Coast Stories
If you have an ECHL experience that you would like to share, please e-mail your story to me.
Brett Marietti, Stand Up Guy
ECHL All Star Game in Lafayette, Indiana?
Andy Van Hellemond takes a turn
Dog days in Knoxville
Burning the Wicklum at both ends
Charlotte Motor Speedway
Blimp Demolition Derby
Boxers or briefs in Toledo
3 On 3 Effort Unsuccessful, 3 On 1 Powerplay Results In Fines
Cerebral promotions in Toledo
Losing the recipe for ice
Ruining your goalie's stats
Going Ballistic in Johnstown
You got frostbite where?
Scratchmo Scratched
East Coast Hockey League - suspends Kris Cantu 8 games for a racial slut against Jason Payne of the Daytona Bombers
After several minutes of trying to restart it (with the Zamboni sputtering and lurching like a dead fish) and everyone wondering how they were going to get the Zamboni off the ice, finally the Monarchs players and coaching staff came out and pushed it off the ice. It did not return that evening.
In a previous incident, the Monarchs mascot Monty had a toy car on the ice, which the Zamboni promptly crushed. This incident only temporarily put the Zamboni out of commission. It returned after the following period.
Ironically, the Greensboro Coliseum and the "new" ECHL Greensboro Generals now uses 2 Zambonis on the ice simultaneously, courtesy of the NHL Carolina Hurricanes during their stay in Greensboro.
(Submitted by Mike Bondurant, Greensboro, NC)
So, Andy Van Helemond who just happened to be at the game volunteered to fill in until Jennings arrived. Only problem..Andy didn't have any equipment with him. So he borrowed Chris Pittman's (a Richmond scratch) skates, and a pair of Renegade sweats..all he needed was the Zebra shirt..which he didn't have. He pulled rank and borrowed Hamlett's shirt, who ended up borrowing a Renegade practice sweater,(turned inside out so no logo showed), When Jennings finnally arrived in time for the 2nd period Hamlett reclaimed his stripes. On a final note, it is amazing how no player argued with Van Helemond over a blown call...of course for the 1st time in his carrer HE DIDN'T BLOW ANY.
During the second intermission, the 4th annual Wiener Dog Races were to have commenced in what was one of the more enjoyable events here in Knoxville.
The sponsoring radio station, WIMZ (103.5), had been signing up "contestants" for quite a while, and the contestants, participants, and fans were looking forward to it.
The City of Knoxville, having never seen a problem with the last three Wiener Dog races (Mayor Victor Ashe was in attendance the last two times if I recall correctly), decided to call up the Cherokees front office as well as the offices of WIMZ at around 3PM on the day of the home opener to "politely" inform them that to have such an event would be a "violation of city ordinance", and therefore was not to be held.
Just before the big bomb of an opening game firework display, the fans were informed, and were less than pleased. Boos echoed from around the arena. This was even more prevalent during the "WienerNationals", which were the actual Dachsund Owners racing toy weiner dogs around the ice.
The unofficial word is that certain Animal-Rights activists were putting pressure on the city to ban the event because of the fact that the dogs were walking "barefoot" on the ice. So the city gave in and decided to enforce this ordinace for the first time in the history of the event.
"Tonight's officials as assigned by the East Coast Hockey League are, straight from their homepage at www.ref.com, referee Mick WICKLUM, linesmen, Terry WICKLUM and Pete WICKLUM."
Mick and Terry are brothers, and Pete is their cousin (from the better-fed side of the family).
The Web Page address was what passes as a joke.
The girl, in medium sized heels, went nice and smooth around the track...the guy was riding a disastermobile. He got halfway to the first turn when his front tire went flat. As Chubby tried in vain to push him along while one of the DJ's pulled, the handlebars come flying off in the DJ's hands. As they carried the dearly departed trike, the front flat wheel popped right off.
Driver is in excellent condition, treated and released from Chubby's hospital, and the trike is RIP at the county cemetary, with a nice view of NationsBank Tower in the distance.
We're still not sure if the zamboni itself has a reverse gear, but thanks to the Raleigh Icecaps, we at least now know that the ice maker on it does.
