The CHL's second season saw big changes as the league doubled in size. The expansion teams were the Blackhawks, the Flying Squirrels, the Panthers (who were almost done their first season before the NHL team was ever announced) and the Vodka Squad. Fueled by the disastrous (for the Cougars) Ed Belfour/Joe Sakic for Owen Nolan/Pat Falloon deal, the Red Barons ran away with the points Championship, finishing 373 points ahead of the Blue Demons and 462 points ahead of the third-place Cougars. The second season also saw a Head-to-Head Championship, which the Red Barons won, defeating the Blue Demons 4 games to 1 in the CHL Finals.
In season 3, the Cougars regained their CHL title by beating out the Red Barons by 70 points for the championship. The head-to-head championship was discontinued for that year. There were several name changes during that year. After being placed under new ownership, the Blue Demons change their name to the Greyhounds during the offseason, then change their name again to the Red Heat in August. The Flying Squirrels change their name to the Ramblers, the Red Sox become the Blue Knights, and the Vodka Squad become the Canucks. On November 26, 1993, the Ramblers folded and their players were placed in a lottery.
Season 4 was the year of the Lockout (until 2005). After being shut down for the first 3 months of the season, the league came back to life in Januray with a shortened season. The battle for the championship was down to the wire, but ultimately won by the Cougars, who won their thrid CHL title in 4 years, holding off the Red Barons by a mere 15 points.
The league began a fifth season in the fall of 1995, but folded in mid-October. Except for a one-year run in 1999-2000 as a Sandbox league (won by the Cougars), the league has been inactive until it was re-formed in the fall of 2005 with 6 teams: The Boston Massacre, the Indianapolis Huns, the Kansas City Goatcheese, the Pittsburgh Greenmen, the Las Vegas Tail Tuggers (descendants of the mighty Red Baron teams of the early-mid 1990's), and the Northampton Cougars. The 2005-06 CHL championship was won by the Cougars, their fifth CHL title. The Cougars started out 2-10, then went on a league-record 19-game unbeaten streak. After finishing in first place in the regular season, they struggled early in their first-round series against Pittsburgh, going down 2-1 after three games. But in Game 4, one of the most exciting games in CHL history, Joe Sakic scored 57 seconds into overtime to even the series up. Northampton never looked back, winning the last two games of the series and then sweeping Boston to win their fifth CHL Cup. Meanwhile, the Tail Tuggers won the last points championship, running the table and dominating it from the first night of the season.
In 2006-07 saw several changes in the league. The points championship format was dropped in favor of a head-to-head championship. The Kansas City Goatcheese changed ownership and moved to Toronto, changing their name to the Cambridge Goons. The league also added 2 teams, the New York Necromancers and Colorado Wolfpack, which led to the CHL being split into 2 divisions: the Brown Division and the Hanson Division. One thing that didn't change, however, was the league champion, as Northampton won their 6th CHL title.
That streak would end in 2007-08, however, as Boston came back from a 3-2 deficit to beat the division champion Cougars in the first round of the playoffs, then upset heavily favored Cambridge in the Finals. During the summer of 2008, the CHL took control of Las Vegas and renamed them the Chiefs, then turned the team over to Boston Massacre owner Andy Meyer, who moved them to Winnipeg for the 2008-09 season.