EAST HARTFORD, Conn. – Howard Baldwin resembled a father with a new son.
It seemed so appropriate, considering he and son Howard Jr., former New England Whalers center Garry Swain and Connecticut Whale mascot Pucky christened the new rink in Rentschler Field with a ceremonial first skate and puck drop, signifying the official opening of the historic Harvest-Properties.com Whalers Hockey Fest 2011.
“This is really special for me,” said the elder Baldwin, chairman and CEO of Whalers Sports and Entertainment, which runs the business operation of the Whale and is hosting the 12-day event. “My son was born (on June 26, 1971) just a few months before the Whalers were born.”
Yes, the New England Whalers were born in November 1971 when the World Hockey Association awarded a franchise to Baldwin and fellow New England businessmen John Coburn, Godfrey Wood and William Edwin Barnes to play in Boston. The Whalers would win the first AVCO Cup (WHA championship) in 1973 and then relocate to Hartford for the 1974-75 season.
Thirty-five years later, Baldwin and his Whalers Sports and Entertainment group have rebranded the Hartford Wolf Pack to the Connecticut Whale and have put together the biggest hockey celebration in state history.
“It’s amazing how they pulled all this together. It’s a beautiful rink, isn’t it?” said Howard Sr., on skates for the first time in 15 years. “A year ago, this was not even an idea. To see these guys take it this far … the whole staff did a hell of a job. This is a landmark event that’s going to do what I wanted it to do, package the brand and show it off to the world.
“It’s a defining moment, just as the Whalers Summer Reunion was in August. We were looking to get 1,500-2,000 then, and we got 5,000. They have made this for all ages, males, females. And the NHL is aware of it, and couple of their guys are going to be coming up (from New York) on the 19th. This has a $6-7 million budget that could generate who knows how much for the area.”
The rink has a large Connecticut Whale logo at center ice circled by “Harvest-Properties.com Whalers Hockey Fest 2011” in capital letters. The face-off circles at each end include CBT and Hilton logos, and the ice surface has the logos of sponsors Bank of America, Bud Light, Travelers, St. Francis Hospital and Medical Center, Powerstationevents.com, Connecticut Lottery, Hoffman Motors, United Healthcare, XFINITY of Comcast and two logos of Harvest-Properties.com and Webster Bank.
Baldwin and his son, the president and COO of Whalers Sports and Entertainment, also helped unveil the legacy jerseys to be worn by the Hartford Whalers and Boston Bruins alumni teams in their portion of the featured event, the Whale Bowl, on Feb. 19. The elder Baldwin wore a New England Whalers jersey, the younger Baldwin a Hartford Whalers legends jersey, Swain a Connecticut Whale fleece jacket and Pucky his usual Whalers outfit. Ryan Wuerfel, assistant to the chairman, modeled a Bruins legends jersey on the sidelines.
About 20 celebrities will mix in with the legends in a 4 p.m. game to be followed by the AHL’s second outdoor game at 7 p.m. The day’s activities begin with the Army-American International College game at 1 p.m.
More than 20,000 tickets have been sold, so the game is all but assured of breaking the AHL record crowd of 21,508 who watched the host Syracuse Crunch beat the Binghamton Senators 2-1 on former Wolf Pack defenseman Dave Liffiton’s goal in the first outdoor game at the New York State Fairgrounds on Feb. 20, 2010.
The Baldwins’ goal is 30,000 fans, but a sellout would really help prove a point.
“There’s an easier way to make money,” Howard Sr. said with a smile, “but we’re on a mission to bring back the (hockey) market.”
“It’s a celebration of hockey from mites all the way up to professional, and that’s very important,” Howard Jr. said. “Some NHL officials are going to be here, so we want to show them that 38,000 people want the NHL back. We’re close to Syracuse already, but we want to hit it out of the park and show people what the great state of Connecticut can show them and show that we’re a great hockey state like Minnesota.”
The NHL-standard 200-by-85-foot rink was ready for the opening thanks to the Herculean effort of construction manager Jim Hartnett and his staff, after record snowfall in January. They often worked through the night playing catch-up after seven of the first 18 days of construction were wiped out by snow and ice. The only work to be done is the netting at the ends of the rink for the AHL game.
“The only thing that we really have to do is keep grooming the ice to get it better,” said Hartnett, owner of EIS Rinks LLC in Syracuse that also built the rink for last year’s AHL outdoor game. “Now all we need to do is keep skating on the ice, and it’ll open up little cracks so we can put hot water on to seal the cracks and make it better every day. It’s just a balancing act all the way through.”
Hartnett said a favorable forecast of temperatures reaching the high 30s and mid-40s would make for optimal conditions for ice and the fans.
“Rain is about the only concern right now,” Hartnett said. “But we’d like it to be in the 40s because we freeze the ice from the bottom out, and when the temperature is in the mid-20s, we get a freeze from the top and the bottom, and we don’t really want that.”
The opening skate and puck drop preceded the first of 30 outdoor youth, high school, prep school, college, celebrity/alumni and pro games, between the girls teams from Simsbury High and West Hartford’s co-op Hall/Conard. As the scoreboard in the north end of the stadium glowed with “Whale Bowl 2011. More Than Hockey. This is History”, Pucky led the teams on the ice from the south end at 5:01 p.m. Then there was a five-minute skate and picture-taking session before a 10-minute warm-up with pucks.
