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Las Vegas Thunder

Ice hockey club in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

Summary

Ice hockey club in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA

The Las Vegas Thunder were a professional ice hockey team competing in the International Hockey League. The team's home rink was at the Thomas & Mack Center. They began play in the 1993–1994 season, folding on April 18, 1999. The demise of the franchise was precipitated by the refusal of UNLV officials to negotiate with team owners regarding a new agreement to continue playing at the Thomas & Mack Center after the 1998–1999 season. Without a facility that was suitable even for temporary use, the Thunder were forced to shut down.

History

The Thunder made a strong showing in their first season, finishing with the best record in the league: 115 points and a 52–18–11 record. They topped that performance in 1995–1996 when they again finished with the league's best record (122 points, 57–17–8). The Thunder lost in the conference finals that season.

Throughout the team's history they garnered player development deals with the Phoenix Coyotes of the NHL, the ECHL's Knoxville Cherokees and Mississippi Sea Wolves and Russian side Lokomotiv Yaroslavl.

The Thunder's main rivals included the Denver/Utah Grizzlies, Los Angeles/Long Beach Ice Dogs, San Diego Gulls, and Phoenix Roadrunners. These rivalries later saw a rebirth in the ECHL with the Las Vegas Wranglers and continue with the Henderson Silver Knights of the AHL.

The team's mascot was "Boom-Boom", a polar bear.

The franchise was replaced by:

Las Vegas Wranglers of the ECHL (2003–2015)
Vegas Golden Knights of the NHL (2017–present)
Henderson Silver Knights of the AHL (2020-present)

The Golden Knights later acknowledged their Thunder predecessors by basing their 2020–21 Reverse Retro jerseys off of the Thunder's "V-stripe" pattern.

Notable alumni

CAN Brent Ashton
CZE Radek Bonk
RUS Ilya Byakin
SVK Pavol Demitra
CAN / SUI Paul DiPietro
CAN Bryan Fogarty
CAN Brent Gretzky
CAN Glen Gulutzan
USA Alex Hicks
CAN Greg Hawgood
CAN Peter Ing
CAN Curtis Joseph
USA / CAN Andre Sioui
CAN Jim Kyte
CAN / ITA Patrice Lefebvre
CAN Clint Malarchuk
CAN Wes McCauley
CZE / CAN Petr Nedved
CAN Michel Petit
CAN Manon Rhéaume
CAN Pokey Reddick
BLR Ruslan Salei
RUS Alexei Yashin
LAT Sergei Zholtok

Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, OTL = Overtime losses, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against, PIM = Penalties in minutes

Turner Cup Champions	Huber Trophy Champions	Division Champions

Season	Conference	Division	Regular Season	Post Season	Finish	GP	W	L	T	Pts	GF	GA	GP	W	L
Western	Pacific	1st	81	52	18	11	115	319	282	5	1	4	14	20	Lost in Quarterfinals, 1-4 (San Diego)
Western	Southwest	2nd	81	46	30	5	97	328	278	10	4	6	27	35	Won in Conference Quarterfinals, 3-1 (Atlanta)
Won in Conference Semifinals, 4-1 (Milwaukee)
Lost in Conference Finals 0-4 (Denver Grizzlies)
Western	Southwest	1st	82	57	17	8	122	380	249	15	9	6	59	53	Won in Conference Quarterfinals, 3–1 (Phoenix)
Won in Conference Semifinals, 4–1 (Chicago)
Lost in Conference Finals, 2-4 (Utah)
Western	Southwest	4th	82	41	34	7	89	287	299	3	0	3	4	9	Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 0-3 (Houston)
Western	Southwest	4th	82	33	39	10	76	260	305	4	1	3	9	16	Lost in Conference Quarterfinals, 1-3 (Long Beach)
Western	Southwest	4th	82	35	39	8	78	247	307	did not qualify
490	264	177	49	.589%	1821	1720	37	15	22	113	133

Head coaches

CAN Butch Goring 1993–94
CAN Bob Strumm 1994–95
CAN Chris McSorley 1995–98
CAN Clint Malarchuk 1998–99

Honors

:Division titles : 2 – 1994, 1996 :Turner Cups : 0 :Regular Season Titles : 2 – 1994, 1996

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

international-hockey-league-(1945–2001)-teams defunct-sports-clubs-and-teams-in-las-vegas defunct-ice-hockey-teams-in-nevada defunct-ice-hockey-teams-in-the-united-states ice-hockey-clubs-established-in-1993 ice-hockey-clubs-disestablished-in-1999 1993-establishments-in-nevada 1999-disestablishments-in-nevada arizona-coyotes-minor-league-affiliates

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