Arctic Xpress

The history of the Saginaw Gears, a famed Michigan team, ended strangely in Ohio with two teams that never took the ice: the Arctic Xpress and Canton Ice Patrol.

The Gears were a longtime IHL team in the 1970s and a completely separate version of the Gears came to fruition in the CoHL/UHL in the 1990s. Initially, the franchise was the Saginaw Lumber Kings and before that the Saginaw Wheels. They then changed the name to Gears in an attempt to grab the community's interest with a retro name change. Unfortunately, the team played an underwhelming 1998-99 season and skipped town in the middle of the following season in December 1999 for Massillon, Ohio, just outside Canton.

That move was even worse than anything that went on in Saginaw. The team wasn't good and the crowds were even worse, playing in a tiny building. They won five of their final 50 games and went on hiatus after that. There was talk of building a big-time rink in Massillon, and the team rebranded more than once trying to garner interest. The rebrands included the Arctic Xpress and the Canton Ice Patrol. Neither team ever took the ice, no arena was built, and both teams are a short and unique piece of Ohio hockey history.