The Las Vegas Thunderbirds were a

junior Junior or Juniors may refer to: Aircraft * Ekolot JK-05L Junior, a Polish ultralight aircraft * PZL-112 Junior, a Polish training aircraft * SZD-51 Junior, a Polish-made training and club glider Arts and entertainment Characters * Bowser Jr., ...

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 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/Canada fielding teams in the National Collegiate Development Conference ...

(USPHL). The Thunderbirds played their home games at

City National Arena City National Arena is the practice facility and team headquarters of the Vegas Golden Knights of the National Hockey League. City National Arena opened on September 18, 2017, and is located in Summerlin South, Nevada, a suburb of Las Vegas. It ...

Summerlin South, Nevada Summerlin South, also seen on maps as South Summerlin, is a census-designated place (CDP) in Clark County, Nevada, United States, on the western edge of the Las Vegas Valley and adjacent to the Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area. It is s ...

, in the

Las Vegas Valley The Las Vegas Valley is a major metropolitan area in the Southern Nevada, southern part of the U.S. state of Nevada, and the second largest in the Southwestern United States. The state's largest urban agglomeration, the Las Vegas Metropolitan St ...

History

The Las Vegas Thunderbirds were announced by the

Western States Hockey League The Western States Hockey League (WSHL) was a junior ice hockey league established in 1993. It was sanctioned by the United Hockey Union, the junior hockey branch of the Amateur Athletic Union. Previously, it was sanctioned by USA Hockey from ...

(WSHL) as an expansion team on February 14, 2019. They began play in the 2019–20 season. Team ownership included Corey St. Germain, while its president was announced as former

NHL The National Hockey League (NHL; , ''LNH'') is a professional ice hockey league in North America composed of 32 teams25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. The NHL is one of the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Cana ...

player John Marks. Marks had previously coached at junior and professional hockey. He retired from coaching in 2015 after four seasons leading the

Fargo Force The Fargo Force is a Junior ice hockey#Tier I, Tier I junior ice hockey team in the Western Conference of the United States Hockey League (USHL). The Force have won two league championships in 2017–18 USHL season, 2018 and 2023–24 USHL seas ...

of the

United States Hockey League The United States Hockey League (USHL) is the top junior ice hockey league sanctioned by USA Hockey. The league consists of 16 active teams located in the Midwestern United States and Great Plains, for players between the ages of 16 and 21. Th ...

. The team played their first season at SoBe Ice Arena. In 2020, the Thunderbirds left the WSHL after one season and joined another independent junior hockey league, the

(USPHL), at the Premier (Tier III) level. They also moved their home games to

beginning with the 2020–21 season. In 2022, the team improved and reaching the conference final against the Fresno Monsters. In 2023, they clinched their first division title by sweeping Fresno in the playoff final. This result allowed the Thunderbirds to advance to the USPHL Premier National Championship, held in Utica, New York, for the first time in their history. In June 2023, three local Las Vegas entrepreneurs — Joe Micatrotto, Marco Benvenuti and Allan Creel — purchased the team from Adam Bonaldi and Corey St. Germain. The team relocated to

Henderson, Nevada Henderson is a city in Clark County, Nevada, United States, about southeast of downtown Las Vegas. It is the List of cities in Nevada, 2nd most populous city in Nevada, after Las Vegas, with 317,610 residents. The city is part of the Las Vegas V ...

for the 2024–25 season, and were rebranded as the Henderson Force.

Season-by-season records

References

External links

Las Vegas Thunderbirds website
{{Nevada sports Sports clubs and teams in Las Vegas 2019 establishments in Nevada 2024 disestablishments in Nevada Defunct ice hockey teams in Nevada Ice hockey teams in Nevada Ice hockey clubs established in 2019 Ice hockey clubs disestablished in 2024