Today in history: October 19

October 19

1943: Future Hall of Famer Harry Lumley makes his Capitals debut in net, beating the Buffalo Bisons 2-1 in front of 7357 at the Coliseum. Bucko McDonald would score the game-winner. Another player who would be a Capital fixture – defenseman Rod Morrison – played the first of his team-record 319 games in a Capital uniform that night. Morrison would total 88 goals and 130 assists in a career that spanned from 1943-44, and again from 1945-49.

1975: Gerry Moore is fired as the Racers coach, and player personnel director Jacques Demers is hired. The Racers are 1-4-0 in their second season, and would go on to win the East Division championship. Demers would post a 70-72-14 record in Indianapolis, and later coach the Montreal Canadiens to the Stanley Cup in 1993. 

Birthdays

Bob Ferguson: Very popular Ice coach from 1995-98 during the IHL days. Fergie's teams posted a 127-98-21 record. They made the playoffs each year he coached, and won the IHL's Central Division championship in 1997. His teams never won a playoff series, but dropped best-of-5 five-game thrillers in both 1996 (to Detroit) and 1998 (to Orlando). Ferguson came to the Ice after a long career in the USHL coaching Sioux City and Des Moines from 1981-95. After leaving the Ice, he coached in the ECHL for three seasons, returned to the USHL with Des Moines in 2001 for three years, and then went back to coaching in the ECHL for three more seasons. He is currently the assistant GM of the AHL's Syracuse Crunch. A native of Kingston, Ont., he is 57. 

Jake Skjodt: Ice forward who is a second-generation hockey player in Indianapolis. Skjodt played for the Ice from 2006-08, with 42 goals and 44 assists in 117 games. He also had 172 PIMs. He took his talents to Nebraska-Omaha where he played two collegiate seasons, and then went to Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Skjodt's father is former Checkers legend Charlie Skjodt, who also currently serves as the Indiana Ice team president and has served two stints as the team's coach. A native of Carmel, he is 24. 

Today in histor: August 25-28

Catching up a few dates on TIH: 

August 25

John French: Left wing who played 74 games for the Racers in 1977-78, scoring nine goals and eight assists. It was the last of six WHA seasons -- he would play 420 games in the league, with 108 goals and 192 assists. His best year was 1975-76 with San Diego, in which he had a 25-39-64 line. He played the following season in the AHL before retiring. A native of Orilla, Ont., he is 61.

Jacques Demers: Racers coach from 1975-77. He led the team to a record of 71-76-14 and the only two postseason appearances in team history. In 1976, the Racers won the WHA's West Division title. The following year, the swept the Cincinnati Stingers in the opening round of the playoffs before falling to eventual Avco Trophy champion Quebec in the division finals. Demers had been the Racers' player personnel director before being promoted when Gerry Moore was fired early in the 1975-76 season. After his stint with the Racers, he coached the Cincinnati Stingers, brought the Quebec Nordiques into the NHL, and also served as the head coach of the St. Louis Blues, Detroit Red Wings, Montreal Canadiens and Tampa Bay Lightning. He led the Canadiens to the Stanley Cup title in 1993. Three other times, he took teams to the conference finals -- the 1986 Blues and the 1987 & 1988 Red Wings. He was the NHL's Coach of the Year in 1987 and 1988, and the American Hockey League's top coach in 1983 with Fredericton. Demers currently serves as a member of the Canadian Senate. A native of Montreal, he is 67.

Monty Trottier: Center who played parts of five seasons with the Checkers, starting in the 1981 CHL Playoffs -- shortly after finishing his junior career. He played four full seasons with the Checkers -- 1981-84, and then again in 1985-86. He totaled 73 goals and 99 assists in 285 games with the Checkers, with his best year coming in his final season, where he had 27 goals and 38 assists. He was a part of the Adams Cup champions in 1982 and 1983. He had seven goals and 16 assists in 42 playoff games, including a 1-7-8 line in leading a young squad to the 1984 Adams Cup finals. He also had 452 PIMs. The Islanders' fourth-round pick, Monty is the younger brother of six-time Stanley Cup champion and Hockey Hall of Famer Bryan Trottier. He remained in Indianapolis after his retirement from hockey and has been active as a hockey coach and instructor, running TNT hockey camps with his brothers Rocky and Bryan. A native of Val Marie, Sask., he is 50.

Frank Bialowas: A popular enforcer who joined the Ice late in the 1998-99 season and played 16 games. He scored one goal and had 27 PIMs. "The Animal" also played professionally from 1991-2000 and again from 2004-06, totaling 200+ PIMs in seven different seasons. He played four NHL games with Toronto in 1993-94. A native of Winnipeg, he is 41.

