Phoenix Mustangs
Shop retro Phoenix Mustangs tees, long sleeves, hoodies, crewnecks, mugs and more. Playing at the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the Mustangs made the playoffs in each of their first three seasons and won the league title in 1999 to 2000 despite a losing regular season, led by minor-league scoring great Hugo Belanger. Celebrate desert hockey by browsing all of our Mustangs gear, then read the team history below. Every design comes from an American small business devoted to preserving the history of fondly remembered and long-lost hockey teams.
12 products
Phoenix Mustangs History
The Phoenix Mustangsย were an expansion franchise inย the WCHL in 1997, essentiallyย trying to fill the void of the Phoenix Roadrunners of the IHL, who had ceased operations. However, the reason the Roadrunners did that was because the Phoenix Coyotes of the NHL started up in the desert in 1996.
Playing out of the Arizona Veterans Memorial Coliseum, the Mustangs made the playoffs each of their first three seasons in the league,ย and wonย the league title inย 1999-2000! Amazingly, they won that title while have an under .500 regular season record (31-35-0-0-6). That team featured minor league scoring legend Hugo Belanger. If you're not familiar, Belanger never played in the NHL but amassed over 500 goals and 1465 points over 15 minor league seasons in the 1990s and 2000s.ย
After registering a losing record in 2000-01 and missing the playoffs,ย the Mustangs were unable to secure a lease for the 2001-02 season, and were forced to cease operations.
