Today in history: May 8

2009: The Ice clinch the Clark Cup with a second straight dominant performance in Fargo. After falling behind 1-0, Brandon Richardson gives the Ice a 2-1 lead with 5:52 left in the second, and then stretches the lead 2:21 into the third. Grant Blakey and Zach Golombiewski add third-period goals to net a 5-1 victory. Mike Cichy has three assists in the win, and the Ice claim the United States junior hockey national championship, the eighth such title in Indianapolis hockey history. Brett Bennett makes 36 saves to outduel the USHL's top goaltender Mike Lee.The Ice win despite being outshot 37-18. From the midpoint of Game 2 on, the Ice outscored Fargo 15-2 to win three straight games and clinch the best-of-7 series 3 games to 1. 

Birthdays

Cully Simon: Defenseman who played 17 games with the Capitals in the 1942-43 season, and then got the callup to Detroit, where he got his name etched on the Stanley Cup. He would be a wartime NHL player, totaling 130 games with the Wings and Blackhawks from 1942-45. He then took a coaching position with a senior team in Pembroke, Ontario and then would continue to play. A native of Brockville, Ontario, he was born in 1918. He passed away on Aug. 2, 1980. 

Pierre Brillant: One of the biggest scorers ever to put on a sweater in Indianapolis. He joined the Chiefs in 1956 as part of coach Leo Lamoureux's roster overhaul for the team's second season, and immediately started scoring. He scored 38 goals that year and helped lead the Chiefs to the Turner Cup Finals. The next year, he totaled 45 goals and led them to the Turner Cup championship. He played alongside two equally-talented players -- Bob Bowness and Marc Boileau -- for much of those two years. His best season came in 1958-59, when he totaled 57 goals and 98 total points (and zero penalty minutes). He would have another 50-goal season the following year, but he would be traded to Omaha on Jan. 3, 1961. In his four-and-a-half year tenure with the Chiefs, he totaled 204 goals and 181 assists in 278 games. He is the only player to score more than 200 goals while representing Indianapolis, and he ranks third on the city's all-time scoring list behind ex-Checkers Garth MacGuigan and Ice team president Charlie Skjodt. His 57-goal season in 1958-59 was third behind Yvan Corbin's two seasons with the Ice on single-season goals. He was named the IHL's MVP in 1957 and 1958, and was the league's leading scorer in 1957. Brillant's career would continue in the AHL, where he played eight seasons with the Providence Reds, and would continue playing pro hockey until 1970. A native of Rimouski, Quebec, the diminutive (5-9, 155), right-hand shooting right wing was born in 1932.

Sergei Klimovich: The Blackhawks' second-round pick in 1992, "Klimo" came to Indy from Dynamo Moscow and played three seasons with the Ice from 1994-97. The center's best year with the Ice was his last, as he totaled a 20-37-57 line in 1996-97, leading the Ice to a division title. He played 214 games for the Ice, totaling 51 goals and 88 assists. He also had two goals and three assists in eight postseason games. He earned a one-game callup to Chicago in 1996-97, bounced around the IHL and WCHL the following year, and then went back to Europe in 1998, where he played nine more seasons. He retired in 2007 after a seven-year stint in his native Russia. A native of Novosibrisk, Russia, he is 37.