The Hamilton Bulldogs are a professional ice hockey team in the American Hockey League. They play in Hamilton, Ontario, at Copps Coliseum, nicknamed ‘The Dog Pound’. They are the AHL affiliate of the NHL’s Montreal Canadiens. On the ice, the club has reached the Calder Cup Finals three times. Firstly in 1997, the club’s first year, and again in 2003 only to lose in both cases. The 2003 game 7 final was played June 12, 2003, vs the Houston Aeros. The attendance at Copps Coliseum was 17,428, making it the largest playoff crowd in the history of the AHL (the record was since broken in 2005 in Philadelphia).