Aug. 26
Bryon Baltimore: Defenseman who played for the Racers from 1975 through the aborted 1978-79 season. He played 116 games for the Racers, totaling three goals and 33 assists. He also played all 16 playoff games in Racers history, with one assist. Baltimore played 333 WHA/NHL games, also playing for the Chicago Cougars, Denver Spurs, Cincinnati Stingers and Edmonton Oilers between 1974-80. He retired as a player after the 1980-81 season, and later coached the CHL's Montana Magic in 1983-84. A native of Whitehorse, Yukon, he is 59.

Aug. 27
Don Perkins: Member of the Checkers in 1986-87 and Ice in 1988-89. The defenseman graduated from Ohio State University in 1986 and played three pro seasons. He totaled two goals and 15 assists, as well as 118 PIMs, in his 51 games with the Checkers & Ice. In-between, he played 33 games for the Fort Wayne Komets and the AAHL's Virginia Lancers. In 1989, he retired from hockey and began coaching the Brebeuf high school team, which he continues to do. A native of Whitby, Ontario, he is 48.

Mario Doyon: Defenseman for the Ice at two ends of his career -- playing 66 games in 1989-90 and 63 games in 2003-04. He totaled 32 goals and 56 assists in those 129 games with the Ice. He came to the team in 1989 as a Blackhawks farmhand -- he was drafted by them in the sixth round in 1986 -- and he played  28 NHL games with the Blackhawks and Nordiques between 1988-91, scoring four goals. After his short NHL stint, he played several yeras in the AHL and IHL before moving to Europe after the 1995-96 season. He returned to play for the Ice in 2003 -- the team's final CHL season -- and retired after playing one game the following year in Corpus Christi.  While he played much of the 1990 championship season with the Ice, he was traded to Quebec partway through the year. Since retiring, he has settled in Indianapolis and has served as a hockey coach, including with the Indiana Junior Ice. A native of Quebec City, he is 43.
Craig Mills: Winger who played for the Ice from 1996-99, playing 134 games, totaling 22 goals, 21 assists and 332 penalty minutes. His best year came in 1996-97, when he had 12 goals to help the Ice win an IHL division title. After his stints with the Ice, he played four more years in the AHL and three in Europe before retiring in 2006. He also played 31 NHL games for the Jets (in 1995-96) and Blackhawks (1997-99). A native of Toronto, he is 35.
Pat Leahy: Forward who played three games for the Ice in 2001-02, totaling one assist. He had played at the NCAA Div. III level and briefly in the UHL prior to joining the Ice. A native of Canton, Mass., he is 35.
Eddie DelGrosso: High-scoring defenseman for the Ice from 2004-06. He played 116 regular-season games with the Ice, totaling 34 goals and 51 assists. He also had a goal and six assists in eight playoff games. He was one of several ex-Ice players who played at Nebraska-Omaha, where he was a blueline mainstay for four years before turning pro in 2010. He has played professionally in the AHL, in Finland and with the ECHL Las Vegas Wranglers. A native of Las Vegas, he is 26.

Greatest playoff games #1: Racers 4, Cincinnati Stingers 3 (1977)

(Listen to Bob Lamey's call of Gene Peacosh's game-winning goal)

We have come to the last installment of the Greatest Playoff Games segment. A lot of pretty good games just missed the cut -- including a couple in the Ice's 2000 championship run, and some of the Racers' eight postseason victories.

But #1 was a no-brainer from the start.

It was 1977. The Indianapolis Racers had won the WHA's East Division with a losing record and an incredible late-season flurry the year before, but eventually lost to the New England Whalers in an epic seven-game series. But that run captivated the city, and the Racers were among the WHA's top teams in attendance in 1976-77.

The WHA was as slimmer league in 1976-77, cutting down to 12 teams to start the year -- it had started the previous year with 14, finished with 12 The Toronto Toros has become the Birmingham Bulls, the Cleveland Crusaders moved to Minnesota to replace the Fighting Saints franchise that folded mid-season the year before (the new Saints franchise would also fold mid-season in 1976-77), but for the most part, the league was as stable as it had been in its short run.

The teams to beat remained the Houston Aeros, Winnipeg Jets, Quebec Nordiques and New England Whalers. But a new player emerged in the Cincinnati Stingers. They also became a very quick bitter rival for the Racers. Less than 120 miles of I-74 separated the two towns, and the hockey animosities were never greater than in 1976-77.

The Racers had made the postseason the year before with a hard-work, lunchpail attitude, good defense and a lot of balance. It carried them again in 1977, as they finished with a 36-37-8 record -- their best in franchise history -- but finished third in the East, behind Quebec and Cincinnati.

