Mudbugs Host NAHL Playoff Games This Weekend In Shreveport

The Shreveport Mudbugs are on the path to another hockey championship. This is an organization that has become used to winning championships. Dating back to their early days in the late 1990s, the team has won at least 6 different championships.

Those titles include three President's Cups in the Western Professional Hockey League (WPHL), a Ray Miron President's Cup in the Central Hockey League (CHL), and two Robertson Cups in the North American Hockey League (NAHL). The team has won numerous division and conference titles as well. The franchise made the playoffs in all but 1 season of their 14 seasons between the WPHL and CHL. As far as the NAHL goes, the Mudbugs have never missed the playoffs since joining the league (except the cancelled 2019-2020 season, but there were no playoffs there).

This year's team tied a franchise record for NAHL wins in a season with 41, matching the 2017-2018 team that went on to win the Robertson Cup. The biggest difference with the playoff paths between this year and the 2018 Cup team is the team's seeding. The 2018 team was the #1 seed in the South Division, while this year's team heads into the playoffs as the #2 seed. The Mudbugs' bitter rivals, the Lone Star Brahmas, has the top seed.

But the difference between the #1 seed and #2 seed only matter in the Division Finals, if both teams advance. Until then, the Mudbugs get home-ice-advantage starting this weekend. The Bugs will host the El Paso Rhinos for two games on Friday and Saturday nights.

The interesting part of this matchup is that the Mudbugs and Rhinos were both fighting for the #2 seed into the last weekend of the regular season. All the Bugs had to do that weekend was win one game in regulation to lock down the spot. They did that in the first of two games, and locked up the #2 seed from the Rhinos.

That gave the Mudbugs a first round bye, and put the Rhinos into a series with the Oklahoma Warriors. The Rhinos won that series, and now come back two Shreveport, just two weeks since losing the #2 seed to the Mudbugs.

Tickets for this weekend's playoff games are available now. You can get details here.