Western States Hockey League

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Mr Lisle
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Western States Hockey League

Post by Mr Lisle » Thu Dec 18, 2014 11:50 am

Don't know how many of you have heard of this league. Twenty-eight teams are divided into four divisions and spread liberally throughtout the west, from El Paso to Seattle, from San Diego to Wichita. If you live in the west you might want to look it up. There's probably a team in your back yard. Montana has three, the Whitefish Wolverines, the Butte Cobras and the Missoula Maulers. Taking a look at the Butte roster there are 29 active and 5 inactive players with home ranging from Russia (2), Sweden (3), Canada (2), Minnesota (3) Butte (2), Billings (1), Great Britian (1) and other far off places. As is the case with most of these minnie-minor leagues attendance appears to be a problem. After eleven games (a while back) El Paso led with an average of 1,521. Missoula was second with 908, Butte was fifth at 519 and Whitefish was mid-pack at 260. Things get pretty ugly from there. Some examples... the Arizona Redhawks average 128, Seattle Totems 115, Las Vegas Storm 71, Dallas Snipers 26 and Colorado Evolution 9---nine---nuevo...I said IX!
Anyway, Hockey is fast and the game is fun to watch. If you get a chance go see these guys.



John K
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Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2007 11:04 am
Location: Great Falls MT

Re: Western States Hockey League

Post by John K » Tue Dec 23, 2014 8:12 am

Mr Lisle wrote:Don't know how many of you have heard of this league. Twenty-eight teams are divided into four divisions and spread liberally throughtout the west, from El Paso to Seattle, from San Diego to Wichita. If you live in the west you might want to look it up. There's probably a team in your back yard. Montana has three, the Whitefish Wolverines, the Butte Cobras and the Missoula Maulers. Taking a look at the Butte roster there are 29 active and 5 inactive players with home ranging from Russia (2), Sweden (3), Canada (2), Minnesota (3) Butte (2), Billings (1), Great Britian (1) and other far off places. As is the case with most of these minnie-minor leagues attendance appears to be a problem. After eleven games (a while back) El Paso led with an average of 1,521. Missoula was second with 908, Butte was fifth at 519 and Whitefish was mid-pack at 260. Things get pretty ugly from there. Some examples... the Arizona Redhawks average 128, Seattle Totems 115, Las Vegas Storm 71, Dallas Snipers 26 and Colorado Evolution 9---nine---nuevo...I said IX!
Anyway, Hockey is fast and the game is fun to watch. If you get a chance go see these guys.
Is that paid attendance, or actual "butts in the seats"? :lol: What city in Colorado do the Evolution call home? so if they ever get into double digits for a home game, I bet their arena is really rockin". :lol: I love hockey, and go to quite a few of the GF Americans games. So do you have any idea how the level of play compares between the NA3HL, which has teams in Billings, Bozeman, Cody, Gillette, Great Falls, Havre, and Helena, and the Western State Hockey League? It seems sort of odd that the Montana cities don't all play in the same league.



John K
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Joined: Mon Jun 11, 2007 11:04 am
Location: Great Falls MT

Re: Western States Hockey League

Post by John K » Tue Dec 23, 2014 8:32 am

To clarify, the seven teams in Montana and Wyoming make up the Frontier Division of the NA3HL. In all, there are 31 teams in five divisions, stretching from Montana to New York to Alabama to Texas. It's classified as a Tier III Junior A League.



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