The Cincinnati Cyclones (wow! We spelled Cincinnati right....!) won the Riley Cup* for the East Coast Hockey League championship with a 2-1 win over the visiting Idaho Steelheads from Boise. Alas, the Steelheads had to take the long Greyhound bus ride back home (we say that in jest---hopefully, they flew to Ohio on a private plane---hopefully!). But, their goalie Richard Bachman gave a stellar performance in the net throughout the minor league hockey season.
Honestly, I haven't watched an ECHL game since the now defunct Roanoke Express were playing in my hometown of Roanoke, Va., which was at least ten years ago, but thanks to Twitter, we have been following the sport fairly regularly.
We feature an image of the late Paul Newman's comedy "Slap Shot" (1977) not only because it was about minor league hockey, but also because the film is actually showing on the big screen at the recently reopened Varsity Theatre in Chapel Hll, NC!
According to the IMDB, Al Pacino expressed an early interest in playing Newman's role, and the Hanson Brothers who became cult figures after the film's release actually played minor league hockey for the now defunct Johnstown Jets. But, Johnstown, Pa. has a current team in the ECHL known as the Johnstown Chiefs (I hope we're right about that!) which was coincidentally the nickname of the fictitious team in the film.
Newman also said "Slap Shot" was among his favorite films, and he had a delightful time on the set.
*-Correction: It's the Kelly Cup!
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2 comments:
It's actually called the Kelly Cup. :)
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Ahhh, that's right that's the name for another minor league cup---perhaps, it's a league that doesn't exist any more! Duly noted.
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