Saginaw Gears (UHL, 1998-99)

 

1998-99 Regular Season
Gears vs. Quad City Mallards
Gears vs. Thunder Bay Thunder Cats
Gears vs. Port Huron Border Cats

     Another year, another new ownership group and rebrand. Saginaw's UHL franchise would now be known as the Saginaw Gears, a nod to the popular IHL franchise that played from 1972-83, winning two Turner Cups and sending multiple players to the NHL. The new owner was Dr. Khaled Shukairy, who also owned the Flint Generals. The team would go with royal blue, orange and white, Edmonton Oilers-style jerseys, and  a modern-looking logo, passing on the turquoise, tangerine and white of the original Gears. Robert Dirk was the new head coach while George Manias was the new general manager. Home games were played at 4,727-seat Wendler Arena (again, no ice-level seats).

     Despite the name change and the hype, the new Gears had far more in common with the Lumber Kings than they ever did with their namesake, as they dropped to the basement of the UHL. The team's record was 20-28-7 record after a 3-1 win in Port Huron on February 29. Few people knew that that would be the last win of the season. Due to rising debts brought on by poor attendance, the Gears went on a firesale, trading away most of their talent. The result was an undermanned roster, which went on a 19-game winless streak, the longest in Saginaw hockey history. By the time that was over, Shukairy had sold the team to Dr. Bernard Bubanic of Ohio. The final record was a horrific 20-46-8, dead last in the UHL and one of the worst in Saginaw's 52 years in hockey. Their minscule 48 points were 14 behind the next-worst team, the Mohawk Valley Prowlers, and 58 behind regular season champion Muskegon. Attendance did increase somewhat to 2,354 per game (up from 2,037 in 1997-98), but still nowhere near enough to show a profit. 

     The Gears were dead last in both offense and defense this season. Saginaw scored 212 goals that year, 80 less than the next worst team, the Asheville Smoke. Their leading scorer was right winger Keith Osborne, acquired from Winston-Salem in the offseason. Osborne played 16 NHL games with St. Louis and Tampa Bay, and scored 20 goals and 69 points in 73 games. Francois Sasseville was next, with 23 goals and 53 points in 70 games. Justin Morrison (23) and Mark Gianetti (22)--both traded at the deadline--were the only other Gears with at least 20 goals. 

     On defense, the Gears allowed 331 goals, just one more than Asheville. The Gears used six goaltenders this year. Goaltending actually looked like it could be a strong point heading into the season. Saginaw signed Marc Delorme from the ECHL's Birmingham Bulls. Delorme had put up strong numbers in Brantford, Louisiana and Birmingham the past few seasons. Unfortunately, he struggled behind a porous Gears defense, going 10-19-4 with a 3.88 GAA and 1 shutout in 33 games before being traded to the Winston-Salem Icehawks. Avi Karunakar was next in line, finishing 7-17-3 with a 4.59 GAA and 1 shutout in 28 games. Bryan Kreft, Kevin Butt, Jean-Yves Dube and Shawn Grenier all saw action in the Gears net. 

     Compared to the 1996-97 Lumber Kings, the +/- stats for the Gears was actually pretty good. The highest number was Mark Senior, who was +52 in 64 games. Patrick Charbonneau was next with a +38. As awful as this team finished up, they didn't have anyone in the negative column. The team was a playoff contender for part of the season until all the trades drove them into the ground.

     The Gears were far more disciplined than the Lumber Kings were, as they had the fewest penalty minutes in the UHL, with 1, 325. The most penalized player on the roster was left winger Jack Grieg, who had 146 minutes in 26 games before being traded to Binghamton. Defenseman David van Drunen was next with 126 in 63 games. Justin Morrison (109) and DJ Conte (103) were the other Gears players with over 100 PIM.

     Once again, Saginaw was on the outside looking in for the postseason. At one point, they had a shot at the playoffs, but that 19-game winless streak finished that off. This was the longest stretch of futility for any Saginaw hockey team, a far cry from when the original Gears made it to five Turner Cup Finals in their existence, or the Generals/Hawks averaging over 40 wins.

     This is a sharp-looking program, 70 black-and-white pages in glossy paper. I really like that logo, btw, though I prefer the classic one. Each page has a grey scribble design in the background. The usual things are there: profiles on the owner, administration and player bios. Welcome letters from UHL commissioner Richard Brosal (a dead ringer for Jason Alexander of Seinfeld fame) and Saginaw mayor Gary Loster are on page 10. Each UHL team has a bio and directions to their arena throughout the program. The history of Saginaw's UHL franchise, including its years in Chatham, is on pages 32-34. The programs from this season are all the same.

     I went to several Gears games this year. I was hoping the team would finally become competitive again, but it wasn't meant to be. This particular program is from the January 9, 1999, game between the Gears and Quad City Mallards. I also had a roster sheet from the March 27, 1999 game against the Port Huron Border Cats that was in this program for some reason. Left winger Mark Gianetti was the "Spotlight Player" on both of the roster sheets...which is odd, because he was long gone by March 27, being dealt to Winston Salem after 56 games! In fact, the exact same write-up was used. Tells you all you need to know about the amount of talent left on the roster at the end of the year. Only four players played over 70 games for the team: Keith Osborne, Jamie Hayden, Patrick Charbonneau and Francois Sasseville. John Evangelista, Mike Senior and Dave vanDrunen were the other players to play at least 60.

