2003-2004 was a year of new blood. New players were beginning to make an impact on the league, such as Ilya Kovalchuk's hot streak at the beginning of the season that brought Brother Ben briefly to the top of the standings. Free agent pickups such as Rick Nash and Robert Lang for BIGTIM, and Pavel Datsyuk for Grodzisk Goblins added some flavor to the season. Some consistency remained, however, as Chicago's Martin Brodeur continued to rule the goaltending world on his way toward a second straight Tiny Thompson award. Tallahassee Ice Cats had a strong season, finishing 2nd in the league despite a disappointing season from franchise player Joe Thornton. Grodzisk Goblins finished second behind the awesome power-line of Datsyuk, Iginla, and Hejduk. A surprising Hartford Whalers made the playoffs this year after missing the year before, despite not having a 30-goal scorer. Chicago tied for first in goals for, but failed to gain home-ice advantage for the first round. Two-time defending champion BIGTIM finally put together a dominant regular season. His team was nearly unbeatable in the second half of the season, rolling toward an easy Dictator's Award win for best record. They were poised to make it three straight IDHL Cups in a row going into the playoffs!! Paraguas Malvado and Thor's Hammer both missed the playoffs, the latter after being IDHL CUP FINAL Runner Up two years in a row.
Then the amazing happened. BIGTIM faced the 8th seeded Kuroneko Knives in the first round, a team that did not even make the playoff the season before. They managed to score 7 goals, while the high-powered super team of BIGTIM only scored 1, single goal. It was an amazing and stunning upset, but it didn't stop there. Tallahassee and Hartford were also upset in the first round, while 3rd seed Grodzisk Goblins barely won in a tie-breaker against the Alabama Punch Monkeys. This made for a Grodzisk vs Kuroneko and Chicago vs Brother Ben semi-final, with Grodzisk being the highest remaining seed. The upsets continued, however, as Kuroneko again did the unthinkable and defeated Grodzisk, crushing the Goblins 13-6, with Fedorov and Belfour each scoring 4 goals. Chicago avoided another upset by defeating the surprising Brother Ben in a tremendous game, 8-7. Chicago needed goals from every player to pull it off. Thus, the IDHL CUP FINAL consisted of 5th and 8th seeded teams, Chicago Chevaliers and Kuroneko Knives. For a third straight year the final was close and exciting with several lead changes. Chicago received yet another amazing game from Martin Brodeur, but his forwards sputtered and Milan Zidlicky was held scoreless. With 5 goals from Eddie Belfour, the huge underdog Kuroneko edged out a victory to win its first IDHL CUP, 11-9. It was one of the greatest underdog victories of all time, and the second time in three years that an 8th seed won the championship. Eddie Belfour broke the playoff record for goals with 9 to win the Reggie Leach award for playoff MVP. This made up for the fact that Chicago's Martin Brodeur won the Tiny Thompson award AND Goodfellow award as league MVP! It was, indeed, the year of goalies and underdogs.
