Brantford Smoke (CoHL, 1992-93)

1992-93 Regular Season
Smoke vs. Thunder Bay Thunder Hawks

      The Brantford Smoke were in their second season of operation in the Colonial Hockey League (also in it's second season). The team operated out of the 3600-seat Brantford Civic Center, former home of, among other teams, the OHL's Brantford Alexanders. Doug Robertson was General Manager while Ken Mann was head coach. The team was a secondary farm club of the Toronto Maple Leafs and Calgary Flames.

     In their inaugural season, the Smoke were 34-22-4, just three points back of first place Michigan. Brantford then lost in 6 games to the eventual Colonial Cup Champion Thunder Bay Thunder Hawks in the semifinals. 

     Brantford cruised to first place in their sophomore season, finishing with a 39-18-3 record. Their 81 points were five better than the second-place Detroit Falcons (formerly Michigan Falcons). Off the ice, the Smoke averaged 1,745 fans per game, fourth in the Colonial League. Ken Mann was replaced as head coach during the season by Ken Gratton.

The Smoke led the league in goal scoring, with 308 goals on the season. Leading the way on offense was Brantford native and former Western Michigan Bronco Paul Polillo. Polillo, on his way to becoming one of the all-time great Colonial Hockey League goal-scorers, scored 33 goals and 112 points in just 59 games. He was one of six players for the Smoke to score at least 20 goals, including Jamey Hicks (22), Corey Banika (24), Terry McCutcheon (27) and Graeme Bonar (25). McCutcheon led the Smoke in scoring in the postseason with 14 goals and 26 points in 15 games. 

     The Smoke even had defensemen in the 20-goal club. Former Flint Spirit Tom Searle was second on the team in goal-scoring, with 25 goals and 73 points in 49 games in his final season in North America. Former Capitals draft pick Ryan Kummu, in his only season in the Colonial Hockey League, had 24 goals and 65 points in 57 games.

     On defense, the Smoke were second-best in the league, allowing just 264 goals, 25 more than Detroit. Minor league teams back then typically used numerous goaltenders, and the Smoke were no different, as they employed seven between the pipes. Three of those goalies had NHL experience. Mark LaForest had played 98 games over five seasons with Detroit, Philadelphia and Toronto by 1992-93. He played 10 games in Brantford, sporting a 5-3-1 record, a 3.72 GAA and 1 shutout. Warren Sharples, who played 1 game with the Calgary Flames in 1991-92, went 5-1-0 with a 4.05 GAA in 7 games for the Smoke. 

     The most decorated former NHL goalie with the Smoke in 1992-93 was Roland Melanson. Melanson, a 1979 New York Islanders draft pick, won three Stanley Cups and a Jennings Trophy with the Isles, and was named 2nd Team All Star in 1982-83. "Rollie the Goalie" played 291 games in the NHL in his career, which also included stops in Minnesota, Los Angeles, New Jersey and Montreal before arriving in Brantford during the 1992-93 season. He went 10-4-0 with a 4.00 GAA and 1 shutout in 14 games for Brantford and was the main goaltender in the playoffs. 

     Other netminders that year included Todd Bocjun (14-8-0, 4.36 GAA), Pete Richards (6-2-1, 5.16 GAA) and Sergei Tkachenko (0-1-0, 6.88 GAA). Melanson and Richards were the netminders for the playoffs.

     The Smoke drew the 6th-place Flint Bulldogs, who limped into the postseason with a 27-29-4 record, 12 points ahead of last-place Chatham. The two teams split the first four games before the Smoke sent the Bulldogs to the pound by winning games 5 and 6 to take the series in 6 games, outscoring Flint 35-25. Round Two was a round-robin tournament between the Smoke, the St. Thomas Wildcats and Thunder Bay Thunder Hawks. In the four-game set, Brantford went 2-2, to advance to the Colonial Cup Finals vs. St. Thomas, who went 3-1. The Smoke won the Colonial Cup in 5 games, though it was a close-scoring series, with Brantford outscoring St. Thomas 21-20 in the process. This would be the only Colonial Cup championship in franchise history.

