All-Time Winningest American Head Coach & 2007 UHL Championship Coach Steve Martinson Joins IceHogs Rewind Pregame Show Friday

ROCKFORD, Ill. – All-time winningest American head coach in pro hockey history and leader of the 2007 UHL championship Rockford IceHogs, Steve Martinson, will join broadcaster Joseph Zakrzewski for a special IceHogs Rewind Pregame Show ahead of the re-broadcast of Game 7 of the 2007 UHL Colonial Cup Finals on Friday, May 1 at 6:00 p.m. on IceHogs.com, the team’s Facebook page and on YouTube.

A ten-time league champion and second winningest coach in North America (1,043 wins), Martinson led the IceHogs to a 48-21-1 record in 2006-07, their final United Hockey League (UHL) season before being promoted to the AHL. Martinson, in his third year behind the IceHogs bench, guided the club past the Quad City Mallards and Fort Wayne Komets in the first and second rounds of the playoffs with a combined 8-2 record before taking the Kalamazoo Wings to a decisive Game 7 of the Colonial Cup Finals in downtown Rockford and captured the first championship in team history.

Martinson recently finished his 24th professional season behind the bench and eighth with the Allen Americans of the ECHL, leading them to a 40-14-8 record before the season was cancelled. During the campaign, he moved past ECHL Hall of Famer John Brophy (1,027 wins) in North American professional hockey coaching wins and now trails only legendary coach and Hockey Hall of Famer Scotty Bowman (1,244). On Apr. 13, Martinson was named the ECHL General Manager of the Year as selected by the league’s coaches and was also a coach at the 2020 ECHL All-Star Classic, the second time he as coached in the event.

Over his 24-year coaching career, Martinson holds an all-time record of 1,043-484-162 in 1,689 career contests in the ECHL, West Coast Hockey League, United Hockey League and Central Hockey League, capturing WCHL titles with San Diego in 1996, 1997, 1998, 2001 and 2003, Rockford’s UHL title in 2007, CHL titles with Allen in 2013 and 2014 and ECHL championships with Allen in 2015 and 2016.