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Primis
(Finally Got A Star!)
USA
56 Posts |
 Posted - 04/08/2010 : 2:09:04 PM
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I was going through my boxes of old K-Wing programs looking for game inserts with attendance figures and stats... and I came across this one. Figured some of you longtime Cyclone fans would appreciate this old IHL flashback.
January 24th, 1993 was a Sunday.
The night before (Saturday) the Cyclones had drawn a crowd of 10,012 to the Gardens to watch Peoria win 5-2. At that time? The Cyclones were leading the 12-team IHL in attendance at that point with an average of 8,941 fans/game across 22 home dates. The Cyclones were last in the Atlantic Division with a record of 12-26-5, and last overall in the league. They had gone 3-6-1 in their last 10 games.
Monday night the Cyclones were set to travel to San Diego to take on the Pacific Division-leading Gulls that featured names like Daniel Shank, Scott Arniel, Hubie McDonough, and John Anderson
Cyclone Jeff Madill was 2nd in league goal scoring with 31 tallies in 42 games.
Some other fun notes? Salt Lake City had drawn 10,398 the night before to watch the Golden Eagles beat the Komets 5-2 (imagine if the Grizzlies drew that now?). Fort Wayne had just begun their attendance comeback with new ownership and was averaging 7,682 across 25 home dates.
Atlanta (Knights), Kansas City (Blades), and Phoenix (Roadrunners) also had IHL teams at the time, as well as the Milwaukee Admirals (still kicking around the AHL). Phoenix had drawn 13,739 the night before to watch the Gulls win 3-2 over the Roadrunners.
PIM leader for the league at that time was Cleveland's Paul Laus (259 PIM in 41 GP).
The Indianapolis Ice (who the K-Wings were playing against that Sunday) featured a roster including the following names:
Tony Hrkac, Sergei Krivokrasov, Steve Bancroft, Karl Dykhuis, Ray Leblanc.
Seems like forever ago, doens't it? |
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Hockey Traveller
(The Next Level!)
134 Posts |
Posted - 04/08/2010 : 11:46:05 PM
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One week later, the Cyclones embarked on the worst month of their IHL history, in what turned out to be the worst season of their IHL history. The 'Clones won only one game in February of 1993, and that was on the final day of the month in Peoria. The Cyclones finished the season with the 2nd worst record in the league.
The '92-'93 season was the Cyclones' first year in the IHL, and was the only season they ever had a losing season in the league, and the only season they missed the Turner Cup playoffs.
Leblanc, who later played with the Cyclones, was the starting goaltender for Team USA during the 1992 Winter Olympics in Albertville, France, going 5-2-1 with one shutout, but one of those losses was to Czechoslovakia in the Bronze Medal game. He also played his only NHL game in 1992 (March 10), gaining a 5-1 win for the Blackhawks over the Sharks. The Hawks called him up to start that game so they could expose him to the NHL expansion draft later that summer, thus protecting their top 3 goaltenders (Ed Belfour, Dominik Hasek, and Jimmy Waite) from the draft. Leblanc was not selected by either of the two expansion teams (Ottawa or Tampa Bay). Coincidentally, the Lightning selected future Cyclones goalie Frederic Chabot 2nd (4th overall) in that expansion draft from the Montreal Canadiens.
Just a few more tidbits. |
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