Huntsville Channel Cats

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Huntsville Channel Cats
Founded	1995
Folded	2003
Home Ice	Von Braun Center
Based in	Huntsville, Alabama
Colors	teal, black, and white
League	Southern Hockey League (1995-96) Central Hockey League (1996-2001) South East Hockey League (2003-04)

The Huntsville Channel Cats were a minor-league professional ice hockey team based in Huntsville, Alabama. They played home games in the Von Braun Center arena. For the 2000-01 season, they changed their name to the Huntsville Tornado, a reference to the tornado that struck South Huntsville in 1989.

Contents 1 History 2 Short-Lived Rebirth 3 Year-by-Year Record 4 Team Records

[edit] History

The Huntsville Blast first brought hockey to Huntsville in the 1993-94 season. John Cherney, a local businessman, brought a new franchise to town, to join the newly-expanded Southern Hockey League in 1995. The team won the championship that year, but the league folded at the end of the season. For the 96-97 season, the team joined the Central Hockey League, and played in its Eastern division. The Cats won the 1998-99 championship, completing their best season as a franchise.

The following seasons saw many fan favorites leave the team, and the drop down the standings caused a drop in attendance. Amid concerns over sharing arena space with the UAH Chargers hockey team and the new NBDL basketball team, as well as the CHL's desire to contract to more South-Central US markets, the team did not compete in the 2001-02 and 2002-03 seasons. Cherney threatened to move the team to Madison, a suburb of Huntsville, if he did not get the dates he wanted, but to no avail.

[edit] Short-Lived Rebirth

In 2002, Cherney became involved in the new Atlantic Coast Hockey League. The league was split at the end of the 02-03 season into the WHA2 and the Cherney-led South East Hockey League. Cherney resurrected the Channel Cats to play in his new league. The Cats rolled to the regular-season and playoff championships in the 4-team league.

Following the season, both the SEHL and WHA2 fell into disarray. Keith Jeffries, president of HSV Sports, LLC (who operate the local Vipers af2 franchise) made a bid to have a hockey team in the upstart Eastern Hockey League (later to be renamed the Southern Professional Hockey League), joining teams from the now-defunct WHA2. The Von Braun Center, home ice for the Cats, chose to accept the new franchise over the Cats, bringing an end to the Channel Cats name. The other teams from the SEHL followed Huntsville's lead and joined the SPHL as well. The new franchise would be named the Huntsville Havoc, and would successfully carry on the legacy of pro hockey in Huntsville.

[edit] Year-by-Year Record

Year	League	GP	W	L	T	OTL	Pts	Pct	GF	GA	PIM	Coach	Result
1995-96	SHL	60	25	31	2	0	56	0.467	274	294	2191	Larry Floyd	Won Championship
1996-97	CHL-East	66	39	24	3	0	81	0.614	311	297	2111	Larry Floyd	Won division title lost in round 2
1997-98	CHL-East	70	40	22	8	0	88	0.629	333	281	2374	Larry Floyd	lost in round 1
1998-99	CHL-East	70	47	19	0	4	98	0.671	310	251	2313	Chris Stewart	Won division title Won Championship
1999-00	CHL-East	70	37	27	0	6	80	0.529	242	244	2350	Pat Bingham	Lost in round 1
2000-01 (Tornado)	CHL-East	70	31	36	0	3	65	0.443	217	275	1972	Craig Coxe (52 games) Kent Hawley (18 games)	no postseason
2003-04	SEHL	56	43	13	0	0	86	0.768	233	164	1671	John Gibson	Won season title Won Championship

[edit] Team Records

Goals: 65 Chris George (98-99)

Assists: 92 Jonathan DuBois (97-98)

Points: 129 Jonathan DuBois (97-98)

Penalty Minutes: 346 Mike Degurse (97-98)

GAA: 2.74 Matt Carmichael (03-04)

SV%: .922 Matt Carmichael (03-04)

Career Goals: 234 Chris George

Career Assists: 323 Jonathan DuBois

Career Points: 453 Jonathan DuBois

Career Penalty Minutes: 1312 Mike Degurse

Career Goaltending Wins: 66 Matt Carmichael

Career Shutouts: 3 Brent Belecki

Career Games: 333 Chris George