The Racers' leading scorer was a defenseman -- Darryl Maggs had just 16 goals, but 55 assists. There was but one 30-goal scorer -- Blair MacDonald. But a ton of 20-goal scorers provided depth. Gene Peacocsh came over from Edmonton early in the year and tallied 22. Rene LeClerc and Reggie Thomas both scored 25. Fan favorite Hugh Harris was a 21-goal scorer. And Rosie Paiment, who had come over from New England early in the year, tallied 23 between the two teams. There was a good mix of balance and veteran leadership, with guys like Al Karlander, Bryon Baltimore, Pat Stapleton and Ken Block holding things down. And the goaltending trio of Jim Park, Andy Brown and Michel Dion -- a group bolstered by the mid-season acquisition of Paul Hoganson -- had been the WHA's best the year before. Dion and Park shared most of the work this season.

And, as fortune would have it, the Racers met the Cincinnati Stingers in the opening round. Cincinnati had finished just four points ahead of the Racers in the standings, but the Stingers were supposed to be the much stronger team. Their roster featured two 50-goal scorers -- Rich Leduc and Blaine Stoughton -- and 40-goal scorers Dennis Sobchuk and Rick Dudley. They were the second-highest scoring team in the WHA, and the Racers weren't supposed to be able to hang with them.

There's a belief that a series is rarely won in Game 1.

Just ask the Boston Bruins after Petr Klima stunned them in triple OT in 1990. Or the Oakland A's after they gave up game-winning homers to Kirk Gibson and Eric Davis in Game 1s to set the tone for back-to-back World Series defeats.

And just like the Bruins and A's in those later series, the Stingers would be favorites in 1977.


Racers coach Jacques Demers called for good goaltending and a tight-checking game. The Stingers had won four of five games in Riverfront Coliseum, nearly all by lopsided scorers.

But while the Stingers had a ton of talent, the Racers had some veteran guile.

Saturday night, April 9, 1977, the series began. 12,429 filed into Riverfront Coliseum not realizing they were about to witness WHA history.

Paul Hoganson took the net for the Racers against his old team -- Demers had determined he'd play both of his top goalies, and give Michel Dion the start in Game 2. Normand LaPointe tended net for the Stingers. The puck dropped at 8:05 p.m. in Cincinnati. Demers had decided to go with Brian McDonald-Gene Peacosh-Rene LeClerc to provide a two-way game against Cincinnati's top line centered by Leduc.

Yet, Leduc scored the game's first goal, assisted by Dudley and Stoughton on the power play, just 4:58 in. Mark Lomenda answered for the Racers at 11:05, a rebound goal on a power play. After 20 minutes, it was 1-1.

Second verse? Same as the first. Leduc made it 2-1, Lomenda tied it half a period later, converting a pass from Brian McDonald. Both goals were at even strength this time.

Just a typical close-checking playoff hockey game. Animosities broke out five minutes into the third when Bryon Baltimore and Bryan Maxwell dropped the gloves. Lomenda and Leduc -- the two goal scorers to that point -- both got misconducts in the altercation.

They'd both be out of the box by the time anything happened, but they wouldn't be in on the plays.

The Stingers sent the Riverfront Coliseum crowd into delirium with just 2:39 left in the game, when Pierre Roy fired from the point. Claude Larose tipped it over Hoganson and gave the Stingers a 3-2 edge. The Stingers had been swarming -- doubling up the Racers in shots in the period -- and the fans were expecting to go home happy.

But things changed quickly. Protecting a lead, the Stingers' youth showed. They got caught up-ice. Michel Parizeau and Reggie Thomas broke out of the zone with a 2-on-1. Parizeau fed Thomas in the right circle, who fired a shot that tied the game with just 1:04 left.

The celebrating Cincinnati fans were suddenly stunned -- and settling in for overtime.

Little did they know how much overtime.

The first sudden death period came and went with no scoring. Each team had a power play, but couldn't take advantage. Each team got eight shots, nothing. At that point, it became the longest game in WHA history -- none had gone to a second overtime before.

As the game went deeper, things looked more in the Stingers' favor since they had younger legs. Or so was the conventional wisdom.

Both teams got more shots on net, but Hoganson and Lapointe stopped them all. Cincinnati had a great chance late in the second OT when Hoganson's glove snared a close-in shot by Larose.

100 minutes of hockey. 40 minutes of scoreless OT. No decision yet.

On into the night they went. It was past 1 a.m. as the puck dropped for the sixth period of the night. Few fans were left in the house.

With the goaltenders dominating and both teams playing a tight-checking game, there had to be a fortunate bounce, a good carom, something.

Something. Gene Peacosh got the puck out of his zone and started the breakout by getting the puck ahead to linemate Brian McDonald, who broke into the zone and left a drop pass for Mark Lomenda left of the slot.

Lomenda -- seeking a hat trick -- fired a shot at LaPointe. He missed the net. But it hit the back boards and came off at a weird angle. LaPointe -- who was  tried to get the puck out of harm's way and pushed it to his left -- the opposite side of where he was squared up to cut down Lomenda's angle.

