Cincinnati Mighty Ducks

Cincinnati Mighty Ducks
Cincinnati Mighty Ducks
City	Cincinnati, Ohio
League	American Hockey League
Operated	1997–2005
Home arena	Cincinnati Gardens
Colors	Eggplant and Jade
Affiliates	Detroit Red Wings; Mighty Ducks of Anaheim
Franchise history
1995–1997	Baltimore Bandits
1997–2005	Cincinnati Mighty Ducks
2007–present	Rockford IceHogs

The Cincinnati Mighty Ducks were an ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. They played in Cincinnati, Ohio, United States, at the Cincinnati Gardens. For their existence they were the affiliate of the National Hockey League teams, the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the Detroit Red Wings.

History

The Baltimore Bandits moved to Cincinnati from minimal fiscal success. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim signed Cincinnati a five-year affiliate agreement. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim were their only affiliate until in 1999 the Adirondack Red Wings folded and the Detroit Red Wings was trying to find an affiliate and couldn't find one. Then the Mighty Ducks signed the Detroit Red Wings a three-year agreement until the 2002-03 season. In 2002 the Grand Rapids Griffins tried to find an affiliate since the Ottawa Senators signed with Binghamton. The Detroit Red Wings left the Mighty Ducks and became the Griffins affiliate since Grand Rapids is only three hours away from Detroit. But the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim signed Cincinnati another three year affiliate agreement so it wouldn't fold. The Mighty Ducks of Anaheim stayed with the Mighty Ducks until the 2005-06 season. The Cincinnati Mighty Ducks were granted a voluntary suspension for the 2005–06 season after the Mighty Ducks left Cincinnati and signed a new agreement with the Portland Pirates, respectively. In October 2005 the team was renamed the Cincinnati RailRaiders. They were seeking an affiliation agreement for a return in 2006-07 season, but failed to reach a goal of 2,000 season tickets sold to become re-active.

On October 3, 2006, it was reported that a Windsor, Ontario, based company had been granted conditional approval to purchase and relocate the team [1], however that deal fell through [2]. On March 19, 2007, however, the AHL announced that the team had been purchased, and moved to Rockford, Illinois, to become the Rockford IceHogs (which was the name of a United Hockey League franchise).[3]

Numerous former Cincinnati Mighty Ducks were all together with Anaheim when they won the Stanley Cup in 2007. In addition, former coach Mike Babcock led Anaheim to a Stanley Cup Final appearance in 2003 before moving to Detroit. He won the 2008 cup with the Red Wings, he also led them to another finals spot the year after, and then led the Canadian national team to a gold medal in the 2010 Vancouver Games and in the 2014 Sochi games

The market was previously served by:

Cincinnati Mohawks (1949–1952 AHL, 1952–1958 IHL)
Cincinnati Wings (1963–1964 CHL)
Cincinnati Swords (1971–1974 AHL)
Cincinnati Stingers (1975–1979 WHA, 1979–1980 CHL)
Cincinnati Tigers (1981–1982 CHL)
Cincinnati Cyclones (1990–1992 ECHL, 1992–2001 IHL, 2001–2004 ECHL)

The team was replaced in this market by:

Cincinnati Cyclones of the ECHL (2006–present)

Affiliates

Mighty Ducks Of Anaheim (1997-2005)
Detroit Red Wings (1999-2002)

Season-by-season results

Regular season

Season	Games	Won	Lost	Tied	OTL	SOL	Points	Goals for	Goals against	Standing
1997–98	80	23	37	13	7	—	66	243	303	4th, Mid-Atlantic
1998–99	80	35	39	4	2	—	76	227	249	4th, Mid-Atlantic
1999–00	80	30	37	9	4	—	73	227	244	5th, Mid-Atlantic
2000–01	80	41	26	9	4	—	95	254	240	2nd, South
2001–02	80	33	33	11	3	—	80	216	211	3rd, Central
2002–03	80	26	35	13	6	—	71	202	242	3rd, Central
2003–04	80	29	37	13	1	—	72	188	211	5th, West
2004–05	80	44	31	—	4	1	93	206	191	3rd, West

Playoffs

Season	Preliminary	1st round	2nd round	3rd round	Finals
1997–98	Out of Playoffs
1998–99	—	L, 0–3, Philadelphia	—	—	—
1999–00	Out of Playoffs
2000–01	—	L, 1–3, Norfolk	—	—	—
2001–02	L, 1–2, Chicago	—	—	—	—
2002–03	Out of Playoffs
2003–04	W, 2–0, Houston	L, 3–4, Milwaukee	—	—	—
2004–05	—	W, 4–3, Milwaukee	L, 1–4, Chicago	—	—