Alternate History Sports / Minnesota Amateur Hockey League

**Posted by Section30** 5/25/2019 5:33 pm

The 1919 season came along and a couple teams made changes. Ely adopted the nickname "Black Bears" after their Kellogg cup run last year. The St. Paul Athletic Club changed their name to the St. Paul Saints and changed their logo to a script St. Paul. With the name change, the saints also adjusted their uniforms by adding more cream. . And we have the first expansion team to join the MAHL, the Virginia Royals. The Royals join the Iron Range Hockey League and are located just north of Eveleth, they are named after the cities nickname "the Queen City of the North" and their logo is a crown in the team colors of royal blue and gold. Here are the new uniforms for the 1918/19 season!

**Posted by Section30** 5/25/2019 5:34 pm

After the regular season, the Iron Range remained mainly the same with Ely really becoming a dominant force in the league, Soudan continues to struggle, and the Rangers seem to be falling off compared to their rivals, the Reds. Down in the Twin Cities the Millers continued to dominate, making the playoffs for the fourth straight year, the newly named Saints finally passed their big brothers, the Victorias.

Will the Black Bears go back to back? Will the Reds become the second team from Eveleth to win the cup? Will the Millers finally win the big game? Or will the Saints have god on their side?

**Posted by Section30** 5/25/2019 5:35 pm

The playoffs came and Ely's dominance continued as they swept the Reds in the semi finals. Minneapolis also advanced to the finals for the third straight year after beating the Saints 2 games to one. In a rematch of last years finals, the Black Bears defeated the Millers for the second straight year, becoming the first team to win multiple Kellogg Cups, and doing so in back to back years.

**Posted by Section30** 5/25/2019 5:37 pm

Before the 1919/20 season, two new teams joined, one from either league. In the Iron Range, the Cloquet Broncos join and are the first team outside of St. Louis County, but they are much closer to Duluth than any other team in the league. Down in the cities, the Twin City Vulcans joined. The story of the Vulcans coming to be is actually very interesting. Lou Tschida had been a member of the St. Paul AC/Saints ever since the team was founded in 1915. He had many issues with some of his teammates, especially star center Maurice Martin. The two would often get into yelling matches and even fights. After the Saints lost in the semi finals last year, Martin blamed the loss on Tschida. That was the last straw for Lou, as he gathered many of his teammates as well as co workers from Minneapolis, and he formed the Vulcans. The team is called Twin Cities due to having a fairly split team with many living in either Minneapolis or St. Paul, the name Vulcans was picked to be a direct attack on Tschida's former team, the Saints. It's safe to say that games between these teams will be rough to say the least. Here are the uniforms for the new teams:

**Posted by Section30** 5/25/2019 5:38 pm

After the regular season there were a couple surprises, the Royals finished first in the Iron Range advancing to the playoffs for the first time. But nothing was as surprising as the Vulcans, finishing first in the Cities in their first season. Some dominant teams from the past really fell off this year, in particular the Rangers and Victorias, who both recently won the Kellogg cup and are now dead last in their leagues.

**Posted by Section30** 5/25/2019 5:39 pm

The playoffs came and the Black Bears experience carried them past the Virginia Royals 2 games to 1 in the first round. In the Cities, the Vulcans surprising run continued as they beat the Millers to advance to the finals in their first year. In the championship game, the Vulcans were carried by their captain, Lou Tschida. They knocked off the defending champs from Ely, and won their first Kellogg Cup!

**Posted by Section30** 5/25/2019 5:40 pm

Prior to the 1920/21 season two teams joined the Iron Range Hockey League, the Chisholm Flames and Hibbing Greyhounds.

The Flames colors are burnt red and gold meant to resemble a fire. The name Flames comes from a forest fire that destroyed much of the city in 1908 where citizens ran into the lakes to stay safe.

The Hibbing Greyhounds are the first sponsored team in the MAHL. Their name comes from the team sponsor, Greyhound Lines, which was founded in Hibbing 7 years prior to the team.

**Posted by Section30** 5/25/2019 5:42 pm

The 1920/21 came to an end with only a couple story lines. The biggest of these would be the surprising climb to the top of the Iron Range by the Duluth Hornets, led by the speedy winger, Guy Gerard, the Hornets finished the season far ahead of the rest of the league. The expansion teams in the Iron Range did not fare very well, coming in the last two positions in their league with 7 combined wins between them. Down in the cities, things were mainly same old same old with the Millers yet again on top of the league with the Vulcans, Saints, and Mavs following behind.

**Posted by Section30** 5/25/2019 5:44 pm

Due to the increase in the amount of teams in both leagues, the MAHL decided to expand the playoffs. Instead of only the top 2 teams from both leagues the playoffs are now the top 4 teams from both leagues with the #1 team playing #4 and #2 playing #3 in the opening round. The playoffs are all best of 3 until the finals where it is best of 5, no more one and done finals to decide who wins the Kellogg Cup.

There was nothing surprising in the first round with the top 2 teams in both leagues advancing. In the second round the Vulcans upset the Millers for the second year in a row advancing to the finals again. In the Iron Range, the Hornets continued to buzz, easily advancing past the Royals from Virginia. The finals will consist of the defending champs from the Twin Cities against the Duluth Hornets who are playing in their first Kellogg Cup Finals

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**Posted by Section30** 5/25/2019 5:46 pm

In the first Kellogg Cup Finals with a best of 5 format the Hornets had home ice advantage being the higher seed.

Game 1: The Hornets made it clear they weren't messing around, jumping out to a 2 goal lead just 5 minutes into the game, both goals by Gerard, the game ended a 3-1 win for the home side.
Game 2: Tschida lit a fire under his men prior to game 2 and helped lead them to a 2-0 victory on enemy ice.
Game 3: The Vulcans continued their momentum on home ice and squeaked out a 4-3 win in OT.
Game 4: The Hornets knew they were one loss away from being done, they played very defensive and shut down Tschida and the Vulcans for most of the game, they won the game 2-1 and forced a deciding game 5 back in Duluth.
Game 5: in front of a rowdy crowd on the shores of Lake Superior, Gerard took the team on his shoulders and got a hat trick to win the Kellogg Cup for the Hornets.