The Bridgewater Bandits, also called the Boston Bandits, are a junior

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

organization from

Bridgewater, Massachusetts Bridgewater is a town located in Plymouth County, in the state of Massachusetts, United States. As of the 2020 U.S. Census, the town's population was 28,633. Bridgewater is located approximately south of Boston and approximately 35 miles east ...

, in the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, with teams playing in the

United States Premier Hockey League The United States Premier Hockey League (USPHL) is an American ice hockey league. Founded in 2012, the USPHL has grown to over 60 organizations from across the United States fielding teams in the National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC), ...

. The organization plays home games at the

Bridgewater Ice Arena The Bridgewater Ice Arena in Bridgewater, Massachusetts dual-surface public ice hockey rink. The facility is currently used by both the Bridgewater Bandits and Stonehill Skyhawks as a home venue. Stonehill In 2022, Stonehill College Stonehil ...

History

The Boston Bandits organization had a team in the Tier III Eastern Junior Hockey League (EJHL) from 1996 until its dissolution in 2013. The Bandits would then join the Atlantic Junior Hockey League which would reorganize and become the

Eastern Hockey League The Eastern Hockey League was a minor professional United States ice hockey league. Eastern Amateur Hockey League (1933–1953) The league was founded in 1933 as the Eastern Amateur Hockey League (EAHL). The league was founded by Tommy Lockhart, ...

(EHL) for the 2013–14 season. The Bandits organization also fields teams in the lower level USPHL Premier Division, as well as youth hockey select teams at the Bantam, Peewee, and Squirt and various other levels. The Premier team originally played in the Empire Junior B Hockey League until 2013 and then the Metropolitan Junior Hockey League (MetJHL) from 2013 to 2015 at which point the EHL added the Elite Division and the former EHL teams were all promoted to the Premier Division. The MetJHL team then joined the EHL-Elite Division. In 2017, the Bandits' organization left the EHL for the

(USPHL). The USPHL was planning to launch the

Tier II Tier may refer to: Groupings *Organizational, a ranking relationship involving order in a collective and its subordinate components *Ranking, a relationship involving order between a set of observations or variables * Data center tiers, Telecomm ...

level league, which became the National Collegiate Development Conference (NCDC), for the 2017–18 season. However, the USPHL was denied the Tier II status by

USA Hockey USA Hockey is the national ice hockey organization in the United States. It is recognized by the International Olympic Committee and the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee as the governing body for organized ice hockey in the United ...

and the junior league went independent. The top level Bandits team joined the NCDC and the developmental team joined the Premier Division. The Bandits sold their NCDC franchise to the Philadelphia Hockey Club for the 2020–21 season. The organization was then sold to

Scott Harlow Scott Christopher Harlow (born October 11, 1963) is an American retired professional ice hockey left winger who played one game in the NHL with the St. Louis Blues during the 1987–88 NHL season. Harlow was selected in the 3rd round (61st over ...

in December 2019 and the organization reverted to the Bridgewater Bandits identity beginning with the 2020–21 season.

Season-by-season records

References

External links

Bandits website
Ice hockey teams in Massachusetts Sports in Plymouth County, Massachusetts Bridgewater, Massachusetts 1996 establishments in Massachusetts Ice hockey clubs established in 1996 {{Massachusetts-sport-team-stub