IHL

IHL may refer to:

United Hockey League

The United Hockey League (UHL), originally known as the Colonial Hockey League from 1991 to 1997 and last known as the International Hockey League from 2007 to 2010, was a low-level minor professional ice hockey league, with teams in the United States and Canada. The league was headquartered in Rochester, Michigan, and in its last year, consisted of seven teams. It folded in 2010, with most of its teams joining the Central Hockey League, which in turn merged with the ECHL in 2014; the Quad City Mallards, Elmira Jackals, Evansville IceMen, Fort Wayne Komets, and Kalamazoo Wings are the only former UHL/IHL teams still active as of 2015.

History

The UHL was originally formed in 1991 as the Colonial Hockey League and had teams in Brantford, Ontario; Detroit, Michigan; Flint, Michigan; St. Thomas, Ontario; and Thunder Bay, Ontario; the avowed goal of the league organizers was to fill the low-level niche in the Great Lakes area abandoned by the original International Hockey League as the latter league engaged in upmarket expansion. As time passed, the CoHL moved eastward, into places like Glens Falls, NY; Danbury, CT; Utica, NY; Binghamton, NY; and Richmond, VA. During that expansion, the league was renamed United Hockey League (UHL) and the headquarters was moved to Lake St. Louis, Missouri in 1997.

International Hockey League (1929–36)

The International Hockey League was a professional hockey league operating in Canada and the United States from 1929 to 1936. It was a direct ancestor of the American Hockey League.

It was formed when the Canadian Professional Hockey League split into two leagues. The larger teams formed the IHL, which was one step below the National Hockey League. The smaller teams kept the CPHL name, and served as a farm system for the IHL for one season.

Three teams folded and two others merged after the 1935-36 season, leaving the IHL with only four teams—the minimum required for the league to be viable. The remaining teams joined with the Canadian-American Hockey League, which had also been cut down to four teams, to form a "circuit of mutual convenience" called the "International-American Hockey League." The two leagues played an interlocking schedule for the next two years, with the IHL serving as the I-AHL's Western Division and the Can-Am serving as its Eastern Division. The Buffalo Bisons, a charter IHL member, suspended operations due to an arena collapse and subsequent financial problems after only 11 games, and the I-AHL played as a seven-team unit for the rest of the season and all of the 1938-39 season.