This is the 2014-15 Federal Hockey League season. This was the league's 5th season.
FHL 5th anniversary logo
Franchise changes[]
On April 11, 2014 the league issued a release announcing a new team in Western Pennsylvania. The league had indicated on its' website that it was planning on adding a second expansion team for the 2014-15 season. originally Connellsville was mentioned for the site of the expansion team, but the Port Huron Fighting Falcons of the North American Hockey League announced they were relocating to Connellsville for the 2014-15 season. The league later announced that they were placing an expansion team in the town of Belle Vernon that will be known as the Southwest Pennsylvania Magic or SWPA Magic.
The Watertown Privateers folded after the 2013-14 season after being unable to locate new local ownership. A new franchise was awarded to local ownership for the 2014-15 season. The new ownership did not want to inherit the team's debt. The ownership chose the name Watertown Wolves on August 8, 2014
On July 14, 2014, the league announced an expansion team for the 2014-15 season to be based out of the Notre Dame Arena in Berlin, New Hampshire. The league was setting up a LLC to own and manage the team until local ownership could be found. This franchise ended up moving to North Adams, Massachusetts and were named the Berkshire Battalion. North Adams was originally supposed to have a franchise in the North Atlantic Professional Hockey League, which was supposed to start with the 2014-15 season, but the league pushed back the start up to 2015-16 to allow for more stable ownership groups. The ownership of the North Adams Black Bears which were supposed to play in the NAPHL tried to gain entry into the FHL for the 2014-15 season but were denied due to the FHL's concern over the financial stability of this team. The 2014-15 season started with some hope as the league grew to six teams for the season, however; this did not last long as the SWPA Magic was pulled from the league after playing just one game (and cancelling a weekend series on October 18th and 19th against the Battalion after playing against the Battion in North Adams the night before. The Berkshire Eagle newspaper reported that the Battalion's games in Pennsylvania were cancelled due to "internal issues" within the Magic ownership made it so that the team was not able to host a game in Greensberg.[1] The league had already requested that the other members of the league help out the Berkshire Battalion and the ownership of the Magic could not contribute. However, the Battalion situation may have cause the league management to pull the team out of the league. The Watertown Wolves posted a tweet stating that their home game on October 25th that was originally scheduled against the Magic was still on but it didn't state against whom. The league was working on getting a team together to fill out the Magic's games on the schedule. As of the morning of October 22, the Magic's team website and facebook pages have been pulled. The league has not posted anything on the situation as of this point. WWNY television in the Watertown, NY area issued a report with much of the previous information on the morning of Ocotber 21st [2]
The Watertown Daily Times posted an article on October 22, 2014 stating that the Magic's place in the league had been taken by a team being called Steel City Warriors, which was accepted by the league and will play out of the same arena in Greensburg, PA. The league stated in a release, on the same day, that the team will assume the Magic's schedule starting with the game on November 8th. The team will be started from scratch as they are reported to be holding tryouts between the 23rd and their game on the 25th in Watertown.
Standings[]
Team GP W OTW OTL L PTS PCT GF GA PIM Watertown Wolves 54 32 6 3 13 111 .685 247 185 1391 Dayton Demonz 56 33 5 4 14 113 .673 279 174 1001 Danville Dashers 56 25 6 5 20 92 .548 238 193 959 Danbury Whalers 54 24 3 6 21 84 .519 204 186 1192 Berkshire Battalion 55 23 2 3 27 76 .461 248 243 1051 Steel City Warriors 48 2 1 2 43 10 .069 137 364 717 note: standings are based on point percentage as teams did not all play the same number of games.
Southwest Pennsylvania Magic went 0-1-0-0, 2:10. Points awarded as follows: Regulation win (W)=3 points Over time win (OTW)=2 points Over time loss (OTL)=1 point Regulation loss(L)=0 points
Commisioner's Cup Playoffs[]
Format[]
The top four teams from the regular season (based on point percentage) qualify for the the playoffs. The first round is a best-of-three series. The two semifinal winners advance to a best-of-five final series for the Commissioners Cup.
Semifinals[]
- Watertown defeated Danbury 2 games to 1 (2-4, 3-2, 5-2)
- Danville defeated Dayton 2 games to 1 (8-7, 2-4, 3-2)
Final[]
- Watertown defeated Danville 3 games to 2 (8-2, 1-3, 5-2, 1-2, 6-2)
Watertown Wolves 2015 Federal Hockey League Champions