Super Series

The **Super Series** is the culmination of the Minnesota Amateur Hockey League's postseason. After two rounds of regional playoffs, sixteen teams (four from each of the MAHL's four regions) qualify for the Super Series, re-seeded based on each team's postseason Power Ranking. The last team remaining wins the MAHL championship and is awarded the Kellogg Cup.

In even-numbered years, the Super Series is played at the 15,000-seat Met Center in Bloomington, Minnesota, home of the Minnesota North Stars of the National Hockey League. In odd-numbered years, the Super Series is played at the 16,000-seat St. Paul Civic Center in St. Paul, Minnesota.

## History

Before 1962, the Kellogg Cup Finals were held at the home ice of the highest-ranked team in the MAHL. However, in several years, the top-seeded team had a clear home-ice advantage, with the visiting team complaining about the varying ice qualities.

The final straw came in the 1959 Kellogg Cup Final between the International Falls Ice and Duluth Voyageurs at Smokey Bear Park, when the Voyageurs won the second-overtime faceoff, but their defender tripped on a bump in the ice on a frozen Rainy Lake, losing the puck to the Ice, who soon after scored the game-winning goal to win their second Cup. Feeling cheated, Le Bleus joined a group of teams petitioning to have the later rounds at a neutral site, preferably in St. Paul. Their plan succeeded; beginning with the 1962 playoffs, the Great Eight qualifiers would be held at a neutral site.

From 1962 until 1967, the Super Series was played at the St. Paul Auditorium, home of the St. Paul Victorias of the Twin Cities Hockey League. The Victorias gained an early home-ice advantage, appearing in the first four Super Series and winning the first Kellogg Cup of the Super Series era in 1962. In 1968, with the arrival of the NHL's Minnesota North Stars, the Super Series moved to the newly-built Met Center.

With the addition of the Twin Cities region in 1972, the Super Series field expanded from eight to twelve teams, with the bottom eight seeds playing in the Playdowns and the top four seeds securing a berth in the Great Eight.

In 1973, the St. Paul Civic Center was built, having served as home to both incarnations of the Minnesota Fighting Saints of the World Hockey Association from 1973-1977. Beginning in 1975, the Civic Center and Met Center management reached an agreement to alternate hosting duties with the Civic Center hosting in odd-numbered years and the Met Center hosting in even-numbered years.

With the Twin Cities region's split into the Twin Cities North and Twin Cities South regions in 1982, the Super Series field expanded once again from twelve to sixteen teams, with the first-round byes eliminated and all sixteen teams playing in the first round.

## Super Series participants by year

Kellogg Cup winning team in **bold**, runner-up in *italics*

## Most Super Series appearances

### By team

**Bold** denotes a Kellogg Cup win, *Italic* denotes a runner-up finish.

### By league

**Bold** denotes a Kellogg Cup win, *Italics* denote a runner-up finish. For years where a league had multiple teams in the Super Series, that number is in parentheses next to the year.