Section30 wrote:

Little Falls is a city similar in size to Alexandria, with a population just under 7,000. With their decent sized population for the area, along with some persuasion by the other teams in the area to form a new league, Little falls decided to pull the trigger and form a team. The nickname "Pilots" was chosen to honor Charles Lindbergh who lived in the city and graduated from Little Falls High School. Their logo is made to look like a pilots wings with a script "Pilots" in the middle (the script Pilots is borrowed from one of my favorite bands, the Stone Temple Pilots, because it just fit too perfectly for the time period) the jerseys just have the Pilots script on the front. The team colors are black, gold/tan, and white. 

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One of my new favorite identities. This all came together quite well. Nice work.
 

During the off-season, 4 teams made adjustments to their looks. I will be doing a new thing from now on where the numbers on the back of the jersey correspond with the year the team was founded. 

The Minneapolis Millers changed up their striping and added stripes to their breezers, they are the first team to add anything other than a solid color to them. 

 

The Chiefs left their jerseys unchanged, but they added a new script "Red Wing" for their away jersey. 

 

The Saints left their uniforms the same, but heard about the Millers adding striping to their breezers and decided to do it as well. 

 

And finally the Warroad Lakers changed their front logo from a diagonal "Lakers" down the front, to Lakers arched with the players number below. The Lakers anchor logo is also now seen on the sleeve stripes. The away jersey also made a slight adjustment by removing the white space between the blue and red in the stripes. 

 

Last edited by Section30 (7/28/2019 11:50 pm)

The 1954/55 season has concluded, here are the stories. 

 
Granite Hockey League: There were no changes in the standings this season, St. Cloud dominated all year, only losing 2 games. Little Falls played strong as well and look like a possible dark horse for the Cup. Fergus Falls and Alexandria both looked much worse than the other two, but will still make the playoffs due to only being in a four team league. The other leagues in the MAHL have voiced their displeasure about the Granite League only being four teams, they feel that it is cheating the system. The League had a vote midway through the season that stated if the Granite Hockey League doesn't find at least one more team to join the league, they will be intelligible to compete in the playoffs. The MAHL has also modified the rule regarding new leagues, a league now must consist of at least 5 teams to be granted access to the MAHL, replacing the old minimum of 4.

Iron Range Hockey League: Grand Rapids made the jump up to number one in the Iron Range this year, followed closely by Hibbing. Virginia keeps rising as they finished in third thanks in large part to a great year by winger Elliot Herman. Eveleth continues to decline, but managed to stay in the playoff picture, finishing fourth. Chisholm also looks to be on the rise, Olafsson had another good season in net. Ely took a big step back this year, finishing in sixth place. Soudan remained at the bottom of the league, and they didn't look good.Lake Superior Hockey League:  Hide contentsDuluth won another Lake Superior League title, though this time it was the Voyageurs capturing their first title in 22 years, Henry Heaslip had an insane year, putting up 34 goals and 27 assists to set a new Lake Superior League record for points. Thunder Bay placed second, led by captain Staal. The Hornets may have dropped down to third place this year, but they look like a possible dark horse threat to win it all. Cloquet stayed in fourth place and will be heading back to the playoffs. Two Harbors had a good season, finishing just a couple wins outside the playoffs. And the Superior Lakers look to have finally hit rock bottom, finishing in last place in the league.

Northland Hockey League: The defending champion Ice finished atop the Northland League, the dynamic duo of Mason and Backus tore up defenses all season long. Just across the border, the Trappers finished right behind, taking second place and looking like a real threat. Bemidji moved up to third place, the Ox look like a team on the brink of being a power. Roseau finished in fourth, staying in the playoffs. The Stars didn't look as good as they have in past years, but they can never really be counted out. Warroad finished right behind them in fifth place, but they did manage to take the Victory Bell back, beating the Stars 3 out of 4 times this year. And finally the Thief River Falls Railers finished in last, the Smith twins seemingly dropped off the map this season, doing nothing on offense.

Twin Cities Hockey League: The ever-dominant Victorias claimed their fourth league title in 5 years, Klaus set a new MAHL record with 45 assists, and Niskanen emerged as an elite goaltender. West St. Paul finished right on the heels of the Victorias, taking second. The Millers looked good, finishing in third. White Bear Lake made a big jump this year, finishing in fourth place and making the playoffs. South St. Paul was left just outside the playoff picture, despite having a strong year. The inconsistency of the Saints continued this year as they dropped to sixth place. The Minneapolis Bruins actually looked like a competitive team this year, winning 7 games and finishing in seventh. The Twin Cities Vulcans really looked lost this year, nothing was working, players weren't showing up for games, it was just an all around screw up of a season and it showed in the standings as they finished in last.