The puck went right to Gene Peacosh with lots of open twine to shoot at.


He didn't miss.

Suddenly, with one great bounce and a great finish, Gene Peacosh had cemented himself in WHA and Racers lore by ending the longest hockey game in WHA history. After 108 minutes and 40 seconds, the Racers had a 4-3 victory.

The game finished at 1:16 a.m. -- more than five hours after the puck dropped. 

Peacosh called it his biggest thrill in hockey. Demers called it the best WHA game he'd ever seen. Brian McDonald, who had the second assist on Peacosh's goal, said "the old men outlasted the young lions."

Hoganson had stopped 56 shots in the win -- 22 in overtime. LaPointe turned aside 48 of the 52 shots he faced.

The atmosphere on the bus was one of confidence -- the Racers headed home knowing they had the series in hand. They took a commanding lead two nights later, beating the Stingers 7-2, scoring the first five goals of the night. Game 3 was another 5-3 victory, and in Game 4, Michel Dion made 25 saves in front of a raucous sellout crowd at Market Square Arena in the high point for the Racers franchise. Reggie Thomas, Brian McDonald and Al Karlander scored goals and the Racers never trailed in a brilliant victory.

The Racers advanced to the WHA Eastern Division final series against Quebec, where they would fall in five games. They lost Game 3 in OT, and Paul Hoganson gave the local fans a thrill by shutting out the Nordiques in Game 4 in what would become the Racers' last playoff game at MSA. But Quebec won two of the three games in Le Colise by 8-3 scores, and the Nordiques would go on to beat the Winnipeg Jets to win their only AVCO Cup in history.

It would be a last hurrah for the Racers. That off-season, the team was sold to Canadian businessman Nelson Skalbania, they lost a lot of key players -- many of them to Cincinnati, where Demers also headed down I-74 to coach the Stingers. Pat Stapleton, Hugh Harris, Bryan Coates, Bryon Baltimore, Darryl Maggs, Reggie Thomas, Paul Hoganson and Michel Dion would all suit up for the Stingers the next season. The Racers would finish last in an eight-team league, and then Skalbania folded the team after 25 games the next fall.

But the glory days of the Racers -- the two-year run from 1975-77 when they had a core Indianapolis embraced and packed Market Square Arena -- is still the most fondly-remembered era of hockey in Indianapolis, and many of those players are well-remembered for their exploits as Racers.

Game boxscore

Game 1: April 9, 1977 at Riverfront Coliseum

Indianapolis Racers    1   1   1   0   0   1  -- 4

Cincinnati Stingers      1   1   1   0   0   0  -- 3

*-longest game in WHA history

First period
CIN-Leduc 1 (Dudley, Stoughton), 4:58 (pp)

IND-Lomenda 1 (Rochon, Paiement), 11:05 (pp)
Penalties: McDonald (I) high-sticking, fighting 2:44; Roy (C) high-sticking, fighting, 2:44; Sicinski (I) hooking 4:03; Stoughton (C) tripping 9:07; Hughes (C) holding 14:52

Second period
CIN-Abgrall 1 (Leduc, Larose), 9:48

IND-Lomenda 2 (McDonald, Peacosh), 18:23

Penalties: none
Third period
CIN-Larose 1 (Roy, Carroll), 17:21

IND-Thomas 1 (McDonald, Parizeau), 18:56.

Penalties: McDonald (I) high-sticking 5:00; Maxwell (C) high-sticking, fighting 5:00; Baltimore (I) fighting 5:00; Lomenda (I) misconduct 5:00; Leduc (C) misconduct 5:00.

First overtime

No scoring

Penalties: Leduc (C) hooking 3:09; MacDonald (I) tripping 4:07

Second overtime 

No scoring

Penalties: none

Third overtime

IND-Peacosh 1 (Lomenda, McDonald), 8:40

Penalties: none

Shots on goal: IND 12-10-5-8-12-5—52 (LaPointe 48 saves). CIN 9-15-13-8-11-3—59 (Hoganson 55 saves).
Power play: IND 1-3, CIN 1-2.
Att: 12,429.

Officials: R: Ron Ego. L-Alan Glaspell, Ron Asseltine.

Previous entries

#2: Checkers 5, Birmingham South Stars 4, OT (1983)
#3: Capitals 3, Springfield Indians 2, OT (1942)
#4: Ice 1, Detroit Vipers 0, 2OT (1999)
#5: Checkers 3, Wichita Wind 2, OT (1982)

#6: Ice 2, Muskegon Lumberjacks 1 (1990)

#7: Capitals 6, Cleveland Barons 2 (1950)

#8: Chiefs 3, Louisville Rebels 2 (1958)

#9: Ice 7, Cedar Rapids RoughRiders 6 (2009)

#10: Checkers 6, Colorado Flames 5, OT (1984)