The Keystone Ice Miners were a Junior A Tier II

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice h ...

team based at The Ice Mine arena in Connellsville,

Pennsylvania Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...

. The team moved to Connellsville in May 2014; prior to the move, the team was known as the Port Huron Fighting Falcons.

History

The team began play during the 2010-11 season as the Port Huron Fighting Falcons are a Junior A Tier II

team based out of

Port Huron Port Huron is a city in the U.S. state of Michigan and the county seat of St. Clair County. The population was 30,184 at the 2010 census. The city is adjacent to Port Huron Township but is administered separately. Located along the St. Clair ...

Michigan Michigan () is a U.S. state, state in the Great Lakes region, Great Lakes region of the Upper Midwest, upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the List of U.S. states and ...

. A member of the North American Hockey League's North Division, the team plays their home games in the McMorran Arena. On July 10, 2010 the team announced its name as the Fighting Falcons. Despite losing their first 15 games, they won 4-1 against the Springfield Jr. Blues on November 7 landing the team's first victory in history. In 2014, the team announced it would be moving to Connellsville, Pennsylvania, a city south of Pittsburgh. The team will play at the Ice Mine and change their team name to the Ice Miners. Hat Trick Hockey, the parent ownership of the Ice Miners, announced in mid-December 2014 that they were terminating its membership with the NAHL effective immediately. The league has indicated it plans to keep the team operational through the remainder of the 2014-15 season, including playoffs, if the Ice Miners should qualify.

Season records

Uniforms and logos

The team's colors are light blue, black and yellow. Home jerseys will feature the main Fighting Falcons logo with an alternate Falcon Head logo appearing on the road jerseys. Shoulder patches on both home and away uniforms will feature a circular logo with the

Blue Water Bridge The Blue Water Bridge is a twin-span international bridge across the St. Clair River that links Port Huron, Michigan, United States, and Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. The Blue Water Bridge connects Highway 402 in Ontario with both Interstate 69 ...

, that spans the

St. Clair River The St. Clair River (french: Rivière Sainte-Claire) is a U.S. Geological Survey. National Hydrography Dataset high-resolution flowline dataThe National Map accessed November 7, 2011 river in central North America which flows from Lake Huron int ...

separating Port Huron, Michigan and

Sarnia Sarnia is a city in Lambton County, Ontario, Canada. It had a Canada 2021 Census, 2021 population of 72,047, and is the largest city on Lake Huron. Sarnia is located on the eastern bank of the junction between the Upper and Lower Great Lakes w ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central C ...

, Canada.

Original logo controversy

Released on July 10, 2010, the Fighting Falcons first logo bore a strong resemblance to a logo created by Mike Ivall of Ivall Design. On July 15, 2010, the Fighting Falcons announced the team will create new logo to avoid any problems relating to any similarities with Ivall's concept art after he had contacted the team and noted similarities.http://www.thetimesherald.com/apps/pbcs.dll/section?category=PluckPersona&U=13276e758a7e401780c61acb15596dbd&plckPersonaPage=BlogViewPost&plckUserId=13276e758a7e401780c61acb15596dbd&plckPostId=Blog%3a13276e758a7e401780c61acb15596dbdPost%3a9906af7d-d75f-4028-8b8b-977b3670dfaf&plckController=PersonaBlog&plckScript=personaScript&plckElementId=personaDest

References

External links

Official Website
{{NAHL North American Hockey League teams North American Hockey League Amateur ice hockey teams in Pennsylvania Fayette County, Pennsylvania 2014 establishments in Pennsylvania 2015 disestablishments in Pennsylvania Ice hockey clubs established in 2014 Ice hockey clubs disestablished in 2015