The Johnstown Jets were a professional ice hockey team from Johnstown, Pennsylvania . The Jets were founded in the Eastern Amateur Hockey League for the 1950–51 season, playing at the newly constructed Cambria County War Memorial Arena . The Jets won consecutive EHL championships in 1951–52 and 1952–53.
23-759: When the EAHL suspended operations in 1953, the Jets transferred to the International Hockey League , where they played two seasons. Johnstown were Turner Cup finalists in 1953–54, losing four games to two, to the Cincinnati Mohawks . In 1955, the Jets joined the Eastern Hockey League (a league founded from the EAHL), and won three consecutive EHL championships in 1959–60, 1960–61 and 1961–62. Johnstown remained in
46-515: A Canadian team again until 1996. Bill Beagan served as commissioner of the IHL from 1969 to 1978. The Canadian Press cited him for turning around the league's financial situation and making it a top-tier development system for future NHL talent. Starting in the late 1960s, the IHL's quality of play significantly improved. By the mid-1970s it was on par with the American Hockey League (AHL),
69-524: A strain on relationships between the leagues. There was some speculation that the IHL was intending to compete directly with the NHL, especially when a lockout in 1994–95 threatened to wipe out the NHL season. However, in the 1995–96 season, the IHL's "soft" salary cap was just $ 1.5 million, while the lowest NHL team payroll that season was $ 11.4 million. A Fall 1994 article in Sports Illustrated praising
92-475: A team from Toledo, Ohio , joined the league, and the following year the IHL expanded significantly, with teams in four additional U.S. cities. The expansion did not take hold, and for 1949–50, the league was back down to teams in Detroit and Windsor as well as two nearby Canadian cities, Sarnia, Ontario , and Chatham, Ontario . Windsor dropped out in 1950, and expansion into the U.S. began again, with Toledo rejoining
115-736: A three-hour meeting at the Norton Palmer Hotel in Windsor, Ontario . In attendance were Jack Adams (coach of the Detroit Red Wings), Fred Huber (Red Wings public relations), Frank Gallagher (amateur hockey organizer in Detroit and Windsor), Lloyd Pollock (Windsor hockey pioneer), Gerald McHugh (Windsor lawyer), Len Hebert, Len Loree and Bill Beckman. The league began operations in the 1945–46 IHL season with four teams in Windsor and Detroit , and operated as semi-professional league. In 1947,
138-548: The Johnstown Chiefs , which named itself after the Jets' fictional counterpart from Slap Shot . List of Johnstown Jets who played in the National Hockey League , 46 in total. The following players were named to the league's respective All-Star team, announced at the end of the season. Most All-Star appearances International Hockey League (1945%E2%80%932001) The International Hockey League ( IHL )
161-607: The 1962–63 season, the IHL played an interlocking schedule with the NHL-owned Eastern Professional Hockey League , which itself folded after its 1962–63 season. After 11 seasons as a strictly U.S.-based league, the IHL admitted two Canadian teams in 1963, with the Windsor Bulldogs and the return of the Chatham Maroons. Both teams dropped out after one season, however, and the league would not have
184-733: The AHL as expansion teams for the 2001–02 season. Between them, they have played for the AHL Calder Cup seven times, winning four—including three in a row after their arrival. As well, the Cincinnati Cyclones was readmitted to the East Coast Hockey League , which hosted the team from 1990 to 1992 before it moved to the IHL. The Orlando Solar Bears (the final IHL playoff champions) and the Kansas City Blades were not admitted into
207-669: The AHL because their owner, Rich DeVos , who also owned the Griffins, was allowed to own only one AHL franchise. The league's other two teams, the Cleveland Lumberjacks and Detroit Vipers , ceased operations along with the league. Two former IHL teams that moved to the AHL have since relocated: the Utah Grizzlies moved to Cleveland, Ohio , to become the Lake Erie Monsters (rebranded as Cleveland Monsters in 2016) in 2007 and
230-788: The ECHL when they moved, and the Orlando Solar Bears restarted as an ECHL expansion team. The Peoria Rivermen have had three more franchises with an expansion team in the East Coast Hockey League from 1996 to 2005, a relocated Worcester IceCats in the American Hockey League from 2005 to 2013 , and a fourth incarnation of the Peoria Rivermen subsequently launched in the Southern Professional Hockey League in 2013. Eastern Professional Hockey League (1959-1963) The Eastern Professional Hockey League (EPHL)
253-611: The Houston Aeros moved to Des Moines, Iowa , to become the Iowa Wild in 2013. A third team, the Manitoba Moose, temporarily relocated to St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador to become the St. John's IceCaps from 2011 to 2015. Three former franchises have been relaunched in lower-tier leagues since the IHL's demise. The Utah Grizzlies name was revived by the former Lexington Men O' War of
