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Detroit Falcons (CoHL, 1993-94)

1993-94 Regular Season
Opponent Unknown
     Heading into the 1993-94 season, the Detroit Falcons were under new leadership. GM/Coach Terry Christiansen took over as head coach of the NAHL's Detroit Freeze (who also played at Fraser Ice Arena) and was replaced by former Port Huron Flag and NHL veteran Lou Franceschetti. 
     The Colonial Hockey League expanded to 8 teams, with the arrival of the Flint Generals. For the first time, the league was split into two divisions. Lou's Falcons dropped to third place in the Colonial League's Western Division, with a 34-25-5. Their 73 points were tied with last-place Flint and 12 behind first-place Chatham. Attendance jumped to 1,991 per game, third lowest in the league but still the highest in franchise history.
     Detroit scored the third-fewest goals in the league, with 296 in 74 games. Newcomer Andy Rymsha (who played 6 games for the Quebec Nordiques in 1991-92), led the team in scoring with 24 goals and 62 points in 48 games. Rymsha was the only 20-goal scorer on the Falcons that season, as the next-highest goal-scorers were center Darryl Noren and left wing Bill Robinson with 18. Three defensemen were in the top 5 in scoring for the Falcons, as Christian LaLonde, David DiVita and Sergei Makarov (not the NHL forward) each had over 10 goals that year.
     Defensively, the Falcons were much stronger, allowing the second-fewest goals in the Colonial League, with 275. The team used four different goaltenders, but the two main netminders were rookies Mike Risdale and Maxim Mikhailovsky. Risdale played the most games (34) and owned a 17-14-2 record with a 4.12 GAA. Mikhailovsky, a 24-year old from Moscow, made his North American debut with a 14-8-3 record and 3.49 GAA. His strong play earned a callup to the AHL's Adirondack Red Wings for 5 games. Scott Cashman (who also spent time in Adirondack) and Cam Yager were the other two netminders. Both Risdale and Mikhailovsky split the netminding duties in the playoffs.
     The Detroit Falcons were not a team to mess with, as they racked up 1,625 penalty minutes. Already featuring heavyweights such as Garry Gulash (146 PIM in 31 games) and Jacques Mailhot (122 PIM in 22 games), the Falcons added ex-Bulldog bruiser Darren Miciak, who racked up 95 minutes in 21 games. Team captain David Divita led the team with 173 minutes in 62 games.
     The Falcons qualified for the postseason for the third straight season, still looking for their first series win. Their opening round opponent would not be an easy one. The Flint Generals were not only a high-scoring team, but were not afraid to play physical either. Flint finished their first season at 32-23-9, a new record for wins by a Colonial League expansion team. They set another league record by becoming the first team to crack 2,000 penalty minutes, spending 2,179 minutes in "the sin bin". The best of five series between the two rivals would rotate between Flint and Fraser, with the Falcons owning home-ice advantage. Detroit took Game 1, 4-2, at home, only to see the Generals bounce back with a 6-3 win at Flint.
     Game 3 at The Falcondome would be a memorable one, for the wrong reasons. With hundreds of fired-up Generals fans in attendance, Flint would blow out the Falcons, 9-5, to take the series lead. The Generals were able to build a 5-1 lead after the first period after the Falcons started gooning it up. At the end of the game, a bench-clearing brawl erupted that lasted about 20 minutes, with fights all over the ice and even in the hallways leading to the locker room (I even had beer dumped on me by a drunk fan in the stands!). The police were eventually called to restore order. Game 4 would be the next night.
     Game 4 would be do-or-die for the Falcons, in front of a capacity crowd in Flint. However, the game would never be played. League commissioner Bob Myers was not in attendance that night, and another brawl nearly erupted during warmup due to an altercation between Miciak and Flint's Kevin Kerr. When the officials (who weren't on the ice during warm-ups) declined to kick Kerr out of the game for allegedly hitting Miciak in the face with his stick, the Falcons refused to play. After several attempts by league officials and coach Franceschetti to get the team on the ice, referee Jim Norquay had 5:00 put up on the scoreboard. If the Falcons didn't hit the ice before the time ran out, the game would be forfeited to Flint. Just before the clock ran out, Falcons captain David DiVita rushed on to the ice, only to be called back by teammates. Norquay waved his arms at center ice and ruled the game a forfeit, thus eliminating the Falcons.
     As for the program, this is a 32-page program, mostly in black and white, with a few color advertisements. I have two different programs from the 1993-94 season. One is from a game against the Muskegon Fury, from which I included the roster sheet. The program I included on this post was bought online a few years ago. I went to several Falcons games that year and saw Detroit play the Utica Bulldogs, Flint Generals, Muskegon Fury, Thunder Bay Senators and St. Thomas Wildcats. For the most part that year, we went to either Flint or Fraser for hockey, but also went to Chatham one time. 
     Local advertisements include B&R Sports, WLLZ 98.7 FM, Detroit Bagel Factory, and Big Sammy's Pizza, Deli and More.

Aftermath: After the forfeit, the Falcons were fined $20,000 by the league and forced to reimburse the Generals for lost revenue for Game 4. Darren Miciak filed charges against Kevin Kerr with the Flint Police Department Lou Franceschetti was let go after that season and resumed his playing career with the Colonial League's London Wildcats and IHL's Minnesota Moose. 

References:
Colonial Hockey League Season Statistics: 1993-94, from hockeydb.com
Savage, Brendan. "The 15 Most Memorable Moments: No. 12. Mlive. Posted 30 March 2007, Updated 05 April 2019. 
    


 

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