Central Hockey League (CHL)
The Central Hockey League (CHL) was founded in 1992 and for its first four seasons all teams were centrally owned. The league continues to be owned by Global Entertainment Corporation through its WPHL, Inc. subsidiary, but each of the CHL teams in independently owned. In 2001 the Central Hockey League merged with the Western Professional Hockey Leagues.
The Central Hockey League is organized into two conferences (Eastern and Western), each with two divisions (Northeast, Southeast, Northwest, and Southwest). There are eight teams in the Eastern conference (4 in each division) and nine teams in the Western conference (4 in the Northwest, and 5 in the Southwest).
Many CHL teams have affiliations with the National Hockey League (NHL), and/or the American Hockey League (AHL).
Central Hockey League Playoffs
Twelve of seventeen Central Hockey League teams (six from each conference) qualify for the playoffs. The divisions champions for each division qualify for the playoffs and are seeded 1 and 2. After that, the next four teams with the best record in a conference also qualify as seeds 3, 4, 5, and 6. The playoffs consist of four rounds:
- Conference Quarter-Finals - Three series with the 1st seed playing the 6ht seed, the 2nd playing the 5th, and the 3re playing the 4th.
- Conference Semi-Finals - The three victorious teams advance to this round (seeded 1 - 3) along with the top seeded losing team (seeded 4th).
- Conference Finals - The two winners from the previous round in each conference play in the conference finals.
- Ray Miron President’s Cup Finals - The two conference winners play in the finals.
CHL At-A-Glance
- Season: Late October through March. Each team plays a schedule consisting of 64 games.
- Teams: 17 (8 Eastern Conference, 9 Western Conference).
- Events:
- Championship: Ray Miron President’s Cup Finals
- Current champion: 2005/2006 - Laredo Bucks
Central Hockey League Teams
Eastern Conference
- Northeast Division
- Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs - Bossier City , Louisiana
Affiliated with Buffalo (NHL) & Rochester (AHL) - Memphis RiverKings - Southaven , Mississippi
Affiliated with N.Y. Rangers (NHL) & Hartford (AHL) - Tulsa Oilers - Tulsa , Oklahoma
No affiliations - Youngstown SteelHounds - Youngstown , Ohio
Affiliated with Columbus Blue Jackets (NHL) & Syracuse Crunch (AHL) - Southeast Division
- Austin Ice Bats - Austin , Texas
Affiliated with Minnesota Wild (NHL) & Houston Aeros (AHL) - Corpus Christi Rayz - Corpus Christi , Texas
No affiliations - Laredo Bucks - Laredo , Texas
Affiliated with Phoenix (NHL) & San Antonio (AHL) - Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees - Rio Grande Valley , Texas
No affiliations
Western Conference
- Northwest Division
- Colorado Eagles - Loveland , Colorado
No affiliations - Oklahoma City Blazers - Oklahoma City , Oklahoma
No affiliations - Rocky Mountain Rage - Broomfield , Colorado
No affiliations - Wichita Thunder - Wichita , Kansas
No affiliations - Southwest Division
- Amarillo Gorillas - Amarillo , Texas
No affiliations - Arizona Sundogs - Prescott Valley , Arizona
Affiliated with Colorado (NHL) & Albany River Rats (AHL) - Lubbock Cotton Kings - Lubbock , Texas
No affiliations - New Mexico Scorpions - Rio Rancho , New Mexico
Affiliated with Nashville (NHL) & Milwaukee (AHL) - Odessa Jackalopes - Odessa , Texas
Affiliated with Edmonton (NHL)
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