“It’s unbelievable,” the elder Baldwin said he watched the girls warm up with wife, Karen, as they sat in the press box. “I can’t believe the kids are actually out there on the rink.”
Any tears, Howard? “Not now,” he said, “but maybe on the 19th.
After the national anthem echoed through Rentschler Field, the first official puck was dropped at 5:22 p.m.. Simsbury’s Jamie Matson scored the first goal at 5:08 of the second period, but West Hartford’s Brianne O’Connor tied it at 5:52 of the third period and Alyson Alissi won it with 2:46 left. West Hartford beat Simsbury 3-2 on Wednesday night, but Thursday’s game was “for fun” because it was the third meeting of the season.
The girls game was followed by two youth and one cthockeyleague.com game. Friday’s schedule includes two prep school games, and there are five games and a Sacred Heart University alumni skate Saturday from 8:30 a.m. to midnight. “UConn Day” is Sunday, when the alumni plays at 9 a.m., followed by the men’s team facing Sacred Heart at 1 p.m. and the women meeting Providence at 4 p.m. Two days later, Feb. 15, is “Trinity-Wesleyan Day” as the schools’ women’s teams play at 4 p.m., their alumni teams at 6:30 p.m. and the men’s teams at 8 p.m.
High school and prep school games fill most of the schedule the remainder of the week until the Whale Bowl. All tickets are general admission except for Feb. 19.
Hall of Fame defensemen Brian Leetch, a Cheshire native, and Brad Park headline the Bruins legends team. Other commitments are Enfield native Craig Janney, former captain Rick Middleton, Reggie Lemelin, Ken Hodge, Don Marcotte, Rick Smith, Bob Sweeney, Lyndon Byers, Cleon Daskalakis, Jay Miller, Bob Miller (no relation) and Ken “The Rat” Linseman, a member of the Whalers for a few moments as he passed through in a multi-player trade with Philadelphia and Edmonton that included Mark Howe leaving Hartford for the Flyers. Derek Sanderson and Gary Doak will coach the Bruins team.
Commitments for the Whalers team are WHA Hall of Famer Andre Lacroix, John McKenzie, whose No. 19 is retired in the XL Center rafters, Blaine Stoughton, Pat Verbeek, John Anderson, Garry Swain, Bob Crawford, Chris Kotsopoulos, Jim Dorey, Jordy Douglas, Ray Neufeld, Gordie Roberts, Darren Turcotte, Nelson Emerson, Mark Janssens, Bill Bennett, Jeff Brubaker, Fred O’Donnell, Terry Yake, Scott Daniels, Ed Hospodar, Yvon Corriveau and the Babych brothers, Dave and Wayne. Norm Barnes and former captain Russ Anderson will be among the coaches.
Among the celebrities scheduled to play with one of the legends teams are filmmaker Bobby Farrelly, writer/director of such hit films as “Dumb and Dumber”, “There’s Something About Mary”, “Kingpin”, “Me, Myself and Irene”, “Outside Providence”, “The Heartbreak Kid”, “Stuck on You”, and “Shallow Hal”; and actor David Henrie, from “Wizards of Waverly Place” and “That’s So Raven”.
Famed former NHL referee Paul Stewart will officiate the game. Stewart, a Boston native, refereed more than 1,000 NHL games in a 13-year career. On March 15, 2003, he refereed his 1,000th game, becoming the only American-born official to accomplish the feat. He also officiated during the Canada Cup in 1987 and 1991 after an eight-year playing career with teams in the NAHL, AHL, NEHL, CHL, WHA and NHL.
Tickets ($20 to $85) for the doubleheader can be purchased at Ticketmaster.com and the Bushnell box office in Hartford on Monday through Friday from noon to 5 p.m. or by calling the Whale at 860-728-3366. They also can be purchased online and printed immediately at Ticketmaster.com.
The official charity of the Hockey Fest is “Sam’s Race for a Place,” a fund-raising effort spearheaded by West Hartford resident Samantha Udolf that benefits the Ronald McDonald House. Since Udolf, a successful competitive skier, founded Sam’s Race for a Place in June of 2008, it has generated donations of more than $43,500.
The Ronald McDonald House is a non-profit charity operating since 1991 that helps hundreds of families and children enjoy the comforts of home while they await treatment at area medical facilities. Udolf became familiar with Ronald McDonald House and its good works while volunteering there, and she conceived Sam’s Race for a Place after learning it is independently-funded and depends on grass-roots campaigns for nearly all of its support.
For more information about Sam’s Race for a Place, visit www.samsraceforaplace.com . Donations also can be made through that web address. Besides the games, the Hockey Fest will include “Whale Town” featuring exhibitors, games and the Whalers Mobile Hall of Fame.
A complete schedule of games can be found at www.ctwhale.com . There will be a free public skate on Feb. 22 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to thank the sponsors and fans who supported the event.
Story by Bruce Berlet of the Connecticut Whale
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