Atlantic Coast Hockey League (2002–03)

Atlantic Coast Hockey League
Sport Ice hockey
Founded 2002
Ceased 2003
No. of teams 6
Last
champion(s)		 Orlando Seals

The Atlantic Coast Hockey League was a professional minor league ice hockey league based in the United States. The second league to bear the name Atlantic Coast Hockey League, it operated for only one season, 2002–2003, before its franchises split into two new leagues.

History

The 2002 incarnation of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League was the second organization to bear this name, after the original Atlantic Coast Hockey League, the early 1980s predecessor of the East Coast Hockey League. The ACHL would last only one season, and was notable for the early-season move of the St. Petersburg Parrots to Winston-Salem, North Carolina. After a bitter split among the franchises, the league split into two new leagues, the South East Hockey League and World Hockey Association 2. Surviving franchises would later rejoin each other for the 2004–05 season in the Southern Professional Hockey League.

The Orlando Seals won the ACHL's only regular season and playoff championships.

Teams

Two expansion teams were planned for the 2003–04 season, before the league folded:

League split

After the 2002–03 season, David Waronker, who owned four of the ACHL's teams in whole or in part, announced he would be founding a new league the following year. This was the World Hockey Association 2, which was envisioned as a developmental league to a revived World Hockey Association. Waronker's teams, the Jacksonville Barracudas, the Macon Trax, the Orlando Seals, and the ACHL expansion team, the Miami Manatees, joined this new league; they were joined by the Lakeland Loggerheads and the Alabama Slammers. The Cape Fear Fire Antz and the Knoxville Ice Bears joined the SEHL with the Huntsville Channel Cats (who were also briefly an ACHL expansion team), the Tupelo T-Rex (who never played due to contractual issues with a previous professional league), and eventually the Winston-Salem T-Birds (who began the season known as the Winston-Salem Hockey Club) as the 4th team.

Final standings

Regular season

Team GP W L OTL GF GA Pts
Orlando Seals 59 43 14 2 235 158 88
Knoxville Ice Bears 59 36 21 2 231 186 74
Macon Trax 59 31 25 3 214 202 65
St. Pete/Winston-Salem Parrots 57 28 23 6 171 174 62
Cape Fear Fire Antz 60 21 37 3 180 243 44
Jacksonville Barracudas 60 18 41 1 180 248 37

Playoffs

Semifinals Final
              
1 Orlando Seals 3 4 1 x x
3 Macon Trax 2 3 0 x x
1 Orlando Seals 2 3 8 x x
2 Knoxville Ice Bears 1 1 1 x x
4 St. Pete/Winston-Salem Parrots 0 1 0 x x
2 Knoxville Ice Bears 1 3 3 x x

Final

All times are local (EST)

March 26, 2003
7:00 pm		Knoxville1 – 2
(1–1, 0–1, 0–0)		OrlandoTD Waterhouse Centre, Orlando, FL
March 28, 2003
7:30 pm		Knoxville1 – 3
(0–1, 0–1, 1–1)		OrlandoTD Waterhouse Centre, Orlando, FL
March 29, 2003
7:30 pm		Orlando8 – 1
(5–0, 2–1, 1–0)		KnoxvilleJames White Civic Coliseum, Knoxville, TN
Attendance: 3,258

See also

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