Alternate History Sports / Minnesota Amateur Hockey League

**Posted by RoughRiders9** 5/26/2019 6:04 pm

Hello there!

Glad to see this league still up and running! Too bad about CCSLC, but it looks like it'll be a better place around here! More friendly and we all understand each other.

Keep it up and I'll be around for sure! Glad to have my first-ever post to be in this thread

Let's go, Minnesota!

**Posted by Section30** **Online!** 5/26/2019 10:50 pm

RoughRiders9 wrote:
Hello there!

Glad to see this league still up and running! Too bad about CCSLC, but it looks like it'll be a better place around here! More friendly and we all understand each other.

Keep it up and I'll be around for sure! Glad to have my first-ever post to be in this thread

Let's go, Minnesota!

Great to see you found the new site, I think it'll be pretty cool having our own little group of people with similar interests that all kinda have the same idea of how things should go.

I'm excited to see what you come up!

**Posted by Section30** **Online!** 5/27/2019 3:33 pm

Prior to the 1922/23 season the Eveleth Rangers and Soudan Miners adjusted their uniforms, neither team changed logos.

The Rangers just removed their E logo from the front and replaced it with the player numbers so it'd be easier for people to identify players.

The Miners just moved their chest stripe down to the bottom of the jersey and shrunk their crest and put it on the upper left side of the chest. Their reasoning was "We wanted to put the team crest over our hearts as a reminder to ourselves who we are playing for. We are playing for the guys next to us, and we thought having the logo over our hearts would be a good way to show this."

**Posted by Section30** **Online!** 5/27/2019 3:33 pm

The 1922/23 season came and went and there were some familiar faces at the top... and bottom. The Hornets and Mavericks won their leagues back to back seasons, this is the first time that has happened in the leagues history. The Eveleth Rangers squeezed their way back into the playoffs, and the Victorias clinched a playoff birth after a 4 year absence

.

**Posted by Section30** **Online!** 5/27/2019 3:34 pm

The playoffs came and the top 2 teams in the Twin Cities proved why they finished so high in the league, winning their opening series in 2-0 sweeps. Things were a lot closer in the Iron Range, but the top 2 seeds came out on top none the less. In the second round, the Millers continued to play their brand of physical hockey, dominating the Mavericks and sweeping them to advance to yet another finals appearance. The two teams next to Lake Superior battled one another in the Iron Range finals, and the Broncos knocked off the Hornets advancing to the finals for the second year in a row.

**Posted by Section30** **Online!** 5/27/2019 3:35 pm

The Millers had home ice advantage due to having a better regular season record since both teams were 2 seeds.

Game 1: The Broncos jumped out to a 1 goal lead but quickly got overpowered by the Millers heavy hitting style of play. The Millers would go on to score 3 unanswered and win despite a late goal by the Broncos.
Game 2: The Millers came out hitting and knocked Cloquet's star forward John Nelson out of the game on a clean, open ice collision. The Broncos lost the ability to keep up and lost the game 4-1.
Game 3: Still without Nelson, the Broncos simply didn't have the firepower to match Minneapolis. The Millers won the game 2-0 and clinched their first Kellogg Cup! The Millers are the first team to go through the entire playoffs without losing a single game.

The Millers Kellogg Cup win is their first after making the playoffs all 8 years, including 4 trips to the finals.

**Posted by Section30** **Online!** 5/27/2019 3:36 pm

Coming into the 1923/24 season there were 2 more teams set to join. Rather than join the Iron Range league, they convinced the Duluth Hornets and Cloquet Broncos to leave and create their own league as Duluth and Cloquet had a long trip for most away games. Thus the Lake Superior Hockey League was born, with the Cloquet Broncos, Duluth Hornets, Duluth Voyageurs, and Superior Lakers being the founding teams.

The Duluth Voyageurs are named after the french fur traders that set up a trading post in the city and helped make it the port city it has become. Their colors are blue, red and white; the colors of the french flag, and their logo is a fleur de lis. The Voyageurs are often referred to by locals as "le bleus" due to the color of their uniforms as well as the french history of the area.

The Superior Lakers name is pretty straight forward, their colors are blue and white with black accents. The blue is supposed to represent Lake Superior. The Lakers are the first team in the Minnesota Amateur Hockey League to be from another state, being from Wisconsin.

**Posted by Section30** **Online!** 5/27/2019 3:38 pm

The regular season came to an end and not much changed. The Royals stayed atop the Iron Range, the Broncos and Hornets continued to be dominant in their new league, and the only change in the Cities was the Millers and Vulcans swapping places. Due to there now being 3 leagues the playoffs will be altered quite a bit with each team still sending 4 teams (yes I know that means all the teams in the Superior League will automatically advance) making it a 12 team playoff.

**Posted by Section30** **Online!** 5/27/2019 3:39 pm

The new playoff format works as follows:

Top seeded teams from each league get first round byes
The team with the best regular season record who did not finish first in their league will get the 4th bye
The first 2 rounds are divided so 3 out of the 4 brackets are all teams from the same league
The fourth or "Wildcard" bracket is made up of the team with the best record that didn't win their league and the third place teams from the other two leagues.
The league with the top seeded team with the worst record is in the same side of the bracket as the wildcards, but they will home ice in the semi finals
The league with the top seeded team with the best record will be at the top of the bracket and have home ice advantage in the semi finals
The first round is single elimination
Second and third rounds are both best of 3 series
The Finals are still best of 5

The playoffs came around and for the first time ever teams from different leagues can play each other in a game other than the finals. The knockout round had no surprises with the higher seed winning every time. There were a couple upsets in the second round however, with the Millers knocking out the Black Bears, and the Vulcans taking down the heavy favorites from South St. Paul. In the semi finals the Virginia Royals cruised past the Vulcans to advance to the finals. The Millers continued to upset as they beat the Cloquet Broncos in a rematch of last years final. Will the Royals be the kings of the league, or will the Millers go back to back?

Last edited by Section30 (5/27/2019 3:40 pm)

**Posted by Section30** **Online!** 5/27/2019 3:40 pm

Game 1: The Royals came out with a fire under them in game one and were just too much for the Millers defense to handle, Virginia put up 4 and won game one.
Game 2: The second game looked as if it was going to be just lake the first when the Royals were up 2-0 after the first period. Millers coach Bobby Smith gave the team a harsh talking to between periods, rumor has it he was so enraged with his teams play he actually broke a stick over his knee, whatever he said/did it worked as his men completed the comeback and took game 2.
Game 3: With the series moving to Minneapolis, the Millers hoped to build on their last comeback win; the Royals had other plans. The blue and gold held the Millers to just 11 shots on target and didn't allow a goal and taking the series lead 2-1.
Game 4: The Royals could almost taste victory before the game even began, the team was ready in uniform 30 minutes before the refs even showed up. They were ready to go, and go they did, scoring early and often. They buried the Millers who just couldn't keep up with the onslaught of offence the Royals were delivering. And just like that the Virginia Royals are your 1924 Kellogg Cup Champions! This is their first Kellogg Cup victory.