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#1732851765112276-573: The IHL and mocking the NHL only fueled the fire. In said article, IHL officials detailed plans to continue expanding the league to large markets in North America, as well as, "a six-team European league with franchises in England, Switzerland, Italy, Austria, Sweden and France." In response, many NHL clubs shifted their affiliations to the AHL , and by 1997–98, only four of 18 IHL teams had NHL affiliations. With
299-406: The defunct World Hockey Association or abandoned by the NHL. The IHL also entered markets that had existing NHL teams, such as Chicago, Detroit, and Los Angeles . In 1996, the IHL moved its Atlanta and Minneapolis–Saint Paul franchises to Quebec City and Winnipeg , respectively, restoring the league's Canadian presence and filling the void left by the departure of the NHL's Quebec Nordiques and
322-400: The late 1980s and continuing into the mid-90s, the IHL expanded or re-located existing franchises into major U.S. markets such as Atlanta , Cincinnati , Cleveland , Denver , Houston , Indianapolis , Kansas City , Las Vegas , Minneapolis–Saint Paul , Orlando , Phoenix , Salt Lake City , San Antonio , San Diego , and San Francisco . Many of these markets had been previously served by
345-538: The league and new teams in Grand Rapids, Michigan (1950), Troy, Ohio , (1951), Cincinnati (1952), Fort Wayne, Indiana (1952), and Milwaukee (1952). At the same time, the last Canadian team left the league in 1952, when the Chatham Maroons pulled out. Three new U.S. cities were added in 1953. The league would expand and shrink between five and nine teams through the 1950s, with another major expansion in 1959. In
368-650: The league until its demise in 1973. The Jets then joined the new North American Hockey League in 1973. Dick Roberge coached Johnstown to the Lockhart Cup championship 1974–75, defeating the Broome Dusters . That season's playoff run included the Carlson brothers, Jeff , Jack and Steve , who became the basis for the Hanson Brothers in the movie Slap Shot . Jeff and Steve Carlson portrayed their fictional selves in
391-485: The longtime top feeder league for the National Hockey League . Many IHL teams became the top farm teams of NHL teams. In 1984, the league swallowed up a few surviving members of the Central Hockey League , which had ceased operations. In 1985, the league adopted the shootout to determine tie games in place of traditional overtime. The NHL would begin using the shootout to avoid tie games in 2005. Beginning in
414-526: The loss of subsidized salaries, high expansion fees (by the end the league was charging as much as $ 8 million US for new teams), exploding travel costs and the NHL itself moving back into some of its markets, the league's rapid expansion proved a critical strain, and it folded after the 2000–01 season. Six IHL franchises (the Chicago Wolves , Grand Rapids Griffins , Houston Aeros , Utah Grizzlies , Milwaukee Admirals and Manitoba Moose ) were admitted into
437-593: The movie, while former Jet Dave Hanson portrayed Jack. The Jets played four seasons total in the NAHL before the league folded in 1977. The team itself folded in the offseason, when the Johnstown flood of 1977 damaged the arena's ice making equipment. Johnstown was later represented by the Johnstown Wings (later Red Wings) from 1978 to 1980. The Red Wings folded after two seasons, but hockey returned to Johnstown in 1988 with
460-410: The original Winnipeg Jets . The minimum requirements for an IHL expansion team in 1995 were "a 10,000-seat arena, a population base of one million, and a $ 6 million franchise fee." As the league expanded into larger markets, many of the smaller-market teams (such as Fort Wayne, Peoria, Muskegon, Kalamazoo and Flint) left the IHL and joined lower-level leagues. The IHL's expansion into NHL markets put
483-468: Was a minor professional ice hockey league in the United States and Canada that operated from 1945 to 2001. The IHL served as the National Hockey League 's alternate farm system to the American Hockey League (AHL). After 56 years of operation, financial instability led to the league's demise. Six of the surviving seven teams merged into the AHL in 2001. The IHL was formed on December 5, 1945, in
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#1732851765112506-501: Was a minor professional ice hockey league that operated primarily in Ontario and Quebec from 1959 to 1963. While the NHL had established working relationships with teams in leagues such as the AHL and WHL , these leagues and their teams were not fully under the control of the NHL, and in this era they operated more independently than is the case today. The Eastern Professional Hockey League
529-537: Was created in 1959 as the first farm league fully run and controlled by the NHL. While the league proved to be a success on the ice, it largely failed off the ice. Attendance in these smaller cities could not support professional hockey, and by 1962, the league was reduced to just four teams. While the intent was for the EPHL to be the primary development league for the NHL, the Detroit Red Wings did not participate until
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