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Billings Bulls
Awbillingbulls
City: Billings, Montana
League: North American 3 Hockey League
Division: Frontier
Founded: 1993 (AFHL)
Home Arena: Centennial Ice Arena
Colors: Blue, red and gold
Owner(s): Doug Strong
General Manager: Corey Thorson (2017-18)
Head Coach: Corey Thorson (2017-18)
Media: Billings Gazette (Greg Rachac and Phil Sites)
Affiliates: Battle Creek Revolution, (AAHA)
Franchise history
1993 to 1997: Billings Bulls
Championships
Regular Season Titles: 5 1993-94, 1996-97, 1997-98, 2002-03, 2003-04
Gold Cup Appearances: 5 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98, 1998-99, 2002-03
Borne Cups: 5 (AFHL/AWHL/NAHL) 1993-94, 1995-96, 1996-97, 1997-98, 1998-99
Cascade Cups: 0 (NORPAC)

The Billings Bulls are a Junior A level ice hockey team currently playing in the North American 3 Hockey Leagueand based in Billings, Montana. The Bulls were previously Junior A level until May, 2006 and had played their games in the Metrapark which had a max capacity of 9,000 for hockey games. However, a negotiating dispute with arena officials and local county commissioners resulted in the team losing its lease. They joined the NORPAC, which at the time was a Junior B league before it was upgraded to a Tier III Junior A affiliation in July 2007.

They currently play in the more intimate Centennial Ice Arena that holds 550 people at maximum capacity. The Bulls frequently sell out games and broadcast their games on internet radio. They have a staunch following and many fans can be seen wearing authentic Bulls jerseys in the stands.

History[]

The Bulls joined the American Frontier Hockey League in 1993 which became the America West Hockey League (AWHL) in 1998.[1] The Bulls joined the Tier II Jr. A North American Hockey League in 2003 when the AWHL merged with the NAHL (keeping the NAHL name). The team played in the NAHL from 2003 to 2006 until the team and their rivals, the Bozeman Icedogs and Helena Bighorns, left to join the Northern Pacific Hockey League (NorPac), a regional league in the Pacific Northwest of the United States. When they joined the NorPac, the league was Tier III Junior B but promoted to Tier III Junior A by USA Hockey in 2007. In 2011, the Montana teams in the NorPac left the league to form the new regional American West Hockey League, made up of teams in Montana and Wyoming, including the Bulls. In March 2014, the new AWHL joined the North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) as the Frontier Division.[2]

The team apparently folded on September 9, 2017.

League History[]

Season-by-season records[]

Season GP W L T OL SL Pts GF GA PIM Regular Season Finish Playoffs
American Frontier Hockey League
1993-94 48 38 8 1 - - 77 383 143 - 1st Big Sky Won Championship
1994-95 information not available
1995-96 information not available Won Championship
1996-97 62 47 7 8 - - 98 349 155 - 1st overall Won Championship
1997-98 60 44 13 0 3 - 91 308 187 - 1st overall Won Championship
America West Hockey League
1998-99 60 33 20 7 0 - 73 252 221 - 2nd overall Won Championship
1999-00 58 31 24 0 3 - 65 234 227 1430 4th overall
2000-01 60 36 23 0 1 - 73 249 190 1437 3rd overall
2001-02 56 38 14 2 2 - 80 285 185 1119 2nd overall
2002-03 56 39 14 2 1 - 81 241 151 1061 1st North
North American Hockey League
2003-04 56 40 14 2 - - 82 224 143 883 1st West
2004-05 56 33 17 6 - - 72 194 170 1374 2nd West
2005-06 58 20 30 5 3 - 48 167 252 1433 3rd West
Northern Pacific Hockey League
2006-07 44 16 28 0 - - 32 169 226 1479 4th Rocky Mountain
2007-08 48 31 17 0 - - 62 203 131 1210 3rd America West
2008-09 48 15 33 0 - - 30 150 230 1240 5th America West
2009-10 48 20 28 0 - - 40 188 191 1052 4th America West
2010-11 50 30 20 0 - - 60 239 179 - 4th America West
America West Hockey League
2011-12 48 26 17 - 4 1 53 202 187 - 3rd overall Lost in semifinals
2012-13 48 20 23 - 3 2 45 142 176 - 5th overall Did not qualify
2013-14 48 23 21 - 3 1 50 154 168 4th overall Lost in semifinals
North American 3 Hockey League
2014–15 47 25 16 6 - - 56 161 140 610 4th of 7, Frontier Div.
16th of 31, NA3HL
Lost Div. Semifinal, 0-2 vs. Great Falls Americans
2015–16 47 9 32 6 - - 24 121 237 686 6th of 7, Frontier Div.
27th of 34, NA3HL
Did not qualify
2016–17 47 5 41 0 0 1 11 104 356 - 6th of 7, Frontier Div. Did not qualify

Notable alumni[]


This page uses content from Wikipedia. The original article was at Billings Bulls. 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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