Today in history: May 4

OK, we're a day behind. So, let's catch up with some championship action.

1983: The Checkers clinch their second straight Adams Cup championship, beating the Birmingham South Stars 7-2 in Alabama. Bruce Affleck earns the playoff MVP award, Glen Duncan scores a hat trick, Scott Howson buries his 12th playoff goal and Red Laurence nets his 11th and adds an assist. Future NHL mainstay Gord Dineen has three assists in the victory. The Checkers clinched the unusual best-of-9 series 5 games to 2. Kelly Hrudey turned back 16 of 18 shots to earn the victory in net. 

1990: Jim Waite shuts out the Salt Lake Golden Eagles, with Jari Torkki providing all of the offense th Ice would need in a 2-0 victory. It gave the Ice a 3-1 lead in their best-of-7 IHL Western Conference final series. 

2007: The Ice clinch a spot in the USHL final four in the league’s unusual one-year postseason experiment, beating Cedar Rapids 4-3 in the second game of a three-team round-robin, sweeping the series. John Kemp scored twice, but Garrett Roe’s third assist of the day – feeidng Jake Skjodt with 3:40 left – sealed the victory. Alex Kangas stopped 39 Rough Riders shots. 

Birthdays

Steve Richardson: Member of the Racers' first team in 1974-75, playing 19 games in the red, white and blue and tallying a goal and four assists. Steve would play most of his 72 career WHA games in that season, also playing with the Michigan Stags/Baltimore Blades franchise. A native of Olds, Alberta, he is 62.

Dave Morrow: A defenseman who played 10 games with the Racers in their final aborted 1978 season. He tallied two goals and 10 assists in that stint. He would spend the rest of that season with the Fort Wayne Komets of the IHL. A native of Edmonton, he is 54.

Greg Evtushevski: Another Alberta native, he played eight games for the Checkers in the 1986-87 season, tallying a goal and six assists. After that season -- his third in the pros -- Greg went to Europe where he would play 15 more years in Great Britain and Germany. A native of St. Paul, Alberta, he is 46.

Joe Guenther: Winger who scored 19 goals and added nine assists for the Ice's final CHL team in 2003-04. He played 51 games in an Ice uniform that season. That was his third season in an eight-year career that saw stints with several CHL and ECHL teams. His best year was a 31-goal season for CHL Amarillo in 2005-06, and he tallied 27 goals in in each 2008-09 and 2009-10 for the Gorillas. A native of Buffalo, he is 30.  

Corey Fienhage: Defenseman who played 12 games with the Ice in 2007-08 before a two-year college stint at North Dakota. He was selected by Buffalo in the third round of the 2008 NHL Entry Draft and, upon finishing his year with WHL Kamloops, he has finished up the season with the AHL's Hershey Bears. A native of Apple Valley, Minn., he is 21.