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Elmira Jackals
Newjackalslogo
City: Elmira, New York
League: ECHL
Conference: American Conference
Division: North Division
Founded: 2000
Home Arena: First Arena
Colors: Navy blue, red, silver, white

                   

Owner(s): Mostafa Afr
General Manager: Robbie S. Nichols
Head Coach: David Leger
Franchise history
2000 to 2017: Elmira Jackals
Championships
Regular Season Titles: None
Division Championships: 2001-02, 2009–10
Conference Championships: None
Kelly Cups: None

The Elmira Jackals were an ice hockey team that play in the ECHL. Their home games are played in First Arena in Elmira, New York and they refer to themselves as "the beasts of the east". Their mascot is named Blade, and they were originally part of the United Hockey League.

The UHL Years[]

Old Elmira Jackals logo

Logo when they were in the UHL

The Jackals were born as a member of the United Hockey League before the 2000-2001 season, as an affiliate of the Columbus Blue Jackets. Eventually, they severed ties with the Blue Jackets and became an independent operation for the rest of their years in the league. During their tenure in the UHL, their average attendance was 3,308 per game, which included 31 sellouts. The largest crowd was a standing-room-only of 4,126 on October 13, 2006.

Playoff History[]

The team made a splash in their first season by immediately making the playoffs. Improving dramatically in the off-season, the Jackals won the Eastern Conference for the first time, in just their second season. They even got as far as playing the Muskegon Fury in the Colonial Cup finals, but lost in a hard fought 6 game series. They returned to the playoffs in 2003, but didn't get the chance to play for The Cup again until the 2004 season when they again faced the Muskegon Fury. After being swept in the 2004 Colonial Cup series, they never returned to the playoffs in the UHL.

04ElmJacProg

Program from 2003-04.

The Final UHL Year[]

Their final season in the league, was especially disappointing. They hired a new head coach who'd proven successful elsewhere and signed a few solid players, giving the team hope for a return to the playoffs. The season brought three head coaching changes, after the first one suffered a mini-stroke. There were also some injuries to key players. One of which, limited top ranked goalie Shawn Degagne to only 4 games.

Despite finishing in last place, there were some bright spots. Star forward Frank Littlejohn scored a franchise record 42 goals. The fans were very supportive of the team, averaging 3,427 per game during the season in an arena that only seats 4,000. Then on April 14, 2007, ownership announced they would be leaving the UHL for the North Division of the ECHL. [1]

ECHL[]

The Elmira Jackals joined the ECHL in the summer of 2007 with a new logo and jerseys. They are a member of the North division.

Returning from a loss in Cincinnati, the team bus was involved in crash on Interstate 90 in Pennsylvania early in the morning of November 29, 2007. Several players sustained minor injuries. The Jackals suffered their worst loss in their first year. They lost to Johnstown 9-3. On March 9, 2008 after three seasons of being out of playoff contention in the United Hockey League, the Elmira Jackals qualified for the East Coast Hockey League playoffs.[2]

For the 2007-08 season, the Jackals were the affiliate of the Syracuse Crunch (AHL) and Columbus Blue Jackets (NHL). Prior to the 2008-09 season, the Jackals affilliated with the National Hockey League's Ottawa Senators and the American Hockey League's Binghamton Senators.

Elmira would win their first division title since moving to the ECHL in 2010, when the team won the East Division title with a record of 37-26-9 and 80 points, three better than second place Reading.

In July 2010, the team announced that it had come to an affiliation agreement with the NHL's Anaheim Ducks and Anaheim's AHL affiliate, the Syracuse Crunch, in Syracuse, NY, 90 miles north of Elmira.


The team was facing the possibility of having to relocate after the 2016-17 season as the ownership of the arena, the city of Elmira, and Chemung County have not been able to come to an agreement on funding for a new ice plant for the arena. Present ownership of the arena has been trying to sell the arena and may be forced to have the arena go dark if either funding for a new ice plant or a sale does not occur. The only other arena large enough in the immediate area would be the Murray Athletic Center Arena which is home to the men's and women's Elmira Soaring Eagles hockey teams. Nothing has been mentioned if the team would fold, relocate, or move into the Murray Athletic Center Arena.  The team would end up announcing on March 10th that the organization would be ceasing operations at the end of the 2016-17 season. The arena is believed to be under agreement to be sold as of the end of the regular season but the team had already announced its folding; and the agreement was contingent upon the possible new owners of the arena acquiring a team for the arena.

Season-by-season record[]

Season GP W L OL SL Pts GF GA PIM Finish Playoffs
2000–01 74 32 33 - 9 73 260 289 2015 2nd, Northeast Lost in first round
2001–02 74 45 21 - 8 98 260 216 2523 1st, Eastern Lost in Final
2002–03 76 41 28 - 7 89 257 254 2250 3rd Eastern Lost in 2nd round
2003–04 76 33 34 - 9 75 238 256 1670 4th, Eastern Lost in Final
2004–05 80 24 51 - 5 53 224 310 1686 4th Eastern Did not qualify
2005–06 76 27 42 - 7 61 231 300 1815 4th Eastern Did not qualify
2006–07 76 30 45 - 1 61 217 287 2087 5th Eastern Did not qualify
2007–08 72 41 24 3 4 89 245 219 1840 2nd.,North Lost in 2nd round
2008–09 72 39 26 2 5 85 235 232 1506 3rd, North Lost in 2nd round
2009–10 72 37 26 6 3 83 275 231 1721 1st, East Lost in 1st round
2010–11 72 32 30 7 3 74 249 264 1541 2nd, Atlantic Lost in 1st round
2011–12 72 45 22 2 3 95 228 204 1149 1st, Atlantic Lost in 2nd round
2012–13 72 40 25 3 4 87 247 220 1210 2nd, Atlantic Lost in 1st round
2013–14 72 24 40 3 5 56 176 252 1026 3rd, Atlantic Did not qualify
2014–15 72 32 33 0 7 71 186 217 1445 6th, East Did not qualify
2015–16 72 37 30 3 2 79 206 214 934 4th, East Did not qualify
2016–17 72 17 47 7 1 42 171 279 N/A 6th, North Did not qualify

References[]

External links[]




This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Elmira Jackals. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Ice Hockey Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike License 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA).


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