2013-14 NA3HL Season

This is the 2013-14 North American 3 Hockey League. This is the league's 4th season.

The league's 21 teams played in four unbalanced geographically aligned divisions. All teams with the exception of the teams in the South Division played 48 games, the South Division teams played 40 or 45 games. The league was suposed to have 22 teams playing this season; but as the season was getting ready to start the McKinney, Texas franchise tried to postpone its first few games citing a lack of players and eventually having to cancel its season.

In March 2014, the league announced that it would absorb the teams from the American West Hockey League in a merger and those teams would form the Frontier Division for the 2014-15 season. The league had already announced plans for expansion to California and Arizona, which would comprise the Western Division  with four franchises one in the Phoenix area, one in the San Jose area and two teams in Southern California.

Franchise changes for 2013-14 season

 * The Three Rivers Vengeance were renamed the Pittsburgh Vengeance.
 * The Chicago Hitmen who had sat out the 2012-13 season were replaced by the Chicago Jr. Bulldogs.
 * The Quad City Jr. Flames moved to Madison,Wisconsin and were renamed the Wisconsin Whalers.
 * The Queen City Steam was renamed the Cincinnati Swords after merging with another junior hockey organization in the Cincinnati area.
 * The league also added the Dallas Jr Stars, the Sugar Land Imperials, the Topeka Roadrunners (who were renamed the Topeka Capitals before they played) and the McKinney Warriors,  dropped out sometime in early October due to a lack of players.

Standings
Central Division Team                       GP W  L OTL Pts GF  GA  y-Peoria Mustangs           48 32 15  1 65 227 147 x-St. Louis Jr. Blues      48 30 15  3 63 209 147 x-Wisconsin Whalers        48 26 15  7 59 221 167 x-Chicago Jr. Bulldogs     48 24 17  7 55 201 197 Cincinnati Swords          48 25 19  4 54 175 164 Battle Creek Jr Revolution 48  1 47  0  2  53 341 East Division Team                       GP W  L OTL Pts GF  GA y-Flint Jr. Generals        48 42  4  2 86 216  80 x-Cleveland Jr. Lumberjacks 48 27 15 6 60 183 150 x-Pittsburgh Vengeance     48 25 15  8 58 156 130 x-Metro Jets               48 22 24  2 46 139 171 Toledo Cherokee            48 20 22  6 46 113 149 Michigan Mountain Cats     48 10 34  4 24 100 198 South Division Team                       GP W  L OTL Pts GF  GA  y-Topeka Capitals           45 33 11 1  67 229 135 x-Dallas Jr. Stars         40 16 22 2  34 137 167 x-Sugar Land Imperials     40  9 28 3  21 141 257 West Division Team                       GP W  L OTL Pts GF  GA  z-North Iowa Bulls          48 45  3 0  90 334  92 x-Granite City Lumberjacks 48 36 12 0  72 249 124 x-Alexandria Blizzard      48 31 17 0  62 228 164 x-Twin City Steel          48 22 20 6  50 186 201 Minnesota Flying Aces      48  9 36 3  21 111 275 Breezy Point North Stars   48  8 38 2  18 107 290 x-clinched playoff birth y-division champion z-regular season champion

Format
The top four teams in each division except the South Division make the playoffs. The South Division had only 3 teams and all of them made the playoffs and the top seed drew a first round bye. The division winners advanced to the NA3HL Silver Cup 2014 tournament.

Central Division Semifinals

 * Peoria vs Chicago
 * Peoria defeated Chicago 2 games to none, 4-2, 7-3


 * St. Louis vs Wisconsin
 * St. Louis defeated Wisconsin 2 games to none, 4-3, 4-3

East Division Semifinals

 * Flint vs Metro
 * Flint defeated Metro 2 games to none, 4-3, 4-1


 * Cleveland vs Pittsburgh
 * Cleveland defeated Pittsburgh 2 games to none, 8-5, 2-1

South Division Semifinal

 * Dallas vs Sugar Land
 * Dallas defeated Sugar Land 2 games to none, 4-3, 10-1

West Division Semifinals

 * North Iowa vs Twin City
 * North Iowa defeated Twin City 2 games to none, 7-1, 10-5


 * Granite City vs Alexandria
 * Granite City defeated Alexandria 2 games to 1, 1-4, 3-2, 4-2

Central Division Final

 * Peoria vs St. Louis
 * St Louis defeated Peoria 2 games to 1, 4-5, 4-3, 3-1

East Division Final

 * Flint vs Cleveland
 * Flint defeated Cleveland 2 games to none, 5-1, 3-2

South Division Final

 * Topeka vs Dallas
 * Dallas defeated Topeka 2 games to 1, 6-4, 1-4, 4-3

West Division Final

 * North Iowa vs Granite City
 * North Iowa defeated Granite City 2 games to 1, 4-3, 2-4, 9-5

NA3HL Silver Cup 2014
The four division playoff winners met in a round robin tounament. The top two teams from the round robin advanced to a championship game. The two finalists advanced to the 2014 USA Hockey Tier III Junior National Championship.

Round robin results

 * Flint defeated St Louis, 3 to 1
 * North Iowa defeated Dallas, 7 to 1
 * Flint defeated Dallas, 5 to 2
 * North Iowa defeated St Louis, 7 to 0
 * St Louis defeated Dallas, 8 to 1
 * North Iowa defated Flint, 7 to 3

Standings
Team        GP W L GF GA  x-North Iowa  3 3 0 21  4 x-Flint      3 2 1 11 10 St Louis     3 1 2  9 11 Dallas       3 0 3  4 20 x-advance to final

Championship game
North Iowa defeated Flint 3 to 0

The North Iowa Bulls and the Flint Jr. Generals advanced to the 2014 USA Hockey Tier III Junior National Championship

Flint Jr Generals

 * finished in a 3 way tie for first in the White pool with a 2-1 record but finished 3rd in the pool and were eliminated on goal differential tie breakers

North Iowa Bulls

 * finished in first place in the Blue pool with a 3-0 record
 * defeated the Northern Cyclones of the Eastern Hockey League in the semifinals, 5 to 1
 * lost to the Junior Bruins of the United States Premier Hockey League's Premier Division in the National Championship game, 4 to 1