The Butte Roughriders were a Tier III Junior A

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey in North America) 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. Tw ...

team located in

Butte In geomorphology, a butte ( ) is an isolated hill with steep, often vertical sides and a small, relatively flat top; buttes are smaller landforms than mesas, plateaus, and table (landform), tablelands. The word ''butte'' comes from the French l ...

Montana Montana ( ) is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is bordered by Idaho to the west, North Dakota to the east, South Dakota to the southeast, Wyoming to the south, an ...

. The team joined the

Northern Pacific Hockey League The Northern Pacific Hockey League (NPHL) was an American Tier III junior ice hockey league sanctioned by USA Hockey. Its championship trophy was the Cascade Cup. History Established in 2000 as the NorPac Junior Hockey League, the league was ...

's America West Division in 2003 when the league competed at the Tier III Jr. B level. In 2007 The NorPac was granted Tier III Junior A status by

USA Hockey USA Hockey is a 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 S ...

. In November 2011, it was announced that the Roughriders had withdrawn from NorPac because they were unable to field the minimum number of players required due to injuries and players leaving the team. The Roughriders played their home games at the Butte Civic Center.

Alumni

The team had a few alumni move on to collegiate hockey and higher levels of

junior ice hockey Junior ice hockey is amateur-level ice hockey for 16 to 20 year-old players. National Junior teams compete annually for the IIHF World Junior Championship. The United States men's national junior ice hockey team are the defending champions from ...

, but only had one player of note: Kyle Valentine, a defenseman, who played two seasons at Oakland University (ACHA) in Michigan.

References

External links

Official site
{{Montana Sports Defunct ice hockey teams in Montana 2003 establishments in Montana 2011 disestablishments in Montana Ice hockey clubs established in 2003 Ice hockey clubs disestablished in 2011 Butte, Montana