Valley Hockey League: The Robins reclaimed the league title, led by Lucas Stewart. The Mustangs finished in second place, just one win behind the Robins. Albert Lea continued their playoff streak, despite looking average most of the season at best. Austin made the jump back into the playoffs, thanks to a physical style of play that made it very hard to play against them. Red Wing dropped out of the playoffs after a great season a year ago. La Crosse improved, finishing in sixth, but still didn't look very good overall. And the Winona Wildcats fell to the basement of the league, winning 5 games all season. 

Last edited by Section30 (7/28/2019 11:53 pm)

1955 Kellogg Cup Playoffs; Second Round 


 St. Cloud Bear Cats v. Virginia Royals
The top seeded Bear Cats showed the Royals why they earned that ranking. St. Cloud came out slow in game on, underestimating a good Royals squad and dropping the game 3-2. But the Cats bounced back in a big way in game 2, lighting up the Royals goalie and winning 7-1. Game three was just more of the same as the Bear Cats shut down a good Virginia squad, beating them 5-2.

Hibbing Greyhounds v. Duluth Hornets
Two teams with histories of success, both with star studded lineups, this was a series to remember. For the first time in playoff history, every game of the series was decided in overtime. Game one went to the Greyhounds 3-2 thanks to a hat trick from Polich, the Hornets bounced back in game two winning 4-3 with Colton Hill burying the game winner in overtime, while notching two assists earlier in the game. And finally in the deciding game three the home Hibbing Greyhounds came out victorious 3-2 again with Polich again burying the game winner sending his Hounds back to the Quarter Finals.

Grand Rapids Moose v. Little Falls Pilots
Little Falls had a good season, doing better than anyone expected them to, but the Grand Rapids Moose were just the superior team. The Moose swept the series winning 5-3 and then shutting out the Pilots 3-0.

Rochester Robins v. Thunder Bay Giants
Although the Robins were ranked higher at number 6 than the Giants at number 9. Most fans around the league had Thunder Bay as the favorites in this series. The Giants proved those people right, sweeping Rochester and looking like the much better team all series. Game one was close fought throughout with the lead going back and forth until the clock ran out with the Giants on top 5-4. Game two was much more more sided with the Giants scoring first and not giving up the lead for the rest of the game, the final score was 4-2

Thunder Bay.International Falls Ice v. Bemidji Blue Ox
The Blue Ox came out strong in game one, only losing by 1 goal late in the third. Game two was when Bemidji really took the series into their own hands, winning in decisive matter 5-1. Game three was in International Falls where the ruckus crowd was surprised to see bus fulls of Bemidji loyals pull up to the rink to support their Ox. The traveling fans were gifted with a major upset victory in one of the hardest places to play in the league as their Blue Ox shut down the Ice's offense, winning 2-1, sending the defending champions home early.

Fort Frances Trappers v. Rochester Mustangs
Fort Frances and Rochester both are very balanced teams with neither a dominant offense nor defense, so this series was bound to be close from the get go. The Trappers took game one 2-1, both of their goals coming on the powerplay. The Mustangs answered back in game two, winning 4-2. With the series tied, it headed back north of the border, with their home supporters making it very hard for Rochester, the Trappers were able to advance, winning 3-1.

St. Paul Victorias v. Minneapolis Millers
In a Twin Cities League series, the Victorias were victorious over their long time rivals from Minneapolis. St. Paul swept the Millers, winning 4-1 and 3-1, Klaus with 4 goals and 1 assist in the series.

Duluth Voyageurs v. Austin Mavericks
The Voyageurs cut the Mavericks celebrations short, sweeping Austin and only allowing 1 goal against in the series. 

Last edited by Section30 (7/28/2019 11:58 pm)

1955 Kellogg Cup Playoffs; Semi Finals 
 
St. Cloud Bear Cats v. Grand Rapids Moose
In a rematch of a semi final match up from 2 years ago, the Moose and Bear Cats faced off to decide who would advance to the finals. Just like last time, St. Cloud's dynamic offense was just too dominant to be stopped. The Cats offense, led by Kurt Schmidt, scored an unprecedented 15 goals in 4 games against arguably the best goalie in league history. Baker was left out to dry by his defense who allowed point blank shots and odd man rushes one after the other. He did his best, but when you are out shot 156 to 97, odds are you aren't going to come out on top. 

St. Paul Victorias v. Fort Frances Trappers
The Victorias and Trappers battled hard in this back and forth series, but St. Paul came out on top. Games one through four went to the home team, causing a "best 2 out of 3" scenario. Game five was at the St. Paul Auditorium where the Victorias were victorious in front of a packed house of 7,120. The series then headed north to Fort Frances, where the V's carried momentum and won the series thanks to the help of Cody Klaus's 2 goals. 

Will the Bear Cats finally break the finals curse and win that illusive first cup? Or will the Victorias finally end their years of playoff mediocrity and win their first cup in 39 years?

Last edited by Section30 (7/29/2019 12:00 am)