Junior landscape

In the previous two posts, I wrote about the North American professional hockey leagues that include teams based in the American Midwest.

For this one, I want to outline the different junior leagues that include teams in the Midwest. This is probably the most fun subject for me as for the most part, junior hockey is the level I am both most passionate about and most knowledgeable of — at least in my opinion.

If you are going to be a fan of junior hockey in the USA, the Midwest Region is the one to be in for sure. It is not necessarily where all of the talent comes from, but it is where the top level talent comes to.

There are three levels, or tiers of junior hockey, the top being Tier I which includes one league, housed entirely in the Midwest.

For the previous two seasons, the league had 16 teams based out of Michigan, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Wisconsin, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska.

The team number goes up by one and the state number down by one as defending champion Indiana Ice, out of Indianapolis announced just a week after claiming the 2014 Clark Cup that it would not have a team for the 2014-15 season. That means no involvement out of Indiana. But the league will have two new outfits coming about, in Madison, Wisconsin and Bloomington, IL so the team count goes to 17.

The USHL teams play a 60 game season,  running from late September to mid April followed  a post season for the top four from each of two divisions.

This season the East Conference will include: the Bloomington Blaze; Cedar Rapids Roughriders; Chicago Steel; Dubuque Fighting Saints;  Youngstown Phantoms; Madison Capitols; Muskegon Fury; Green Bay Gamblers and Team USA which plays out of the Detroit area.

The West Conference includes: Des Moines Buccaneers; Fargo Force; Lincoln Stars; Waterloo Blackhawks; Sioux City Musketeers; Sioux Falls Stampede; Tri-City Storm and Omaha Lancers.

Tier II

The Next level, Tier II also includes just one league, but it is a huge loop that is a cross section of almost the entire nation.

The North American Hockey League features a few changes from year to year, but the 2014-15 version will include 24 teams representing 10 different states –six of them out of the Midwest.

The teams play in four different divisions and all four have some kind of Midwest team. Some may think that is wrong, with the South put together primarily with teams out of Texas. But it also includes the Topeka RoadRunners from Kansas which is in the Midwest.

One division,  the Central (Aberdeen Wings; Austin Bruins; Bismarck Bobcats; Brookings Blizzard and Minot Minotauros) includes teams entirely out of the Midwest while the Midwest includes the Coulee Region Chill, Minnesota Magicians and Minnesota Wilderness, but also two Alaska teams (Fairbanks Ice Dogs and Kenai River Brown Bears) included.

The North Division is the leagues biggest — seven teams including five (Janesville Jets, Michigan Warriors, Soo Eagles and Springfield Jr. Blues), but in recnet seasons has seen its boundaries stretched into Pennsylvania with the Johnstown Tomahawks and now the Keystone Ice Miners who moved from Port Huron during this off season.

Each Division has its own champion in playoffs, top four playing in the Division semis with the two winners squaring off for the title.

Last season the four division winners included Michigan, Austin, Fairbanks and Topeka.

They moved into a league semi-final series where Austin dropped the first game, then charged back with two wins to eliminate Topeka and Michigan fell to Fairbanks in two.

The Alaska team went on to win two more against Austin to claim the 2013-14 Robertson Cup.

Tier III

Tier III is the level that has exploded in recent years and a level in constant flux as leagues spend the off season expanding.

The league I am obviously most aware of is the Minnesota Junior Hockey League. When the Dells Ducks first joined the league at the same time as the Maple Grove Energy in the summer of 2011, the league was saying goodbye to some longtime entrants but staying stable with the Energy and Ducks being the sixth and seventh league teams.

Since then, the league has exploded into what it is now, a 17-team loop with two divisions. The league basically doubled in size two summers ago when the eight team Great Lakes Hockey League merged and formed a separate division in the league. This past summer, the Ironwood Fighting Yoopers swelled the Minnesota Division to nine teams.

Along with the Yoopers, Energy and Ducks are the Steele County Blades who are entering their third season in the loop, the Minnesota Owls, Rochester Ice Hawks, Twin City Northern Lights and Hudson Crusaders along with the Forest Lake Lakers who moved from Edina over the summer months.

