2010-2011 Clark Cup Championship Team
A new arena was in the works for Dubuque, and with the city proving its love for junior hockey, a return for the USHL to Dubuque became possible. Local Iowan investors Mark Falb and Dr. David Field, M.D., the owners of the Thunderbirds, partnered with Philip Falcone, Mark Falcone, Brad Kwong and current senior advisor for the St. Louis Blues, Peter Chiarelli to form Northern Lights Hockey, LLC, which would eventually bring a new USHL team to Dubuque. In addition to Chiarelli's ties to the Boston Bruins, Philip Falcone is the former part owner of the NHL's Minnesota Wild. Philip Falcone, Brad Kwong and Peter Chiarelli all played hockey together at Harvard University, and Mark Falcone played at the University of Denver.
In November of 2009, it was officially announced that Dubuque was returning to the USHL for the 2010-2011 season. The club would play at the soon-to-be constructed Mystique Community Ice Center that would seat 3,079 and be located on the Chaplin-Schmitt Memorial Island.
The team picked a historic name, returning the Fighting Saints to Dubuque. Boasting a new color scheme and logo, the Fighting Saints hired Jim Montgomery, a former University of Maine star and NHL player, as the club's Head Coach and General Manager. Thunderbirds coach Joe Coombs was retained as the new club's Associate Head Coach.
Few teams can boast the success the Fighting Saints have had during their first ten seasons back in the USHL. The club won the Clark Cup in its first season in 2011. In 2012–2013, Dubuque posted a franchise best 45-11-8 mark, winning the league's regular season title, the Anderson Cup, for the first time in 30 years. Dubuque also captured the Clark Cup that season on an overtime goal by Frankie DiChiara.
In 2013, the team represented the United States at the Junior Club World Cup in Omsk, Russia. The team topped the hometown Omsk Hawks 6-4 to advance to the medal round. The Fighting Saints brought home a Bronze Medal with a victory of Dynamo-Shinnik from Belarus.
The 2013–2014 season saw Dubuque average a franchise best 2,606 fans per game. The team also qualified for the playoffs for a fourth straight season, under the direction of new Head Coach Matt Shaw, who took over for Montgomery after he took the Head Coach position at the University of Denver.
Along with Montgomery, many Fighting Saints have advanced to the next level. Over 180 former Fighting Saints have played or are playing NCAA hockey and the club has also already graduated several players to the NHL in Zemgus Girgensons, Johnny Gaudreau, Mike Matheson, Matt Benning, and many others.
On January 13, 2015, the Fighting Saints and the City of Dubuque hosted the 2015 USHL/NHL Top Prospects Game. The big event saw over 3,000 fans pack the Mystique Community Ice Center, and scouts from all 30 NHL Teams were on hand to watch the next crop of NHL stars.
The 2014–2015 season saw Dubuque claim a third Dupaco Cowbell Cup as the elite team in Eastern Iowa. Dubuque made the playoffs for a fifth straight year, making them the only team in the USHL to accomplish this feat. The Fighting Saints advanced to the Conference Finals for a third straight season before falling to Muskegon in five games.
2015–16 marked the first season under the direction of new head coach Jason Lammers, and the tradition of excellence continued with a new face behind the bench. As the third seed in the Eastern Conference playoff picture, the Fighting Saints rolled to a third Clark Cup Final berth in the past six seasons. They would eventually fall to the Tri-City Storm, the Western Conference's top seed.
Lammers' final season behind the bench, 2016–17, saw just five returners from the prior season lead the way to a berth into the Clark Cup playoffs for an unprecedented seventh season, and for six out of the seven seasons, the Saints made it to the Eastern Conference Final.
The 2017–18 season was a year of transition, as, with the departure of Lammers to Niagara University, led to the ushering in of former longtime assistant coach Oliver David as head coach. He led the team to an eighth-consecutive playoff berth with a 26-21-13 record, and the Saints won at least one round in the playoffs for the eighth consecutive season as well with a win over the Green Bay Gamblers in the first round.
A transition in ownership came along during the offseason, as legendary alumni Johnny Gaudreau and Zemgus Girgensons, along with hockey business veteran Peter Luukko and Stanley Cup Champion head coach Dan Bylsma joined a host of successful businessmen and investors to join the ownership group through Northern Lights Hockey, LLC, and will look to continue the already established tradition of excellence that the Fighting Saints name has been known for since the beginning.
During the 2018–19 season, the Fighting Saints traversed another year of up and downs to once again make the playoffs. The season marked the ninth straight year that Dubuque made the postseason and in beating the Youngstown Phantoms in the first round, also ensured that Dubuque would claim at least one playoff series victory for the ninth straight season as well. Dubuque saw one of the finest individual performances in team history during the year as Matias Maccelli recorded 72 points, tying Erik Haula's USHL record for a Finnish-born player.
Despite the 2019–20 season being cut short due to COVID-19, the Saints still featured a record breaking team. Dubuque finished with their second highest winning percentage in Tier-1 history, going 33-13-2 in 48 games. Riese Gaber cemented his place as the franchises leading goal scorer, with 56 in his career. The season culminated with an impressive collection of awards for Dubuque. Riese Gaber became the first player in team history to win USHL Player of the Year. Gaber was also named USHL Forward of the Year. Erik Portillo was named the USHL Goalie of the Year and Oliver David was named USHL Coach of the Year. Both awards were the first of their kind for Dubuque. Kalle Larsson was awarded USHL GM of the Year and Dubuque had five players named to All-USHL teams.
The USHL brought on a tremendous undertaking out of the COVID-19 pandemic and rolled out plans to play a slightly shortened season for 2020–21. The Fighting Saints ran into an immediate obstacle. The Coronavirus struck the team right out of the gate, and the team stumbled to a 1-10-0 mark after eleven games. The team rallied behind a set of savvy moves to bring in LA Kings prospect Lukas Parik, and 2022 top prospect Matt Savoie. From there, the team went 23-13-5 to close out the year, and made the Clark Cup playoffs once again, continuing the longest playoff streak in the USHL.