The West Palm Beach Blaze were a professional minor league ice hockey

Ice hockey

Ice hockey, often referred to as hockey, is a team sport played on ice, in which skaters use wooden or composite sticks to shoot a hard rubber puck into their opponent's net. The game is played between two teams of six players each. Five members of each team skate up and down the ice trying to take...

 team based in West Palm Beach, Florida

West Palm Beach, Florida

West Palm Beach, is a city located on the Atlantic coast in southeastern Florida and is the most populous city in and county seat of Palm Beach County, the third most populous county in Florida with a 2010 population of 1,320,134. The city is also the oldest incorporated municipality in South Florida...

. They played in the Sunshine Hockey League

Sunshine Hockey League

The Sunshine Hockey League was a low-minors professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 to 1995. The league was based in Florida and consisted of five teams in its inaugural 1992-93 season....

, later renamed the Southern Hockey League, from 1992–1996. They played their games at the West Palm Beach Auditorium

West Palm Beach Auditorium

The West Palm Beach Auditorium was a 5,000-seat multi-purpose arena in West Palm Beach, Florida. It was built in 1965, at the intersection of North Congress Avenue and Palm Beach Lakes Boulevard. It was home to the West Palm Beach Blaze ice hockey team and Florida Bobcats arena football team. It...

, which is now known as the West Palm Beach Christian Convention Center and is owned by the Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses

Jehovah's Witnesses is a millenarian restorationist Christian denomination with nontrinitarian beliefs distinct from mainstream Christianity. The religion reports worldwide membership of over 7 million adherents involved in evangelism, convention attendance of over 12 million, and annual...

. The team marketing slogan was "Fire on Ice".

History

The Blaze were founded in 1992 as one of the inaugural franchises of the Sunshine Hockey League

Sunshine Hockey League

The Sunshine Hockey League was a low-minors professional ice hockey league which operated from 1992 to 1995. The league was based in Florida and consisted of five teams in its inaugural 1992-93 season....

, a tiny league with six teams mostly based in Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

.

They dominated the Sunshine Hockey League, finishing with the best record and winning the championship in each year of the league's existence, defeating the Jacksonville Bullets

Jacksonville Bullets

The Jacksonville Bullets were a professional minor league ice hockey team based in Jacksonville, Florida. They played in the Sunshine Hockey League, later renamed the Southern Hockey League, from 1992–1996...

 each time in the finals.

After the Sunshine Hockey League transformed into the Southern Hockey League

Southern Hockey League

Southern Hockey League can refer to two different professional ice hockey leagues:*Southern Hockey League *Southern Hockey League...

, they were reformed as the West Palm Beach Barracudas but were unable to duplicate their success, finishing with a losing record. They folded along with the rest of the Sunshine Hockey League after one season.