Hershey Bears v Philadelphia Phantoms, January 31, 1998
The Spectrum, Section Z Row 5
Very legit. A minor league sellout isn't rare. But the Spectrum was the former home of the NHL Philadelphia Flyers and held over 17,000. To start the inaugural season the Phantoms dropped a huge black curtain to hide the 2nd and 3rd level, making the lower bowl the only seating option. This made the huge rink seem more intimate and suitable for a minor league team.
Shortly, the team had to raise the curtain a few rows at a time on the upper level as attendance started to take off.
The Phantoms had not lost or tied on home ice since October 20th and the fans appreciated the old Broad Street Bully style of play. That win streak would continue until tonite.
Tonight, the place was legitimately sold out. Over 17,000, no curtains. It was the old Spectrum in all of it's glory. No cookie cutter, sterile arena like the one across the parking lot. Our seats were 5 rows behind the net. A sold out Spectrum for the Phantoms was a better hockey atmosphere then a sold out Wachovia Center for the NHL Flyers today. It just was.
A 5-5 deadlock with the Bears before a sold out house finally ended the Phantoms' home winning streak at a remarkable 19 to best by two the then 59-year old AHL mark of 17 consecutive home victories set by the Cleveland Barons in 1937-38.
New York Rangers v Los Angeles Kings, January 27, 1990
Great Western Forum, Section 9 Row 2
Kelly Hrudey parked next to us while we were slugging a few hours before the game. Being in LA we took off early to beat traffic. And there was no traffic in the area. So we had time to kill. And Inglewood is not an area you want to walk to a bar to kill a few hours.
Seeing so much of the Forum on TV I have to say I was underwhelmed when I walked inside. It was a one tier building with the upper seating a mile from the ice surface. The concourse had linoleum tiling. But it was new to me. We got to watch warm-ups along the glass. This may have been the first time I saw The Great One in person. He was always a Smythe Division guy and I always lived in Patrick and Adams cities. So he only popped in town once a year or so.
There was energy in the building from the drop of the puck. New York teams always draw well regardless of where you are. And Gretzky was still a novelty in LA.
The home Kings got their only goal of the game off of Wayne Gretzky. The place went nuts while the PA played Randy Newman's I Love LA.
Phoenix Suns v Philadelphia 76ers, January 27, 1995
The Spectrum, Section 30, Row 2
Suns 108 Sixers 107
Must have been a barn burner. I probably left early to beat the traffic that the 76ers were unable to attract. The Sixers stunk to high heaven this year with John Lucas as the coach.
Phoenix had Charles Barkley, Danny Aignes, Danny Manning, Kevin Johnson, Dan Majerle and Wayman Tisdale on the roster.
Unfortunatly Wayman Tisdale lost a battle with cancer in 2009.
Buffalo Sabres v Philadelphia Flyers, January 26, 1993
The Spectrum, Section Y Row 14
In the days before Buffalo went with that god-awful new logo and black unis.
A quick goal by Pelle Eklund (Acton, Hawgood) in the 1st 2 minutes put the Flyers up 1-0. Mark Recchi (Paslawski,Fedyk) added another a little over a minute early leaving Buffalo's netminder Tom Draper looking shaky.
There is only one thing to do when down 2-0 in the first if you are on the beating end; send out an enforcer to start a fight. The Sabres Rob Ray took a run at Flyers enforcer Dave Brown in an attempt to spark his club. And it worked. Alexander Mogilny (Sutton, Ramsey) netted Buffalo's first of the game to close the gap to 2-1. And shortly after Rob Ray again took a run at Terry Carkner, earning both of them fighting majors.
Buffalo's Dave Andreychuk (Hawerchuk, Donnelly) netted his season's 27th goal midway through the 3rd. And the Flyers see-sawed with their own goal off of Woody Acton (Beranek, Evans ) . This knotted the game at 3 forcing a sudden death overtime.
In OT Sweeney (LaFontaine, Hannan) put one past Flyers goalie Dominic Rousell for the game winner. 17,120 were on hand.
New York Islanders v Philadelphia Flyers, January 24, 2003
First Union Center, Club Suite R
I'm not a club suite guy. Kind of stuffy and uncomfortable. But we landed a pair. It was either go or sit home. I developed a thing when I moved away from Philadelphia around this time. If I traveled to see any "home" team, the home team would lose.
The first period was rather eventless with only 2 minor penalties called.
The 2nd period was not kind to the home team. Michael Peca put the Islanders on the board first while the Flyers Mark Recchi was in the box for interference on the goaltender (the 2nd such call of the game). Roman Hamrlik scored the Islander's second goal of the game. Kim Johnsson of the Flyers was set up by Mark Recchi and Jeremy Roenick to somewhat wake up the mellow crowd at the F.U. Center.
Within one goal of tying the listliss Flyers let the game get out of reach late in regulation when Mark Parrish to seal the victory.
Hartford Whalers v Philadelphia Flyers, January 24, 1993
The Spectrum, Sec Y Row 14
...are no longer with us.
This was the first of three meetings between the Adams and Patrick Division teams.
