Samiksha Jaiswal (Editor)

Southern Professional Hockey League

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Sport
  
Ice hockey

Country
  
United States

Number of teams
  
10

No. of teams
  
10

Official website
  
www.TheSPHL.com

Date founded
  
2004


Most recent champion(s)
  
Pensacola Ice Flyers (2016)

Most titles
  
Knoxville Ice Bears (4)

Instances
  
2016–17 SPHL season, 2015–16 SPHL season

Teams
  
Huntsville Havoc, Pensacola Ice Flyers, Knoxville Ice Bears, Fayetteville FireAntz, Columbus Cottonmouths

Profiles

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The Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in Huntersville, North Carolina, with teams located primarily in the southeastern United States as well as Illinois and Indiana in the midwestern United States.

Contents

The Pensacola Ice Flyers are the most recent President's Cup champions, having won their third title on May 5, 2016.

History

The SPHL's history traces back to three other short-lived leagues. The Atlantic Coast Hockey League started play in the 2002–03 season. After its only season, the ACHL dissolved with member teams forming the nucleus for two rival leagues, the South East Hockey League and the World Hockey Association 2. After one season the SEHL and WHA2 disbanded, with their surviving teams rejoining with two expansion teams to form the SPHL, commencing with the 2004–05 season.

In 2009, the SPHL saw a large expansion with three new franchises in Biloxi, Mississippi, Lafayette, Louisiana and Pensacola, Florida. In 2010, the league added an expansion team in Augusta, Georgia, another former long time ECHL market. For the 2011–12 season, the league added two-time Central Hockey League champions, the Mississippi RiverKings. For the 2013–14 season, the league lost the Augusta RiverHawks but also expanded northward with two franchises in Illinois: the Bloomington Thunder, a new team moving from the CHL, where they were known as the Bloomington Blaze, and the Peoria Rivermen, who were replacing an American Hockey League team of the same name in their market. In 2015, the Augusta franchise returned and relocated to Macon, Georgia as the Macon Mayhem.

In November 2014, Shannon Szabados became the first female goaltender to win an SPHL game, when the Columbus Cottonmouths defeated the Fayetteville FireAntz 5–4 in overtime. In that same game Erin Blair and Katie Guay became the first female officials to referee an SPHL game.

The Knoxville Ice Bears are the most successful team in SPHL history, having won four William B. Coffey Trophy championships as the regular season champions, and four Presidents Cup championships.

Current

Note

* – Represents a franchise move.

Defunct and relocated teams

  • Asheville Aces (2004–05)
  • Augusta RiverHawks (2010–13; moved to Macon, Georgia as the Mayhem for the 2015–16 season)
  • Bloomington Thunder (2013–14; membership terminated to make way for a team in the United States Hockey League)
  • Florida Seals (2005–07; membership terminated in the middle of the 2006–07 SPHL season)
  • Jacksonville Barracudas (2004–08; suspended for the 2008–09 season and dissolved)
  • Macon Trax (2004–05)
  • Mississippi Surge (2009–14; moved to Roanoke, Virginia as the Rail Yard Dawgs for the 2016–17 season)
  • Pee Dee Cyclones (2005–07; moved to Winston-Salem, North Carolina)
  • Richmond Renegades (2006–09)
  • Twin City Cyclones (2007–09)
  • Winston-Salem Polar Twins (2004–05)

    • Key rule differences

    As per minor leagues, there are some rule differences between the SPHL and the NHL (and even the ECHL and the AHL, the two official developmental leagues regulated by the Professional Hockey Players' Association).

  • A team may dress sixteen regular players to a game. Two players dressed for the game will be goaltenders.
  • There is no trapezoid restriction limiting the goaltender playing the puck, which is eligible to be played anywhere on their side of the center redline.

    • – Changed for the 2012–13 season

  • A mouthpiece is required for all players except the goaltender.
  • No curvature of stick limitations as in the NHL, AHL, and ECHL.
  • Shootouts are five players.
  • All overtime periods in the regular season are between three skaters per team and the goaltender. Penalty rules differ during the overtime:
  • During the first three minutes of overtime, in case of a penalty, the non-offending team is awarded one extra skater per penalty (up to two extra, five total).
  • In the final two minutes, any minor penalty results in an automatic penalty shot.

    • William B. Coffey Trophy

    Originally known as the Commissioner's Cup, the regular season trophy was renamed in honor of league co-founder Bill Coffey during the 2007–08 season.

    References

    Southern Professional Hockey League Wikipedia
    (Text) CC BY-SA