Finally we move south to the Twin Cities for a set of three games between Minneapolis, Mill City, & the St. Paul Athletic Club.

Minneapolis Hockey Club vs Mill City Hockey Club
The Battle of Minneapolis was set for December 28th, 1895 on Lake Calhoun and drew a crowd of nearly 500 people out onto the frozen lake to watch. Mill City remain undefeated all-time as they defeat their cross-town foes by a score of 9-6.

Mill City Hockey Club vs St. Paul Athletic Club
It was a cold January afternoon when the St. Paul Athletic Club took on the Mill City Hockey Club on Lake Calhoun. This game was unlike anything we have really seen from this new sport to this point. Unlike the previous meeting between these two teams a year ago, things were down right violent with players getting into skirmishes on several occasions and one Mill City player even knocking the St. Paul rover unconscious with a high stick. The game had to be called early to prevent any more violence from occurring and the game was declared a 3-2 win for St. Paul Athletic who was winning by that score at the time of the cancellation, ending Mill City’s perfect record in a controversial way.

St. Paul Athletic Club vs Minneapolis Hockey Club
It was a perfect day for hockey on February 1st, 1896 as the St. Paul Athletic Club welcomed the Minneapolis Hockey Club to Lexington Park for the final hockey game of the 1895/96 season. The Athletics put their superior skating to use, outpacing the Blacks and dominating puck possession on their way to an 8-2 blowout in front of over 1,000 onlookers.

1896/97

The game of hockey continued to grow in the State of Minnesota in late 1896 with three new teams joining the fray, but more importantly, the first ever organized hockey leagues were formed.

Joining Kittson County and Pembina County in the northwest corner of the state are newcomers Crookston and Warren who agreed to form a schedule of 1 home and 1 away game between each of the four teams. The group decided on the name “Red River Hockey League” as an ode to the nearby river that separates Minnesota and North Dakota.



The RRHL wasn’t the only league formed for the 1896/97 season however. A second St. Paul based team was formed on the East Side and along with the St. Paul Athletic Club, Minneapolis, and Mill City have formed the “Twin Cities Hockey Association”. Each team will play 2 home and 2 road games against the rest of the league.

Warren Hockey Club
The Warren Hockey Club is based in Warren, MN but also draws from the small towns of Argyle, Alvarado & Oslo. Warren is a town of about 2,000 and is the county seat of Marshall County. The team wears green with a white W on the front for Warren. They play their home games outdoors at the Warren City Rink which has a capacity of about 250.

One team made a slight adjustment to their identity.

Kittson County Hockey Club
Kittson County decided to sew a white KC monogram onto the front of their red sweaters. No other changes were made.



The only other changes of note are the Minneapolis Hockey Club and Mill City Hockey Club being allowed to play their home games at the newly built Nicollet Park, home of the Minneapolis Millers baseball team with a capacity of 4,000.

Let me know what you think, comments are always appreciated!

FC Macbeth wrote:

I wonder when do these teams start to get their nicknames.

Unlike the first time through the MAHL I wanted to do the nicknames a little more realistically and since nicknames didn't really become official for most college and professional teams until the 1910s, 20s, & 30s I plan on waiting a bit to start adopting nicknames full time.

That doesn't mean teams wont have nicknames before then, just that they wont be an official part of team name for a while. Some teams will adopt nicknames sooner than others and there will be a slow phase-in process as teams begin to transition to a "Location Nickname" naming format rather than the classic "Location Hockey/Athletic Club" format that was more common when the game first started.