Rod Brind'Amour scored a short handed goal at the 6:56 mark of the first to put the Flyers up 1-0. Former Whaler Kevin Dineen assisted on the play. Three minutes later Hartford's Jamie Leach put one past Philadelphia goaltender Tommy Soderstrom. The Flyers pulled ahead again late in the first with a Terry Carkner goal.
Andrew Cassels from Hartford scored an even strenght goal in the 2nd to tie the game up. Terry Yake added to the Whalers scoring in the 2nd on a power play goal at the 14:57 mark.
The scoring barrage continued in the third when Yake scored his second of the game. Brind'Amour connected from Mark Recchi and Garry Galley to pull the Flyers with in one. The same duo set up Greg Hawgood again late in regulation on a power play to force an OT period.
Two minutes and thirty seven seconds into OT the Flyers Ric Nattress snuck one past Hartford's met minder Frank Pietrangelo on a feed from Brent Fedyk to win the game to the delight of 17,216.
Quebec Nordiques v Philadelphia Flyers, January 21, 1995
The Spectrum, Section Z Row 8
A hockey season opener in January? This was a lockout shortened NHL season. My seats were behind the net pretty low. This was the Nordiques last season before moving to Colorado and changing their names to the Avalanche. The franchise was in trouble with money and the lockout didn't help matters.
The Nordiques have not been in first place in 10 years but have been fueled by a couple of years of #1 draft picks, including Eric Lindros in 91, who held out for a trade which eventually landed him in Philadelphia.
The league's Canadian teams found it difficult to compete in a new age of rising player salaries, which was made even more difficult by a weakening Canadian dollar (these teams' revenues are earned in Canadian, but salaries are paid in US). Quebec City was by far the smallest market in the NHL, and the second-smallest market in North America to host a major league team (behind only Green Bay, Wisconsin). It didn't help that even in their best years, they were unable to escape the long shadow of the Canadiens. Additionally, Quebec City is a virtually monolingual Francophone city. Unlike in Montreal, nearly all public address announcements were only given in French. Then as now, there were no privately-owned English-language radio stations, and the only English-language newspaper was a weekly. All of these factors severely limited the Nords' marketability, and made free agents and draftees (most notably Lindros) skeptical about playing for them.
This season in the lockout shortened schedule of 48 regular season games, the lame duck Nords would win 30 of them to finish first in the the Northeast (former Adams Division). The following season, their first in Colorado, they won the Stanley Cup.
It didn't take long for the season to get kicked off. Andri Kovelenko scored 1:36 into the game with assists being credited to Joe Sakic and Wendell Clark. The Flyers goaltender was former Nordique, Ron Hextall.
Less than 5 minutes into the game Quebec's Craig Wolinon was accessed a major, a game misconduct, gross misconduct, holding and a match-attempt to injure penalty. He was back on the ice and flagged again at the 18:52 mark of the 1st for roughing.
The Flyers Rod Brind'Amour tied the game up in the 2nd with assists going to Lindros and Patrick Juhlin.
The 3rd found Quebec scoring 2 more for a season opening win. Owen Nolan scored with Kovdelenko and Peter Forsberg getting assists. This was Forsberg's first NHL game. Forsberg was one of 5 players the Flyers traded away to obtain holdout Eric Lindros in 1991. The Flyers Dave Brown and Quebec's Chris Simon had a major league toe to toe in the third.
Wake Forest v Maryland, January 19, 2000Cole Field House, Sec RS Row 1
My first time in Cole Field House. I had an old fraternity brother who was on the faculty at Maryland. He invited me to a game when we were out for beers one night.
There are only a few shrines in college basketball rise above; Cameron Indoor Stadium, The Palestra........and that's it. Cole Field was one of those sweaty gyms. Crazy students, airplane hanger acoustics, stands on top of the floor.
The Terps rolled out to a 10 point lead in the first half lead by Lonny Baxter and Juan Dixon. The 2nd half was no different as the Terps went on to win 73-51 in front of a sold out Field House with 14, 319.
I had a buddy who landed 2 seats for the skills competition on Friday night and the same seats for the Saturday game. He was selling off one set. He choose to go to the skills competition and sold me the game seats.
A friend from Boston jetted down quickly. It was a cold day. We did some bar hopping in Center City starting around 10 am. I think this was a 1 pm game on NBC in the US. The game was broadcast on TSN in Canada.
The teams wore retro jerseys from the 1940's.
We started out on the glass for warmups. Gretzky standing right on the boards next to us. For the game we had to go up to our regular seats. In the old Spectrum, the upper 2nd level seats were not as good as the 3rd level, or The Crow's Nest. We were pretty high up in the 2nd level, I believe behind one of the nets.
Upper Deck was an up and coming hockey card company at the time. They handed out either a Campbell Conference or Wales Conference card with a hockey card of the 6 starters. We managed to land a card from each conference.
For the first time, not a single penalty was called and three goaltenders were employed for each team, with each goalie playing one period. Previously, two goaltenders had shared duties, switching halfway through the second period.
We missed the skills competition (live) the night before but Danvers, MA resident Ray Bourque hit 4 targets in 4 shots during the Accuracy Shooting event.
Hershey Bears v Philadelphia Phantoms, January 31, 1998