    Quad City went into the January 9th game with a loaded roster, and a 25-8-4 record, tops in the UHL. Glenn Stewart had 29 goals and 63 points, tops on the team, through 35 games. He would end up scoring 50 goals and 99 points in 56 games, tops on the team. Center Mike Melas had 40 goals and 92 points in 67 games. There were two former Flint Generals on the Mallards roster that season. Center Scott Burfoot was a member of the 1995-96 Colonial Cup champions, and scored 18 goals and 79 points in his only season in Quad City. Kevin Kerr left the Generals after the 1997-98 season after issues with head coach Robbie Nichols, signing with the ECHL's Mobile Mysticks, after 12 games in Mobile, Kerr signed with the Mallards for the remainder of the year, scoring 32 goals and 68 points in 49 games. He would then score 49 goals and 98 points in 1999-2000, the last time in his career he would hit those high numbers. IMO, he should have retired as a Flint General. Bad move by the Generals in letting him go.

      Saginaw was 12-21-4 heading into that night's game. They were in last place in the UHL's Central Division, but still in the hunt for a playoff spot. The Gears were just three points behind the Winston-Salem Icehawks, who held the last playoff position at that point in the year.  The Gears weren't too bad, much better than the Lumber Kings ever were at that point, but I was expecting much more. Brian Mueller was one of Saginaw's better defensemen during the UHL days. Mueller had 12 goals and 32 points in 51 games before being traded to the Port Huron Border Cats. He didn't play in any of the Border Cats playoff games, but did play in one playoff game for the IHL's Detroit Vipers (the infamous Game 7 OT loss to the Orlando Solar Bears). John Evangelista played only one season in the UHL, and this was it. He had 17 goals and 38 points in 67 games. He played the rest of his career in the ECHL, mostly with the Mississippi Sea Wolves.

Quad City defeated Saginaw, 5-3, in front of an estimated 3,100. I think a local business bought up a bunch of tickets that night to get a decent crowd at Wendler Arena.

     The next two rosters are from the March 27th game against Port Huron. The Border Cats had a very good season that year, finishing 41-26-7, good enough for second place in the Central Division and fourth best in the UHL. Former Toledo Storm player Greg "Chief" Puhalski was the head coach that year. I thought he was the best coach the Border Cats had during their run. A notable player on the Cats roster is Paul Polillo. Polillo was the all-time leading scorer for the league, spending seven seasons with his hometown team, the Brantford Smoke. After the Smoke moved to Asheville, NC, the Border Cats acquired Polillo in a blockbuster deal so he could stay close to home. He scored 28 goals and 107 points in his last full season in the UHL. I got his gameworn Brantford Smoke road jersey as a birthday present the year before, and he signed it for me at a Border Cats-Generals game. I still have it, btw.

     The Gears had a much different roster at this point. New ownership bulked up the roster to give the team a fighting chance. No luck on the wins, though as the damage was done. Jean-Yves Dube was acquired from the Flint Generals. He went 0-2-0 in 12 games in Flint, with a 5.77 GAA. Flint had an ironman in net that year, as Rob Laurie played 66 games that year. In Saginaw, Dube went 0-1-0 with an 8.29 GAA in two games, his last in professional hockey. Amazingly, Osborne came back to Saginaw after this dreadful season, even stayed with the Gears when they moved to a rec rink in Massillon, Ohio. 

     Despite a matchup between two teams going in opposite directions, this one turned into a shootout. Port Huron won a wild one, 9-7, to improve to 40-24-6 on the season. Saginaw dropped to 20-43-8, their 17th loss in a row. At least it was entertaining. I estimated attendance somewhere between 500-1000 that night. No one cared at that point, and who could blame them?

     As for the game against Thunder Bay, the Gears lost that one too, 5-3, in front of about 1,675. I couldn't buy a win with this team!

     Local advertisements include Firehouse Soft Car Wash, Larry's Lounge (as always, "Just a slapshot from the Civic Center), Dale Stroebel Automotive, Play It Again Sports, NBD Bank, La Señorita Mexican Restaurant, and Bubba's Roadside Inn.

BONUS: Here's Opening Night for the 1998-99 Saginaw Gears, a 1-0 win over the Flint Generals. Select Gears games were actually broadcast on Delta College's PBS station as "Saginaw Gears Game of the Week". Dan Waxell was the play-by-play announcer for the Gears. Nice crowd for the opener, as no doubt Flint fans were in attendance as well. Optimism was high...

Aftermath: The 1998-99 season, and the fire sale, effectively killed UHL hockey in Saginaw. The Gears did return for the 1999-2000 season with new ownership, but attendance plummeted. Stumbling to a 7-18-3 record in December, reports in the Saginaw News said the team was in trouble, losing serious money and having just over 300 season ticket holders. Dr. Bernard Bubanic relocated the team to Massillon, Ohio, to finish the season in a rec rink. The team was renamed "Ohio Gears" (just take "Saginaw" off the logo) and ended up 12-57-5, dead last in the UHL and one of that league's worst records ever. The team went inactive for the 2000-01 season, planning on returning with a new rink for the 2001-02 season in Massillon. The new rink never materialized, but the team renamed itself three more times before finally disappearing for good. Saginaw would join the OHL in 2002 with the arrival of the Saginaw Spirit. The Spirit have been the complete opposite of the UHL team in every way, on and off the ice.

Reference:

United Hockey League Statistics: 1998-99, from hockeydb.com