The Atlanta Knights were a minor league hockey franchise that played at the Omni Coliseum from 1992 through 1996. The arrival of the Knights marked the return of pro hockey to Atlanta for the first time since 1980, when the NHL’s Atlanta Flames departed for Calgary. The Knights won the Turner Cup as champions of the International Hockey League in 1994. In 1996, the team moved to Quebec City and became the Quebec Rafales.
International Hockey League (1994-1996) Born: December 16, 1993 – IHL expansion franchise Moved Announced: December 7, 1995 (Manitoba Moose) First Game: October 1, 1994 (L
The Port Huron Flags were a long-standing minor league hockey outfit in the small northern Michigan border city of Port Huron. From the 1971 through 1974, a period that saw Port Huron affiliated with the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings, the team was briefly known as the “Port Huron Wings”. The Flags/Wings won the Turner Cup as champions of the International Hockey League in 1966, 1971 and 1972.
The San Antonio Dragons were part of a short, strange minor league hockey cold war in South Texas during the mid-1990’s. In 1996, long-time Peoria Rivermen owner Bruce Saurs announced that he would move his International Hockey League club to San Antonio. It was an odd choice. Hardly an ice hockey hotbed, San Antonio already had an established minor league team – the Iguanas of the Central Hockey League – at Freeman Coliseum. In the winter of 1996-97 both teams split dates in the building and fought over the arena lease.
The minor league Houston Aeros of 1994-2013 were a brand revival of the popular World Hockey Association club of the 1970’s, who famously featured ageless Hall-of-Famer Gordie Howe and his sons Mark and Marty. During the 1990’s, the Aeros operated as a non-NHL affiliated independent club in the ambitious International Hockey League. The Aeros were always a strong club and won the IHL’s Turner Cup championship in 1999 and the American Hockey League’s Calder Cup in 2003, following the IHL’s demise in 2001. In their final decade, the Aeros were acquired by the NHL’s Minnesota Wild and became the Wild’s top farm team in the AHL. After 19 seasons in Houston, the franchise moved to Des Moines, Iowa in 2013.
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