The Miami Valley Sabres were a

minor league Minor leagues are professional sports leagues which are not regarded as the premier leagues in those sports. Minor league teams tend to play in smaller, less elaborate venues, often competing in smaller cities/markets. This term is used in Nort ...

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

Troy, Ohio Troy is a city in and the county seat of Miami County, Ohio, United States. The population was 26,305 at the 2020 census, making it Miami County's largest city and Ohio's 55th-largest. Troy lies along the Great Miami River about north of Da ...

, that played in the

All-American Hockey League The All-American Hockey League (AAHL) was a minor professional hockey league formed in 1986 after the Continental Hockey League (CnHL) ceased operations. The league was created by the CnHL teams Danville, Dayton, and Troy adding the Downriver ...

History

The team was founded in 1987 when the Troy Sabres and the nearby

Dayton Jets The Dayton Jets were a team in the International Basketball League based in Dayton, Ohio. The team made the championship game their first year. In the team's first season, the Jets were coached by former Ohio State University The Ohio St ...

merged their franchises to join the newly formed

. The Sabres were coached by longtime IHL goalie Rick Szabo, who had joined the franchise as a goaltender during the 1983–84 season. After three seasons with the Troy Sabres, Szabo returned to the franchise after the Dayton-Troy merger and was the head coach while he also held down the starting goaltender position. The Sabres finished in third place in the AAHL with a 17-19-1 record. With the

Carolina Thunderbirds The Carolina Thunderbirds were a professional ice hockey team located in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, United States. The Thunderbirds played their home games at the old Winston-Salem Memorial Coliseum before the arena was demolished in 1989. ...

Johnstown Chiefs The Johnstown Chiefs were a minor league ice hockey team located in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, that played in the ECHL. The team was founded in 1987 in the All-American Hockey League, and moved to the East Coast Hockey League (now ECHL) when th ...

, and

Virginia Lancers The Virginia Lancers were a minor league hockey team that played in several leagues from 1983 until 1990. Their home ice was the Vinton Sports Complex, which held 3400 people. Atlantic Coast Hockey League (1983–1987) The Virginia Lancers w ...

leaving the AAHL for the newly formed

ECHL The ECHL (formerly the East Coast Hockey League) is a minor professional ice hockey league based in Shrewsbury, New Jersey, with teams across the United States and Canada. Competitively, it is a tier below the American Hockey League (AHL). The ...

(then East Coast Hockey League), and with the Michigan Stars and Port Huron Clippers folding, the AAHL was down to three teams, causing the league (and the Sabres) to lose their professional status. The Lincoln Park Patriots and Springfield Capitols were admitted into the league several weeks into the new season, giving the AAHL five teams total. The Sabres would win the regular season championship and playoffs. With the league ceasing operations in the offseason and the Sabres not given the chance to reaffiliate with another league, the Sabres ceased operations in the summer of 1989.

External links

HockeyDB.com Miami Valley Sabres page
All-American Hockey League teams Defunct sports clubs and teams in Ohio Ice hockey clubs established in 1987 Sports clubs and teams disestablished in 1989 1987 establishments in Ohio 1989 disestablishments in Ohio