On the other side is the Tri-City Icehawks out of Bay City, Michigan, the Fort Wayne Federals, Illiana Blackbirds from Dyer, Indiana, Marquette (Michigan) Royales, St. Louis Frontenacs and Wooster (Ohio) Oilers and two others that have seen a change of venue this summer as well. The Central Wisconsin Saints have moved from Stevens Point to Wisconsin Rapids and will now be known as the River Kings while the Rampage is keeping its name while moving from Pleasant Prairie Wisconsin to Crystal Lake, Illinois.

Last year all 16 teams made the post season, although St. Louis forfeited its first round series against the Marquette Royales without making the trip.

When each side had two teams remaining, they entered into a Final Four Weekend and a cross-over semi-final series, The Dells Ducks eliminated the Illiana Blackbirds in two straight games while three games, all going to overtime settled a hard fought battle with the Marquette Royales outlasting the Hudson Crusaders.

A single game championship also went to overtime where the Royales again came out on top against the Ducks. Both earned berths into the USA Hockey Tier III National championship tournament held a week later at Hartford, CT.

The other major Midwest Tier III loop is one growing even faster than the MnJHL.

The NA3HL, billed as a feeder loop for its Tier II Parent, has exploded on the scene and in the past two seasons has morphed from  a Midwest power, a near nationwide monster that this season will include 31 teams playing in five different divisions.

Two of those groups — the Central and West Divisions are entirely inside of the Midwest Region.

The Central includes Chicago Bulldogs and (Madison) Wisconsin Whalers who both entered the NA3HL last season, the Peoria Mustangs, St. Louis Jr. Blues and West Michigan Wolves along with the La Crosse Freeze who will make its debut this fall.

The West Division is almost entirely inside of Minnesota including the Alexandria Blizzard, Breezy Point North Stars, Granite City Lumberjacks, Minnesota Flying Aces Twin City Steel and the lone non-Minnesota based team, the North Iowa Bulls.

The East division has an Ohio connection with the Cincinnati Swords, Toledo Cherokee and Cleveland Jr. Lumberjacks along with the Metro Jets out of Michigan along with a couple of non-Midwest squads, the Southern Tier Express from Jamestown, NY and the Pittsburgh Vengeance.

Last sesaon the league added a South Division that began with teams in Texas and this season will have one Midwest entrant, the Topeka Capitals along with the Texas based Dallas Junior Stars, Sugarland Imperials and Texas Jr. Brahmas along with the Nashville Jr. Predators and the Point Mallard Ducks from Alabama.

Also new this season is a Frontier Division that will include seven teams that formerly played in the America West Hockey League: Bozeman IceDogs, Billings Bulls, Gillette Wild, Glacier Nationals, Great Falls Americans, Helena Bighorns and Yellowstone Quake.

Last season the division winners — St. Louis, North Iowa, Flint and Dallas  played in a championship round robin tournament, the Bulls claiming the league championship trophy and a berth at the USA Tier III Nationals along with runner up Flint.

Also,  the newest league in the Midwest is called just that, the Midwest Junior Hockey League.

An AAU sanctioned circuit, the league has had its share of growing pains through its first two seasons,  as most leagues do. At one time a league that spanned several states, the suriviving teams are now almost all inside of the Michigan boundaries.

So far, the league has had just one champion — the Traverse City Hounds winning both the regular season and playoff titles this past year for a second straight year.

Both the Hounds and Soo Firehawks qualified to move on to the AAU National championship tournament at Las Vegas.

The Hounds will be back to defend its league titles this season along with the Firehawks, the Alpena Flyers, Berkley Bruins, Decatur Blaze (the lone non-Michigan based team, from Illinois); Detroit Fighting Irish;  Motor City Monarchs; Michigan Ice Dogs and West Michigan Freeze.

If you think there is a heavy contingent of junior teams in the Midwest, wait til you see my next blog, outlining all of the college entries — Division I, III and ACHA teams, that call Wisconsin home.