Today in history: December 30

December 30 in Indianapolis hockey history

1939: Sid Abel scores the game-winner and has two goals in a 7-3 win at Springfield. The Hall of Famer would play 21 games and post a 7-11-18 line in the Capitals’ inaugural year. 

1981: Monty Trottier has a big night, with 45 PIMs – three majors, two misconducts and a game miscondut. The Checkers beat Dallas 6-2 in Texas. 

Birthdays

Rick Boyd: Right wing for the Ice in 1988-89. He had two goals, one assist and 113 PIMs in 27 games. He split that year between Indianapolis and Flint, and would play professionally from 1987-2001, primarily in the ECHL. A native of Fort St. John, B.C., he is 47. 

Milan Gulas: Forward for the Ice in 2004-05, their inaugural USHL season. He had 12 goals and 10 assists in 30 games. He has since played in his native Czech Republic, including a 23-goal season in 2010-11. A native of Ceske Budejovice, Czech Republic, he is 26.

 

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 #5: Checkers 4, Wichita Wind 3 (1982)

Islanders-Oilers.

In the early 1980s, there was no better rivalry in the National Hockey League. Bossy vs. Gretzky, Potvin vs. Coffey, Trottier vs. Anderson, Smith vs. Fuhr.

They were the premier franchises -- but their rivalry didn't just play out in the majors. The Indianapolis Checkers -- owned and operated by the Isles -- were rapidly developing into the Central Hockey League's premier franchise. Their foil was the Wichita Wind -- the top farm team of the Edmonton Oilers.

The Isles-Oilers rivalry was just budding at the time in 1982 as their top farm teams went at it for the right to play in the CHL's Adams Cup Finals.

The most intriguing part of the series was the goaltending matchup -- two guys who would soon patrol the nets for their respective NHL franchises -- Kelly Hrudey for the Checkers and Andy Moog for Wichita -- were between the pipes. Before long, each would lead a team to the Stanley Cup Finals. And fittingly, the series began not in Indianapolis or Wichita, but in Edmonton -- due to ice unavailability in Wichita, and the Wind wanted to keep the home game. In front of 12,000 fans in the Northlands Coliseum, the Checkers ended up pulling out a late 3-2 victory when Kevin Devine scored with 1:25 left. Then, they won Game 2 in Wichita by a more comfortable 7-4 score -- although the Chex had to score four unanswered goals in the third period.

That brings us to our "great game" #5. Game 3s are always huge, especially when it's 2-0. Either one team takes a commanding lead, or it becomes a series again. And, as evenly-matched as these two teams seemed to be, Wichita was fully capable of coming back in the series.

The series shifted to the Fairgrounds Coliseum -- hosting its first playoff game since 1959, as the Checkers had moved there that season after two years at Market Square Arena. That first game -- April 22, 1982 -- would be one few of the 4,616 in attendance would forget.

Hrudey took his position between the pipes for the Checkers. Moog did the same for Wichita. And the game was end-to-end from the beginning. Wichita fired 12 shots at Hrudey, but the Islanders' goalie-in-waiting stopped them all in the first 20 minutes. The Checkers struck on a 4-on-3 with 6:29 left in the first when Steve Stoyanovich rammed home a feed from Bruce Affleck to make it 1-0. After killing off a second-period 5-on-3, the Checkers' leading scorer Red Laurence made it 2-0 with 2:01 left in the period, but Ken Berry answered just a few seconds ahead of the second-period horn.

When Berry and Peter Sullivan scored 1:44 apart in the third period -- giving Wichita a lead with 5:56 to go -- the crowd might have been resigned to the thought of having to take a 2-1 series lead into Game 4.

But that's just when the drama began.

A trick Checkers coach Fred Creighton often loved to try was to challenge an opposing stick when his team was down a goal. The victim was Curt Brackenbury -- and with 2:06 left, Creighton sent Kerry Fraser out to measure Brackenbury's stick. Nothing to lose -- down 3-2, just enough time for one power play. Lose the measurement, and you're likely losing the game anyway. Win it, and put one of the CHL's most lethal lines on the ice.

The stick had too much of banana blade.

Over the boards hopped the high-scoring line of Neil Hawryliw, Garth MacGuigan and Devine. Inside a minute to go, Hawryliw shot. Moog stopped it. MacGuigan pounched on the rebound and shot. It popped off Moog's shoulder and into the air. In the scrum in front of the net, Devine batted at it. It slipped underneath Moog's arm and into the net. At the same time, Devine caught a high stick and headed to get stitches.

The pain wasn't too bad. It was 3-3 with 29 seconds left.

The game went to overtime.

In the extra session, both teams had a lot of action, as Hrudey stopped eight shots. Moog stopped the first eight he saw, too. But on the ninth, the Checkers' Hawryliw fed Monty Trottier in the slot. Monty -- the younger brother of the Islanders' star pivot Bryan Trottier -- fired a slapshot.

Moog couldn't handle it . Game over.

The Checkers poured over the bench to mob Trottier. They had a 3-0 lead in the series, which they'd finish off a couple of nights later at the Coliseum 5-3. The Checkers then went on to finish off the Dallas Black Hawks in the best-of-7 championship series in six games -- the last four of which were played in Indianapolis. A championship team was in Indy, but the stick measurement and the Devine goal was a big boost in getting them there.

Game boxscore: Game 3: April 22, 1982 at Fairgrounds Coliseum

Wichita	0	1	2	0	--3
Indianapolis	1	1	1	1	--4

First period
IND-Stoyanovich 3 (Affleck, Hordy), 13:31 (pp)

Penalties: Brackenberry (W) interference, 3:04; Bidner (W) roughing, 12:06; Davis (I) slashing, roughing, 12:06; Nethery (W) hooking, 12:06; Lockridge (I) cross-checking, 15:41; Hubick (W) tripping, 18:06; Jackson (W) high-sticking, fighting, 19:17; Devine (I) fighting, 19:17

Second period
IND-Laurence 3 (Beaton, Stoyanovich), 17:59

WIC-K. Berry 1 (Brackenberry, Forbes), 19:39
Penalties: Nethery (W) holding, 7:54; Simpson (I) tripping, 11:25; Davis (I) holding 12:04
Third period
WIC-K. Berry 2 (Sullivan, Brackenberry), 12:20

WIC-Sullivan 2 (Hubick, Forbes), 14:04

IND-Devine 5 (Hawryliw, MacGuigan), 19:31 (pp)
Penalties: Hubick (W) hooking, 4:56; Blum (W) roughing double minor, 6:18; Stoyanovich (I) roughing double minor, 6:18; Hordy (I) tripping, 9:15; Brackenberry (W) illegal stick, 17:54

Overtime

IND-Trottier 2 (Hawryliw, Simpson), 15:16

Penalties: Regier (I) hooking, 8:33; Hawryliw (I) slashing, 13:07; Blight (W) high-sticking, 13:07
Shots on goal: WIC 12-10-15-8-45 (Hrudey 42 saves), IND 11-9-11-9-40 (Moog 36 saves)

Power play: WIC 0-6, IND 2-6
Att: 4,616
Officials: R-Kerry Fraser, L-David Butova, Brian Collins

Previous games

#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 (1984)