Unseasonably warm weather (75 degrees in January) combined with a "minor problem" with the ice-making equipment resulted in ice that was...a lot warmer than ice normally is. The situation was so bad that even the announcer started cracking jokes about it, telling the contestants in an innertube race to "wade over to the blue line so we can begin".
The referee and linesmen considered calling the game off after two periods but decided to proceed. The zambonis went on the ice, not to lay down water, but to suck up the pool that was already there.
The next night's game was postponed due to ice conditions. Just as well, since it was the second of two home games against Charlotte, who had just won 7-3.
Richmond v. Johnstown November 10, 1996 at The Freezer
Both goalies apparently neglected to "buy" for their defensmen the night before a game between the Richmond Renegades and Johnstown Chiefs on 11/10/96.
In the second period, Johnstown "scored" its first goal when Renegades defenseman Garzone made a sloppy clearing attempt that bounced off his goalie, Sjerven, who wasn't paying attention. It bounced off his back into the goal. To make things even more embarrassing, this was on a Renegades power play.
In the third period, Renegades captain Andrew Shier was credited with a goal actually scored a Johnstown defenseman who shot the puck the wrong way on a clearing attempt. The Johnstown goalie, Sundstrom, failed to block the surprise shot.
This was the same game where Trevor Senn got a minor + major penalty for fighting (the Chief he fought got a major). The Renegades forgot to put an extra man in the box to serve Senn's extra penalty. When the penalty was up, there was no one to release from the box, and the Chiefs capitalized on the ensuing confusion to score a goal. Another UGLY goal.
During the second intermission, the zamboni driver was roundly booed for his reckless driving. It was announced that Scratchmo was in stable condition at the hospital.
Three members of the Baton Rouge Kingfish (Kevin MacDonald, Chad Power and Cameron Brown) were arrested in Jacksonville after allegedly beating up the body guard (who worked for an escort service that the players had contacted) after the body guard refused to refund the player's money when the "escorts" turned out not to be, uh, "ladies of the night." In addition to being charged with assault, the players were reportedly fined by the team, with proceeds to go toward buying game tickets for under-privileged kids.
One cold night at the Cambria County War Memorial Arena in beautiful downtown Johnstown, PA, A local radio DJ decided that it would be a great idea to have a human slingshot promotion. So said DJ got dressed in a human cannonball type outfit and proceeded with this scheme.
The whole idea was for several guys to be the posts of the slingshot and to aim the DJ, and his little sliding dish, out one of the Zamboni entrances. Obviously the people doing the aiming should have taken a course in ballistics.
With much fanfare, the big rubber band was stretched to its' farthest point and released. At the last moment the DJ saw where he was being aimed and cried "NO! don't let..." The tension was released and said DJ went hurtling across the ice very quickly (About 30mph was the agreed upon estimate) and promptly collided with the boards. He made a most satisfying thump that all in the arena chortled at. Luckily the DJ was unharmed...he was also unconscious.
The Dayton Bomber's Taco Bell Promo blimp was cruising low and got in the way of the Zamboni...guess who won?
The Blimp lost it's undercarriage and all control. the Battery and the propellers were just dangling as it floated up towad the ceiling...where it stayed the rest of the game.
It would seem that a certain player from a southern division team decided that he needed a little extra skating time after a light work out. Unfortunately, he came out of the locker room wearing only "his skates and a smile"....
I've got something that was passed (verified at the 2/1/98 Pride/Charoltte game) onto me that might be something for the "fans".
There is a big group of Pride fans that have been very supportive of the team and players, they have been encouraging people to tailgate since the start of the season. The players have made it a practice to stop by before the games and say hello, then come out after the games, and have something to eat and drink. Well at a January game the group came out afterwards to find out that the Gas grill they had was stolen. When the players came out to mingle they found out what happened. They took up a collection among themselves and the coach, and hand delivered the money for a replacement grill directly to the foks involved, so that they could continue to tailgate and enjoy the games, without having to curtail their pre/post game activities..... The new grill is now secured on the back of carrying vehicle with chains during the game. And the tailgating continues....
As it turns out, they also do buses.
After South Carolina's 10-2 victory over the Icecaps in Raleigh, the team walked to their bus, only to discover that they couldn't open it. They had the key, but it wasn't working.
