1997–98 NAHL season

The 1997–98 NAHL season was the 14th season of the North American Hockey League. The season ran from September 1997 to April 1998 with a 56-game schedule for each team. The Detroit Compuware Ambassadors won the regular season championship and went on to defeat the USNTDP 2 games to 0 for the Robertson Cup.

1997–98 NAHL season
League	North American Hockey League
Sport	Ice hockey
Duration	Regular season September 1997 – March 1998 Postseason April 9 – April 24, 1998
Games	56
Teams	9
Regular season
Season champions	Detroit Compuware Ambassadors
Top scorer	David Del Monte (Chicago Freeze)
Robertson Cup Playoffs
Finals champions	Detroit Compuware Ambassadors
Runners-up	USNTDP

Member changes

• The Detroit Freeze relocated and became the Chicago Freeze.

• The league admitted the USA Hockey National Team Development Program (USNTDP) under-18 team to the league.

Regular season

The standings at the end of the regular season were as follows:

Note: x = clinched playoff berth; y = clinched regular season title

Standings

Team	GP	W	L	OTL	Pts	GF	GA
xy – Springfield Jr. Blues	56	42	12	2	86	274	175
x – Detroit Compuware Ambassadors	56	39	16	1	79	219	151
x – Soo Indians	56	35	20	1	71	203	138
x – Danville Wings	56	31	20	5	67	233	218
x – Chicago Freeze	56	28	24	4	60	202	208
x – USNTDP	56	25	29	2	52	184	198
x – St. Louis Sting	56	23	32	1	47	188	237
x – Gaylord Grizzlies	56	14	36	6	34	159	228
Cleveland Jr. Barons	56	15	38	3	33	160	269

Statistics

Scoring leaders

The following players led the league in regular season points at the completion of all regular season games.

Player	Team	GP	G	A	Pts	PIM
David Del Monte	Chicago Freeze	56	36	49	85	115
Ryan Zoller	Springfield Jr. Blues	56	36	41	77	252
David Francis	Springfield Jr. Blues	55	30	42	72	49
Aaron Davis	Chicago Freeze	49	26	43	69	95
Raffie Kalajian	Springfield Jr. Blues	56	37	28	65	97
John Shouneyia	Detroit Compuware Ambassadors	55	16	49	65	61
Yevgeni Dubravin	Springfield Jr. Blues	50	22	42	64	29
Charlie Daniels	Danville Wings	55	35	27	62	65
Nick Field	Cleveland Jr. Barons	56	34	28	62	38
T. J. Latorre	Springfield Jr. Blues	53	25	34	59	73

Robertson Cup playoffs

	Quarterfinal (Best-of-3)							Semifinal (Best-of-3)							Championship (Best-of-3)
	1	Springfield Jr. Blues	7	6	-
	8	Gaylord Grizzlies	1	1	-
								1	Springfield Jr. Blues	6	3	0
								6	USNTDP	2	6	3
	2	Detroit Compuware Ambassadors	2	4	2
	7	St. Louis Sting	4	1	1
															6	USNTDP	2	2	-
															2	Detroit Compuware Ambassadors	5	4	-
	3	Soo Indians	3	0	-
	6	USNTDP	4**	3	-
								2	Detroit Compuware Ambassadors	4	5	-
								4	Danville Wings	3	2	-
	4	Danville Wings	3	3	5
	5	Chicago Freeze	1	4**	4

Note: * denotes overtime period(s)

References

• NAHL reference

External links

• Official website of the North American Hockey League