Evansville IceMen
The Evansville Icemen are an American ice hockey franchise in the ECHL from Evansville, Indiana. They play in the 11,000 -seat Ford Center end. At hockey games, the venue offers 8,800 seats.
History
The franchise was founded in 2008 as one of the four founding members of the AAHL. The partner team were the Fort Wayne Komets of the International Hockey League.
On 14 February 2009, the Evansville Icemen featured on two records. For one, they defeated the highest - AAHL result, the Chicago Blaze with 24:4 - gates, on the other hand, succeeded their goalkeeper Kira Hurley was the first female goalkeeper in the history of professional hockey men a point scorer. In the 2009/10 season the Icemen secured with a win in the playoff series on the West Michigan Blizzard with the Rod Davidson Cup the championship title of the AAHL.
In July 2009, the International Hockey League announced the addition of the Evansville Icemen in their league. An exact date was not mentioned because it was dependent on the completion of a new, larger stadium in Evansville. In June 2010, Evansville was included in the IHL and took after their merger with the Central Hockey League from the 2010/11 season participate in the game mode of CHL.
In August 2010, Richard Kromm took over the duties of the head coach and general manager. In their inaugural season the Icemen occupied with 55 points the last place in the Turner Conference and were the worst team in the league point. Best team of internal scorer was Nicklas Lindberg with 69 points. With Jeff Christian, Mario Larocque, Jeff Nelson and Damian Surma four players were in the squad who had played in the course of their career in the National Hockey League.
In the 2011/12 season the Icemen wore their home games at the 11,000 -seat Ford Center end of whose opening was set for November 2011. Previously, the Swonder Ice Arena, which took 1,500 spectators, the home venue of the team. The city council of Evansville had approved the 127.5 million U.S. dollar project in December 2008. In August 2011, Ford secured the naming rights to the Evansville Arena for ten years and has invested around 4.2 million U.S. dollars.
In May 2012, finally receiving the teams in the ECHL for the 2012/13 season was announced. In the season 2013/14 the Icemen cooperate with the Columbus Blue Jackets of the National Hockey League.