Lake Erie Bighorns | |
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City: | Summit Township, Pennsylvania |
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League: | United States Premier Hockey League (Premier Division) |
Division: | Great Lakes |
Founded: | 2008 (2018 under present name) |
Home Arena: | ErieBank Sports Park |
Colors: | Gold, Gray, Black, White |
General Manager: | Kyler Speice (2018-19) |
Head Coach: | Kyler Speice (2018-19) |
Franchise history | |
2008-2014: | Michigan Mountain Cats |
2014-2018: | Southern Tier Xpress |
2018-2022: | Lake Erie Bighorns |
The Lake Erie Bighorns were a USA Hockey-sanctioned ice hockey team from Summit Township, Pennsylvania. The team commenced play with the 2008-09 season as the Michigan Mountain Cats in the Great Lakes Junior Hockey League. The team joined the North American 3 Hockey League in 2011. The team relocated to Jamestown, New York in 2014. They played in the North American 3 Hockey League at the Jamestown Savings Bank Ice Arena until 2018. The team was based out of the ErieBank Sports Park in Summit Township, Pennsylvania until their demise in 2022.
The team along with the other five teams in the East Division from the 2017-18 NA3HL Season moved to the United States Premier Hockey League to form the Great Lakes Conference within the organizations Premier Division.
Due to the relocation of the Philadelphia Rebels of the North American Hockey League during the 2018 off season the team was sold to Kyler Speice and relocated to Erie, Pennsylvania and were renamed the Erie Bighorns. Speice had been the owner, general manager, and head coach of the Lake Erie Eagles of the Canadian Premier Junior Hockey League. He then folded the Eagles and started to build the Bighorns who are based out of ErieBank Sports Park in Summit Township, Pennsylvania.
The team would cease operations in August of 2022 in what the team described as a conflict with the arena after an attempt to relocate the team back to Jamestown, New York. [1]

logo as Southern Tier Xpress
Season-by-season[]
Season | GP | W | L | T | OL | GF | GA | Pts | Result | Playoffs |
Michigan Mountain Cats | ||||||||||
2008-14 | Information Unavailable | |||||||||
Southern Tier Express | ||||||||||
2014–15 | 47 | 26 | 20 | - | 1 | 178 | 156 | 53 | 4th of 6 East, 18th of 31 overall |
L 0-2, Metro Jets |
2015–16 | 47 | 8 | 35 | - | 4 | 97 | 218 | 20 | 6th of 6 East, T-30th of 34 overall |
Did not qualify |
2016–17 | 47 | 15 | 28 | - | 4 | 142 | 182 | 34 | 6th of 6 East, | Did not qualify |
Season | GP | W | L | OL | SL | GF | GA | Pts | Result | Playoffs |
2017–18 | 47 | 23 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 162 | 164 | 46 | T-4th of 6 East | L Div SF 0-2, Metro Jets |
2019-20 | 44 | 20 | 22 | 2 | - | 210 | 141 | 42 | 4th of 6 Great Lakes | Lost Division Semifinals |
2020-21 | 42 | 17 | 24 | 1 | 0 | 129 | 156 | 35 | 5th Great Lakes | Lost Division Quarterfinals |
2021-22 | 44 | 10 | 30 | 4 | - | 115 | 260 | 24 | 6th Great Lakes | Lost Division Quarterfinals |