Numerous attempts to pry open windows proved unsuccessful. Several S.C. fans and one Raleigh fan were hanging out outside the bus along with the team, when it was suggested they give Pop-A-Lock a call. After all, it was after an IceCaps game, and they did need the services of a locksmith. After about a half-hour, somebody finally suggested this to S.C. Head Coach Rick Vaive. He immediately asked for the number, and one of the S.C. fans pulled his program out, and gave the number to Rick Vaive, who called Pop-A-Lock on his cell phone. He explained very simply that he was the head coach of the Stingrays, they couldn't get into their bus, they saw Pop-A-Lock's ad in the Raleigh program, and would Pop-A-Lock please help them out?
It took several minutes for Vaive to convince them that no, this was not a prank call. He was also on hold for a very long time. Perhaps Pop-A-Lock was calling the IceCaps on another line to find out if this was for real.
Pop-a-Lock eventually showed up, but the locksmith apparently had no familiarity with bus locks, house locks or anything other than chicken coops. He did however have some nifty re-configured coat hangers. and after a lot of mumbling, grumbling, obscene muffled comments and downright impressive manipulation, the multi-talented equipment manager of the Stingrays equipment manager, Aaron Fackler, managed to get the wire into the window and jimmy it open. He was then lifted up high enough, to reach over and into the bus to open to door.
Meanwhile, the Stingrays players were consuming every munchie they could find that the few faithful fans had thoughtfully brought along to restock their bus. They picnicked on the concrete, promised to wreak future havoc on the body of one Dave Seitz, who carried the burden of being the last one off the bus and therefore guilty of causing the malfunction
Finally, the team being famished and desperate, the few remaining fans volunteered to shuttle the players to the restaurant to get fed so they could be ready to crash when/if the bus was ready to move on to Richmond.
Most of the guys crammed into the three cars and headed out while the other 5 fans stayed with the bus, the coach, staff and remaining 10 or so players. Just about the time the first group was ordering at the restaurant, Aaron got into the bus. The coach promptly loaded up everyone still there, including the faithfully waiting fans, and hauled them off to find his players, who weren't dining where expected. (Why does the image of Little Bo Peep spring so readily to mind?) Eventually, nearly three hours after the game, the team was reunited, and ready to head on to their next stop.
As if road trips weren't enough of a disaster ON the ice for the Knoxville Cherokees in the 1996-97 season, on a trip to Roanoke, their bus gave them more trouble than it was worth.
The bus had several problems. A tire needed to be changed about an hour outside of Knoxville, which took about an hour, so they went ahead and ate lunch. They got the tire changed and began the trip again.
They were about an hour and a half outside of Roanoke when a friendly trucker driver named Jim, sent a message by cb informing the Kees driver Biscuit (yes, that's what he's called, they've got another named Bull) that he was spilling oil everywhere, so they pulled over and discovered that they had blown part of the engine.
Jim took Biscuit to find help, then brought him back. A replacement bus (a school bus from Grundy High School) was found, only there wasn't enough room for the gear. So Jim volunteered his services since he had unloaded and was heading to Roanoke himself. They loaded the gear into his empty railer and Jim drove Jamie Smock and the Kees trainers to the Civic Center - all five of them squeezed into the cab of the truck.
The Kees arrived right before the scheduled game time and informed the folks in Roanoke of the problem. The players arrived about 45 minutes later and were able to skate for the last ten minutes of warm-ups. The game started over an hour late, and the Kees ended up losing 5-3.
The South Carolina Stingrays' driver was confused as to what Virginia city he was supposed to be driving to. He was informed of his mistake when one of the players, confused by the scenery, informed him that the game was in Roanoke, not Hampton Roads. The drive time on the ordinarilly 4-5 hour drive was apparently cut down significantly as the driver set a new land-speed record in order to arrive in Roanoke on time.
Rumor has it that IceGator Louis Dumont has driven the team bus on more than one occasion in relief of the regular bus driver. Apparently, Louis has his commercial license and rather than have a sleepy bus driver at the wheel, "Sweet Louie" took over. Reports have it that he handles the bus nearly as well as he handles the puck and has almost as much fun doing it!
Toledo's bus caught on fire....Not a bad fire, but a fire none the less.
In Dayton, the Blizzard bus backed into a car that was in it's blind spot and crushed the hood.
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