North American League history and statistics

The North American League was a very short lived league that has many questions surrounding it. First and foremost is, "was the league just an investor scam?"

The league was the brainchild of Garrett Krause, president of Ice Age Entertainment. He formed the league when the league that housed his two semi-pro hockey teams, the Los Angeles Bandits and the Las Vegas Aces, folded. He secured franchises in three other cities: Vancouver Venom (British Columbia), Eugene Snowcats (Oregon), and Mexico City Torerros (Mexico). The Las Vegas team was renamed the Ice Dice.

However, it seems that there were really only two teams formed for the start of the season; Eugene and Mexico City. Only two games can be verified as having been played, both in Eugene, between Eugene and Mexico City. Eugene won both games, 9-6 and 8-4. The games were high scoring and filled with fights; with good reason -- Link Gaetz, legendary tough-guy suited up for Mexico City!

A series was sc... [Click for more]heduled in Mexico City between the same two teams, but they supposedly had problems with Customs. The league folded shortly thereafter.

There are two explanations for this league. One, since the league was a publicly traded company, perhaps the entire league was an investment scam. However, this does not seem entirely likely because some games were actually played.

The second more likely explanation is that Ice Age Entertainment was trying to obtain franchises in the newly formed West Coast Hockey League. By putting together teams without a league, perhaps Ice Age could use some pressure to get accepted into the WCHL under more favorable terms (i.e. lower franchise fees).

In any event, the league goes down as probably the shortest-lived hockey league ever to actually play a game.

Sources: Hockey Ink!, Eugene Snowcats souvenier program, Oregon Daily Emerald, various Usenet postings.