     This is a 60-page program, all in black and white. It's from the December 13, 1992 game vs. the Thunder Bay Thunder Hawks, which Brantford won, 7-1, their 6th win in a row, to improve to 16-7-1 on the year. Here is the roster card for both teams. Corey Banika piled up the most penalty minutes for the Smoke, with 318 in 56 games. Andy Bezeau was next with 278 PIM in just 38 games, and would go on to a long career as minor league enforcer. Dean Morton (217) and Greg Bignell (201) would also rack up over 200 penalty minutes for the Smoke. As a team, they piled up a league-high 1,911 PIM.

     That night's opponent, Thunder Bay, had some notorious enforcers on their roster. "Mad Mel" Angelstad piled up 256 PIM in just 45 games in his rookie year, on his way to a long career as a notorious tough guy. Mel would eventually play 2 games with the Washington Capitals in 2003-04. Tom Warden led the team with 263 PIM in 59 games, but also managed to get 19 goals and 45 points while not in the box. Bruce Ramsay was another legendary minor-pro tough guy. He racked up 234 PIM in 52 games and would end up winning 4 Colonial Cup championships (3 in Thunder Bay, 1 in Muskegon) before he retired. Ramsay then went on to a successful coaching career in the minor leagues, winning two more championships (2004-05 with Muskegon, 2016-17 with Grand Rapids). He has been head coach of the ECHL's Wichita Thunder since 2019.

     Here are the stats for the Colonial League through December 10, 1992. The Falcons were in first place and held on to first for awhile before Brantford passed them by. Muskegon and St. Thomas would eventually zip by Chatham to get into the playoffs. 

     A rare sight for the Colonial/United Hockey League was not seeing Paul Polillo at the top of the league scoring list. Rumor has it that the Brantford scorekeepers would slip the local boy a few "phantom assists" to bulk up his stats, but Polillo was a great player, and a good guy too. I have his jersey from the 1997-98 Brantford Smoke (the team's final year before moving to Asheville, NC), got it for my 16th birthday. Polillo had been traded to Port Huron that offseason and before a Flint Generals-Port Huron Border Cats game in Flint, he was kind enough to autograph it for me. 

     Doug Shedden was a former NHLer, playing several seasons with Pittsburgh, Detroit, Quebec and Toronto, and was winding down his career when he signed with Muskegon in 1992-93. Shedden would go on to a long coaching career, winning five championships, including the 1999-2000 Colonial Cup with the Flint Generals (one of the greatest teams in Colonial/United/International Hockey League history). Bob McKillop was another of the greats of this league, playing most of his career with the Detroit Falcons/Port Huron Border Cats franchise. 

     The program essentials are all there, from letters from the mayor and the parent clubs, as well as the Commissioner of the Colonial Hockey League, former NHL referee Bob Myers. A directory for the 7-team league is on page 3. The largest arena in 1992-93 was the LC Walker Arena in Muskegon (capacity 6100), while the smallest was the St. Thomas Elgin Memorial Arena and Fraser Ice Arena at 2600. Thunder Bay was a MASSIVE road trip for any Colonial League team, as the city is on the northwest coast of Lake Superior. 

     Local advertisements include Tim Hortons, Sibbick Fuels, CHAM 820 AM (Canada's Hottest Country Music), Brantford Nissan and Kenesky Sports & Cycle Company Limited.

Aftermath: The Smoke would continue to be one of the more competitive teams in the Colonial Hockey League as the league expanded, missing the playoffs just once in their 7-year history. Unfortunately, average attendance declined steadily after a high of 2005 in 1993-94. The franchise would relocate to Asheville, NC, for the 1998-99 season, renamed the Asheville Smoke. Their relocation left the Thunder Bay Thunder Cats the last original CoHL franchise to still be in it's hometown. The team drew solid crowds initially in North Carolina, and reached one more Colonial Cup Finals in 2000-01, losing to Quad City in 5 games. The franchise folded after the 2001-02 season. Brantford is now home to the OHL's Brantford Bulldogs, and a new arena is being planned in that city.

References:

Colonial Hockey League Statistics, 1992-93, from hockeydb.com