North Eastern Hockey League
| File:NEHL.PNG | |
| Sport | Ice hockey |
|---|---|
| Founded | 2003 |
| No. of teams | 4 |
| Country |  United States |
| Official website | [1] |
The North Eastern Hockey League is a minor hockey league. It was created by entrepreneur Jim Cashman, who served as league president and as both coach and captain of the 2003-04 York IceCats.
The league began play as a semi-pro weekend-only league with 4 teams for the 2003-04 season. Four teams started the season:
- Jamestown Titans
- Mohawk Valley Comets
- Poughkeepsie Panthers (later known as the Connecticut Cougars)
- York IceCats
The season began in November, with high scoring (it was not uncommon to see teams score 10-12 goals apiece) games being the norm. The Poughkeepsie franchise was relocated to Connecticut (due to lack of attendance) and renamed the Cougars between Christmas and New Year. They played out the remainder of the season as a travel team when negotiations with the arena fell through.
The league was having financial problems and the Comets decided 2 days before the playoff weekend that they were not going to participate.
With the Comets as the league regular season leaders they were to get a bye straight to the finals, which was to be played on Sunday. York and Jamestown (the second and third place teams) were to play on the Saturday to see who went on to face the Comets. Once the Comets had informed the league that they would not be playing, the league changed the playoff structure. York and Jamestown would play a 2 game series that weekend. If there were a tie after the 2 games they would play a 20-minute mini game.
York won the opening game, 8-5. Jamestown defeated York 9-1 in the second game and then won a 20-minute tiebreaker game 6-1. As league champions, the Titans received the Herb Brooks Memorial Trophy.
The league went dark for the 2004-05 season, then attempted to return in 2005-06 as the Continental Professional Hockey League with teams in Canada and the United States.
The regular 44-game season was supposed to start in early November 2005, was postponed, saw 6 games played, and was cancelled in mid-December 2005. The four scheduled teams were:
- St. Catharines IceCats
- Philadelphia Comets (travel team)
- Pittsburgh Pounders
- Sault Ste. Marie Stampede
The league has returned to the North Eastern Hockey League name for the 2006-07 season.
2006-07 teams
The 2007-08 season is supposedly going to increase the level of competition among the league. Apparently Mohawk Valley has signed rugged forward Rob Cappellupo from Rochester, New York. He is heralded as the savior of this league. During the 2005-06 season with the Monroe Tribunes, Cappellupo had 22 points in 9 games. He holds the Tribunes record for points per game, and averaged more points than Dustin Penner, when he played in that league.File:Http://image63.webshots.com/163/7/34/46/2005734460068907680LaIdTm ph.jpgtrack pagetag=/page/photo/goodtimes/people&track action=/Shortcuts/FullSize
The New England Stars Finished first with a record of 20-0, and cruised in the Championship series easily beating the Mohawk Valley Icecats 2 games to 0 (8-5 and 9-2)to capture the 2006-2007 NEHL Crown.
Previous NEHL
A previous league was also known as the North Eastern Hockey League during the 1978-79 season. This league renamed itself the Eastern Hockey League for the 1979-80 season.