Category: United Hockey League

1996-97 Madison Monsters Program from the Colonial Hockey League

Madison Monsters

April 21, 2024

The Madison Monsters were a minor league hockey promotion that played four seasons at the Dane County Coliseum in Wisconsin’s state capital. The team formed as an expansion franchise in the Colonial Hockey League in 1995. The CoHL changed its name to the United Hockey League in 1997. The colorfully attired Monsters sported an ultra-90’s palette of teal and purple and also incorporated pinstripes into their garish hockey sweaters. After the 1998-99 season, the Monsters moved away to Knoxville, Tennessee. A new United Hockey League expansion franchise, the Madison Kodiaks, immediately replaced the Monsters but folded after just one season in 2000.

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Bloomington Prairie Thunder International Hockey League

Bloomington PrairieThunder

January 11, 2021

United Hockey League (1992-1997) International Hockey League (2007-2010) Central Hockey League (2010-2011) Born: September 21, 2005 – UHL expansion franchise Folded: May/June 2011 First Game:

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Adirondack IceHawks United Hockey League

Adirondack IceHawks

November 15, 2020

In the spring of 1999, Glens Falls, New York lost its longtime minor league hockey club, the Adirondack Red Wings. For 20 seasons, the Wings were the top farm club of the NHL’s Detroit Red Wings. The team won four Calder Cups as champions of the American Hockey League during the 1980’s and early 1990’s and routinely packed the small city’s 4,800-seat Civic Arena in those years. Into the void left by the Red Wings stepped Art & Lori Shaver, who moved their United Hockey League franchise from Winston-Salem, North Carolina to Glens Falls in June of 1999.

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1997-98 Winston-Salem IceHawks program from the United Hockey League

Winston-Salem IceHawks

November 17, 2019

The IceHawks were part of a procession of short-lived minor league hockey clubs that cycled through Winston-Salem, North Carolina during the 1990’s and early 2000’s.  The IceHawks followed the Thunderbirds (1989-1992) and Mammoths (1995-1996) and preceded the T-Birds (2003-2004), Polar Twins (2004-2005) and Cyclones (2007-2009). Winston-Salem was an odd fit for the United Hockey League in 1997. The UHL’s other nine franchises were clustered in the upper Midwest, Ontario and upstate New York.

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Madison Kodiaks

July 4, 2019

The Madison Kodiaks were a One-Year Wonder in the now-defunct United Hockey League during the winter of 1999-00. The Wisconsin capital’s prior UHL club, the Madison Monsters (1995-1999), departed for Knoxville, Tennessee in April 1999. The UHL quickly expanded back to Madison, awarding an expansion franchise to a group headed by former Monsters General Manager Leo Hunstiger. After one season of low attendance and substantial financial losses, the franchise moved to Kalamazoo, Michigan in July 2000.

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