola Civic Center 8,150 Pensacola , Florida 2009
Peoria Rivermen Carver Arena 10.129 Peoria , Illinois 2013

Inactive teams

Former teams

trophies

master

The following teams won the President's Cup as winners of the SPHL play-offs:

  • 2004/05: Columbus Cottonmouths
  • 2005/06: Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2006/07: Fayetteville FireAntz
  • 2007/08: Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2008/09: Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2009/10: Huntsville Havoc
  • 2010/11: Mississippi Surge
  • 2011/12: Columbus Cottonmouths
  • 2012/13: Pensacola Ice Flyers
  • 2013/14: Pensacola Ice Flyers

The following teams won the William B. Coffey Trophy as the best team of the regular season :

  • 2004/05: Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2005/06: Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2006/07: Columbus Cottonmouths
  • 2007/08: Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2008/09: Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2009/10: Mississippi Surge
  • 2010/11: Mississippi Surge
  • 2011/12: Augusta RiverHawks
  • 2012/13: Fayetteville FireAntz

Regular season

Most Valuable Player
  • 2004/05: Kevin Swider , Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2005/06: Matt Carmichael , Huntsville Havoc
  • 2006/07: Rob Sich , Fayetteville FireAntz
  • 2007/08: Kevin Swider, Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2008/09: Travis Kauffeldt , Huntsville Havoc
  • 2009/10: Rob Sich, Fayetteville FireAntz
  • 2010/11: Matt Auffrey , Augusta RiverHawks
  • 2011/12: Kevin Swider, Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2012/13: Josh McQuade , Fayetteville FireAntz
Scoring leader
  • 2004/05: Kevin Swider , Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2005/06: Kevin Swider, Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2006/07: Kevin Swider, Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2007/08: Kevin Swider, Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2008/09: Kevin Swider, Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2009/10: Kevin Swider, Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2010/11: Chris Leveille, Fayetteville FireAntz
  • 2011/12: Kevin Swider, Knoxville Ice Bears
  • 2012/13: Josh McQuade , Fayetteville FireAntz
Goaltender of the Year
Defenseman of the Year
Rookie of the Year
Coach of the Year

Well-known players and coaches

Individual evidence

  1. ^ AJ Giardina: Local investors may bring another hockey team to the coast . WLOX TV. April 9, 2009. Archived from the original on April 12, 2009. Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved April 10, 2009. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.wlox.com
  2. ↑ Kevin Foote: IceGators to skate again; join the discussion . Lafayette Daily Advertiser. May 15, 2009. Retrieved May 15, 2009.
  3. ↑ Jason Blakeney: Hockey's Back! . Pensacola News Journal. April 30, 2009. Archived from the original on May 3, 2009. Retrieved on April 30, 2009.

Web links

Commons : Southern Professional Hockey League  - Collection of images, videos and audio files