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Chatham Wheels (CoHL, 1993-94)

1993-94 Regular Season
Wheels vs. Detroit Falcons
     The Chatham Wheels were in their second season of play in the Colonial Hockey League. The team was named after the Wheels Inn, a hotel/indoor amusement complex in town that closed in 2009. The Wheels were owned by a group led by Tom Kirkconnell and played their home games at the 3,300-seat Chatham Memorial Arena. 

     The Wheels were coming off a last place finish in 1992-93, going 24-32-4, 12 points back of 6th place Flint. Attendance was brutal as well, as the team drew just 1,174 per game to Memorial Arena. Changes were made, as longtime junior coach Tom Barrett was hired as Head Coach/GM and Governor, replacing Ron Caron. Barrett added veteran talent to the roster, including former Flint Spirits John Vecchiarelli and Brett MacDonald, and former St. Thomas Wildcats goaltender Kevin Butt, to go along with holdover Jim Ritchie.

     Barrett's moves paid off, as the Wheels surged up the standings in Year 2, winning the Western Division Championship with a 39-18-7 record. Their 85 points were a franchise record (all the way through the Saginaw years, btw) and 10 points ahead of second-place Muskegon and 9 points behind regular season champ Thunder Bay.

     Chatham had the top offense in the Colonial Hockey League, scoring 336 goals in 64 games. Super-pest Vecchiarelli was the top goal-scorer. Coming over from Italy, Vecchiarelli scored 45 goals and 109 points in just 48 games, adding another 10 goals and 28 points in the playoffs. Jim Ritchie was the other 40 goal scorer, with 41 goals and 85 points. Joel Gardner was the other 30-goal scorer with an even 30. 

     Chatham allowed the third-fewest goals in the league with 281, down from 344 last year. The Wheels used 6 goaltenders that season, but Kevin Butt was the main netminder, playing in 48 games. Butt (what a name!) went 28-11-2 with a 4.37 GAA. Paul Cohen played the second-most games, getting into 12 and having a 6-2-1 record and 4.28 GAA. The other goalies include Scott Humphrey, Mark Cavallin, Matt Ocello and Alain Harvey. Butt drew the nod for the playoffs.

     The Wheels opened the Colonial Cup Playoffs with the St. Thomas Wildcats. The Wildcats had a poor season, going 22-34-8 (3rd in the East Division), but had reached the last two Colonial Cup Finals. Chatham had little difficulty with St. Thomas, sweeping them out of the playoffs in three straight, outscoring them 22-9 in the process. In the semifinals, they faced the upstart Flint Generals, an expansion team that knocked off the Detroit Falcons in 4 games. The Generals and Wheels battled in a classic series that went the full seven games. After taking the first two games, the Wheels fell behind 3-2 to Flint before winning the last two games to reach the Colonial Cup Finals. In the Finals, the Wheels ran into the powerful Thunder Bay Senators. Thunder Bay won it's second Colonial Cup Championship in five games, outscoring the Wheels 24-10. After Chatham won Game 4, 5-4, on home ice, the Senators crushed the Wheels 7-0 to win the Cup.

     This is a 40-page program, all in black and white (though the interior of the Wheels logo is colored red). This program is from a game between the Wheels and Detroit Falcons, a 6-5 Wheels victory. My family and I went to this game during Christmas Break 1993. I remember Chatham Memorial Arena being a very old, very cold barn with bleachers all the way around the rink. During the first intermission, the Zamboni driver forgot to lift the blade up before leaving the ice and broke it off! It was a pretty good game, four different fights and back and forth goal-scoring. My brother and I both got Wheels jerseys (road black for me, home white for my brother) and I got this program and a lapel pin as well. The next day, we went to an autograph signing at a local Tim Horton's and I got my jersey signed (unfortunately, the signatures washed off!). 

     Each team has a full page biography throughout the program. Last year's league stats are included on page 20. Page 44 has an order form for souvenirs. Local advertisements include Wheels Inn, Dr. Feelgood's Emporium and Diner, Zehrs Markets, Kisses Lingerie and Gar's Lounge (Home of the Famous 1/2 pound Garburger). 

Aftermath: Attendance jumped in Year 2, but 1,672 was still second-worst in the league and not enough to keep the team viable in Chatham. Rumors were swirling around during the Flint series that the Wheels were looking to relocate to Saginaw, Michigan, for the following season. After the Finals concluded, the Wheels made it official, moving to the Saginaw Civic Center, keeping the Wheels monicker. The new Saginaw Wheels smashed the team's attendance record in 1994-95, drawing 2,958 in their new home and reaching the semifinals. Unfortunately, that would be the high point of their stay in Saginaw, a run that would be marked by low attendance, ownership instability, and lots of losses. The franchise would finally go out of business after an aborted restart in 2001-02 in Canton, Ohio.

Reference:

Colonial Hockey League Season Statistics: 1993-94,  from hockeydb.com

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Comments

  1. JlnhlfanMay 29, 2023 at 11:17 PM

    Is it just me, or did they have the Road Runner as the logo?

    ReplyDelete
  2. CMUBrentJune 4, 2024 at 8:47 AM

    They pretty much did. There might have been just enough differences to not get sued for intellectual property theft.

    ReplyDelete

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