North American 3 Hockey League

North American 3 Hockey League

Sport	Ice hockey
Founded	1994
No. of teams	16
Country(ies)	United States
Most recent champion(s)	Chicago Hitmen
Official website	http://www.na3hl.com

The North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) is an American Tier III Junior "A" ice hockey league that consists of 16 teams from Illinois, Ohio, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri and Pennsylvania.. The NA3HL is a member of USA Hockey, and the winner of the NA3HL's playoffs goes on to play for the National Championship against the champions of the five other Tier III leagues and a host city.

League History

The league began as the a Junior B-level league known as the Central States Hockey League (CSHL), during the early 1980s it was known as Metro Detroit Junior Hockey League.^[1] but returned to the CSHL name until 2010. The league moved up from Junior B to Tier III Junior A status in the summer of 2007 because it was considered to be one of the top Junior B leagues in the United States. The past four years, the St. Louis Jr. Blues proved their dominance on the national stage winning the national championship four years in a row. The Jr Blues made history during the 2006-2007 season. They were the first team to win four consecutive national titles, breaking a record that was set over 60 years ago.

CSHL logo

During the 2008-2009 season, it was announced that the Pittsburgh Jr. Penguins would be joining the CSHL for the 2009-2010 season, bringing the number of teams to 13. The league returned to 12 teams for 2010-11, as the Dubuque Thunderbirds franchise folded making room for the return of the Dubuque Fighting Saints in United States Hockey League.

On November 1, 2010 it was announced that the North American Hockey League would take control of the CSHL immediately. The NAHL-CSHL affiliation allows for a more structured Jr. hockey system to provide athletes with more opportunities to advance to college and pro hockey. At the time of the take over the league was renamed to the North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL).^[2][3]

In May, 2011 it was announced that the Granite City Lumberjacks, Minnesota Flying Aces, North Iowa Bulls and the Twin City Steel would be joining the North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) beginning with the 2011-2012 season bringing the total number of teams in the NA3HL to 16. ^{[4] [5]}

Alumni

Many prominent college and pro hockey players have played in the CSHL at one point in their careers, including 2007 Hobey Baker finalist Eric Ehn (Metro Jets), Colorado Avalanche forward and 2010 U.S. Olympian Paul Stastny (St. Louis Jr. Blues) and Chris Butler (St. Louis Jr. Blues), now in the Calgary Flames' organization.

Current Teams

West Division
Team	Location	Arena
Granite City Lumberjacks	St. Cloud, Minnesota	Sports Arena East
Minnesota Flying Aces	Little Falls, Minnesota	Exchange Arena
North Iowa Bulls	Mason City, Iowa	North Iowa Ice Arena
Twin City Steel	Vadnais Heights, Minnesota	Vadnais Sports Center
East Division
Team	Location	Arena
Cleveland Jr. Lumberjacks	Strongsville, Ohio	Ice Land USA
Flint Jr. Generals	Flint, Michigan	Flint Iceland Arenas
Metro Jets	Waterford, Michigan	Lakeland Ice Arena
Pittsburgh Jr. Penguins	Harmarville, Pennsylvania	Bladerunners- Harmarville
North Division
Team	Location	Arena
Battle Creek Jr. Revolution	Battle Creek, Michigan	Revolution Arena
Michigan Mountain Cats	Burton, Michigan	Ice Mountain Arena
Queen City Steam	Evendale, Ohio	Sports Plus Arena
Toledo Cherokee	Toledo, Ohio	Team Toledo Ice House
Central Division
Team	Location	Arena
Chicago Hitmen	Rolling Meadows, Illinois	West Meadows Ice Arena
Peoria Mustangs	Peoria, Illinois	Owens Recreation Center
Quad City Jr. Flames	Davenport, Iowa	Quad City Sports Center
St. Louis Jr. Blues	Affton, Missouri	Affton Ice Rink

References

1. ^ http://na3hl.com/news/story.cfm?id=1944
2. ^ http://na3hl.com/news/story.cfm?id=1944
3. ^ http://www.nahl.com/news/story.cfm?id=1944
4. ^ http://www.na3hl.com/news/story.cfm?id=2669
5. ^ http://www.na3hl.com/news/story.cfm?id=2674