Showing posts with label ahl hall of fame. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ahl hall of fame. Show all posts

Friday, December 20, 2013

Hockey Trivia: Cleveland Barons of the AHL


cleveland barons ahl logo
The Cleveland Barons were an American Hockey League franchise from 1936-37 to 1973-74. The team thrived in the Cleveland market until the Cleveland Crusaders of the World Hockey Association came along in the early 1970’s and diluted the waters. The Barons failed soon after the arrival of the Crusaders and the Crusaders didn’t last long. The curse continued with the NHL version of the Barons that came along soon after and lasted just a few seasons. Test and expand your knowledge of the AHL Barons with the following four hockey trivia questions and answers.

Q. What player holds the AHL’s Cleveland Barons records for most career goals, assists, points and penalty minutes?


A. Fred Glover played for the Barons from 1952-53 to 1967-68. In that time, he scored 410 goals, assisted on 695 and totalled 1,105 points while sitting 2,164 minutes in the sin bin. Inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame in its 2006 inaugural season, Glover is also the AHL career leader in each of those categories with 520 goals, 814 assists, 1,334 points and 2,402 PIM. Before he was a Baron, Fred also played for the Indianapolis Capitals. He saw brief NHL action early in his career with the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Black Hawks.

Q. What arena did the Cleveland Barons play their home games at?

A. The Cleveland Arena was built for the AHL team’s first season. The seating capacity of the Cleveland Arena was 9,900 for hockey games. The rink closed in 1974, replaced by the Richfield Coliseum, and was demolished three years later.

The Richfield Coliseum held 18,544 for hockey but didn’t have a much better fate. The venue was closed in 1994 and demolished in 1999.

Q. What Hockey Hall of Fame goaltender was the AHL MVP in 1957-58?

A. Johnny Bower and the above mentioned Fred Glover are the only two AHL players to be awarded the Les Cunningham Award as the league’s MVP on three occasions. Bower won the award with Cleveland in 1957-58 and had previously won twice with the Providence Reds. Bower moved on to the NHL’s Toronto Maple Leafs in 1958-59 and was inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 1976. Like Glover, Bower was inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame in 2006.

Q. The Cleveland Barons won the Calder Cup as AHL playoff champion on nine occasions. In which year did they win their first?

A. The Barons entered the AHL in 1936-37 and in 1938-39, just their third year in the league, Cleveland was crowned Calder Cup champions. Although finishing the year just one game over .500 and in third place in the four team West Division, Cleveland beat the Springfield Indians, Providence Reds and the Philadelphia Ramblers in the playoffs to capture the Calder.

Cleveland’s final Calder Cup championship came in 1963-64 with Fred Glover leading the way. After a somewhat mediocre regular season where the Barons placed third in the four team West Division and fourth overall in the nine team league, Cleveland went undefeated in the post season. The Barons swept the Rochester Americans and Hershey Bears before taking out the Quebec Aces in four games in the finals to win the title. That year, Fred Glover won the Les Cunningham Award as AHL MVP and Ted Harris won the Eddie Shore Award as defenseman of the year.

 

 

 

Friday, August 23, 2013

Marcel Paille: AHL Hall of Fame Goalie


marcel paille ahl hall of fame
Marcel Paille is one of just 26 members of the American Hockey League Hall of Fame. Paille’s 1964-65 Topps rookie card as a member of the NHL’s New York Rangers is the most valuable rookie card in the series. Yet, how many hockey fans know who Marcel Paille was?

After playing junior for the Quebec Citadelles, Marcel Paille embarked on a professional hockey career as a goaltender that spanned from 1956-57 to 1973-74. In his rookie AHL season, 1956-57, his team, the Cleveland Barons, won the Calder Cup as the AHL playoff champions. Paille played sparingly for the New York Rangers from 1957-58 to 1964-65 with that final season being the only one he didn’t spend part of the year in the AHL.

He starred with the Springfield Indians at the start of the 1960’s. The team won three straight Calder Cups in 1960, 1961 and 1962. In the final two of those three years, Marcel was awarded the Harry Holmes Memorial Award as the goalie in the AHL with the lowest GAA.

Ironically, the year Paille finally got his face on a NHL hockey card was the last year he’d play in the league. His 1964-65 Topps rookie card is worth $250, largely due to scarcity because the card was short-printed.

Marcel did make it back to a major league hockey league for one more stint in 1972-73. In the first year of the World Hockey Association, Paille partnered with Bernie Parent between the pipes for the Philadelphia Blazers. Parent played the bulk of the games for the Blazers with Paille playing in just 15 and recording a ballooned 4.81 GAA.

Marcel passed away in 2002 and posthumously entered the AHL Hall of Fame in 2010. He still owns a handful of AHL records, including: most games by a goaltender, most playoff games by a goaltender, most playoff wins, the longest playoff shutout streak and most playoff minutes played. He was an American Hockey League All-Star on five occasions. Three times he was on the First Team and twice he was on the Second Team.