Tag: Saginaw Civic Center

Saginaw Hawks International Hockey League

Saginaw Hawks

The Saginaw Hawks of the International Hockey League were a short-lived farm club of the NHL’s Chicago Blackhawks during the late 1980’s. The team is best known for helping to develop future Hall-of-Fame netminder Ed Belfour along his path to NHL stardom. Chicago signed Belfour as an undrafted free agent out of the University of North Dakota in 1987 and assigned him to Saginaw. He won 32 games that winter and helped Saginaw advance to the semi-finals of the IHL’s Turner Cup playoffs. Belfour would go on to become one of the NHL’s all-time wins leaders among goaltenders and earned election to the Hall-of-Fame in his first year of eligibility in 2011.

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Saginaw Generals International Hockey League

Saginaw Generals

Saginaw, Michigan’s original minor league hockey team, the Saginaw Gears of the International Hockey League, closed up shop in June 1983 after eleven seasons.  After two winters without hockey, the IHL returned to the Saginaw Civic Center in the form of the relocated Flint Generals, one of the Gears’ mainstay rivals of the 1970’s.

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Saginaw Gears International Hockey League

Saginaw Gears (1972-1983)

This mid-Michigan-based minor league hockey outfit enjoyed a solid run from the mid-1970’s to the early 1980’s in the scrappy International Hockey League. The Saginaw Gears reached the IHL’s Turner Cup finals five times between 1974 and 1982, winning twice.

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