The Dayton Falcons were a

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 ...

-sanctioned Tier III 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 ...

team that competed in the

North American 3 Hockey League The North American 3 Hockey League (NA3HL) is an American Tier III junior ice hockey league that consists of teams from Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, New Yor ...

(NA3HL). The team was based in

Centerville, Ohio Centerville is a city in Montgomery County, Ohio, United States. A core suburb of Metro Dayton, its population was 24,240 as of the 2020 census. Geography Centerville is located at (39.638709, -84.148087). Although the city is located primar ...

, a suburb of

Dayton, Ohio Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater ...

, and the team's home ice was South Metro Sports.

Franchise history

The team was previously known as the Queen City Steam from 2007 to 2013 after replacing the former

Cincinnati Jr. Cyclones Cincinnati ( ) is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Hamilton County, Ohio, Hamilton County. Settled in 1788, the city is located at the northern side of the confluence of the Licking River (Kentucky), Licking and Ohio Rive ...

that had folded at the end of the previous season. In 2013, the Steam re-branded as the Cincinnati Swords after the merger of two youth hockey programs in the Cincinnati area. The Swords name is a homage to the

former A former is an object, such as a template, gauge or cutting die, which is used to form something such as a boat's hull. Typically, a former gives shape to a structure that may have complex curvature. A former may become an integral part of th ...

American Hockey League The American Hockey League (AHL) is a professional ice hockey league based in the United States and Canada that serves as the primary developmental league for the National Hockey League (NHL). Since the 2010–11 season, every team in the le ...

team of the same name. On August 14, 2014, the NA3HL approved the sale of the Cincinnati Swords to the Miami Valley Hockey Association owned by Ryan and Jim Colville. On April 10, 2015, the Swords announced that it would be renamed and called the Cincinnati Thunder beginning with the 2015–16 season. On June 2, 2015 the Thunder announced that they will be playing out of the historic

Cincinnati Gardens Cincinnati Gardens was an indoor arena located in Cincinnati, Ohio, that opened in 1949. The 25,000 square foot (2,300 m²) brick and limestone building at 2250 Seymour Avenue in Bond Hill had a entrance that was decorated with six three-dimensio ...

for the 2015–16 season. With the sale and closing of the Cincinnati Gardens in the summer of 2016, the team began playing home games at South Metro Sports in

, near

, for the 2016–17 season. In 2017, the team stayed at South Metro and rebranded as the Dayton Falcons. After 11 games into the season with only one win using a team of about ten skaters, the team forfeited its twelfth game and was removed from the NA3HL schedule.

Season-by-season records

References

{{reflist

External links

Cincinnati Thunder Website

Official NA3HL Website
Ice hockey teams in Ohio Sports teams in Cincinnati 2007 establishments in Ohio Ice hockey clubs established in 2007 2017 disestablishments in Ohio Ice hockey clubs disestablished in 2017 Sports teams in Dayton, Ohio