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REBELS SOLD

Franchise Leaving Jamestown For Suburban Philadelphia; Search For New Team Begins

After four years playing in Northwest Arena, the Jamestown Rebels have been sold to an ownership group that is moving the franchise to suburban Philadelphia. P-J photo by Scott Reagle

After four years playing at Northwest Arena, the Jamestown Rebels are moving back to suburban Philadelphia.

The North American Hockey League announced Tuesday that owner Ken Dennis has agreed to sell his NAHL membership to HSG Hockey LLC. The team will be relocated to Washington Township, New Jersey, for the 2022-23 season and remain in the NAHL’s East Division.

The team will be based in and play its home games out of Hollydell Ice Arena, which is 15 miles south of downtown Philadelphia. Over the last five years, Hollydell has been extensively renovated and expanded. With four sheets of ice, a dedicated off-ice training facility, eight permanent locker rooms and a full-service bar and restaurant Hollydell is an ideal location for an NAHL team.

“We are very excited to welcome the NAHL back to the Philadelphia region,” said Jim Mackey, owner of HSG Hockey LLC. “Over the last five years, we have dedicated ourselves to the development of hockey players at Hollydell Ice Arena. Our hockey staff has done a tremendous job, growing our program from 17 teams to close to 40 teams and 600 players in the 2022-23 season. With the Rebels serving as the pinnacle of our hockey programs, we will accomplish our goal of allowing our players to skate at the highest levels from the age of 8 to 20 years old. We look forward to helping our players move on to even higher levels within the sport.”

While Northwest Arena doesn’t currently have a full-time tenant, officials hope it doesn’t remain that way long.

“We were just made aware of the official sale of the team this morning from league President Mark Frankenfeld,” said Keith Martin, Northwest Arena executive director. “We will begin working on bringing junior hockey back to Northwest Arena as soon as possible.”

Under Dennis, the Rebels enjoyed several years of success in the Philadelphia area before moving to Jamestown. The team had moved originally from McAllen, Texas, to Aston, Pennsylvania in 2015. After three years in Aston and Philadelphia the team then relocated to Jamestown. The team made back-to-back appearances at the Robertson Cup in both 2016 and 2017. In 2017, the team lost to the Lone Star Brahmas, 3-0 in the Robertson Cup championship game.

“We can’t thank Ken Dennis enough for his involvement as an owner in the NAHL the past decade. The Rebels have had a great track record of success during their time in the league, advancing over 100 players onto the NCAA,” said Mark Frankenfeld. “This is an exciting step for the NAHL to get back into the Philadelphia-area market and the Hollydell Ice Arena is a wonderful facility with amenities that the NAHL team will enjoy. We expect the tradition of success and advancement that the Rebels have established to continue under new ownership.”

During their first year in Jamestown, the Rebels went 35-17-5-3 en route to the No. 3 seed in the East Division playoffs. The New Jersey Titans beat Jamestown 3-2 in a best-of-five playoff series that spring, winning the final game 3-2 at Northwest Arena.

In 2019-20, the Rebels were sitting in fifth place in the division with a 21-30-1-2 record when the coronavirus pandemic ended the season and forced the cancellation of the Robertson Cup playoffs.

Jamestown elected to remain dormant for the 2020-21 season due to New York state restrictions centered around the COVID-19.

When the Rebels returned for this season, they were forced to select an entirely new team, but still managed to finish with the No. 3 seed in the East Division and a 35-22-2-1 regular-season mark. Jamestown then beat the second-seeded Johnstown Tomahawks 3-2 in their East Division semifinal series when Ryan Waltman scored the game-winning goal in overtime of Game 5.

Just last Friday, New Jersey completed a 3-1 series win over the Rebels in the East Division finals when Stephen Willey scored a minute and 15 seconds into a third overtime period at Northwest Arena.

As it turns out, that would be the final goal scored against the Rebels in Jamestown.

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