CANTLON’S CORNER: 2000 WOLF PACK CHAMPIONSHIP REUNION SET

BY: Gerry Cantlon, Howlings

HARTFORD, CT – A special treat is coming for Hartford Wolf Pack fans.

Friday, April 10th is the regular season-finale Wolf Pack against the Lehigh Valley Phantoms, but there will be an additional hockey event that fans won’t want to miss.

Cantlon’s Corner is exclusively reporting that final, regular season game will add a special element to it’s regular Fan Appreciation Night as the team will celebrate and honor the 2000 AHL Calder Cup Champion, Hartford Wolf Pack team who will assemble together at the XL Center.

The Wolf Pack is the ONLY professional championship team in Hartford’s history and just the second minor-league professional hockey championship team ever.

Wolf Pack alumni sources have said much of the preparation for the event is set, but there are several pieces in the process of being finalized. One event that is all set to occur is the Wolf Pack 2000 team playing a charity game against the Hartford City Police and Fire Department Team the afternoon prior to the Wolf Pack’s game at 7:15 PM.

Among the legendary Wolf Pack greats expected to attend include, Brad “Shooter” Smyth, the team’s all-time leading scorer in Wolf Pack history and AHL Hall-Of-Famer, plus Shooter’s partner in crime, both on-and-off the ice, Derek Armstrong, who was the 2000 Jack Butterfield Calder Cup playoff MVP.

The other AHL Hall-Of-Famer and 2000 playoff goalie extraordinaire, J.F. (Jean-Francois) Labbe, and defenseman Terry Virtue, who scored “The Goal” in the semi-finals against the Providence Bruins in double overtime of Game 7. The win propelled the Wolf Pack to the Calder Cup Finals.

The owner of the Calder Cup Championship’s winning goal is Connecticut’s very own Hamden-resident, Todd Hall, and the effervescent and wildly-popular, feisty-pugilist, P.J. Stock.

The Wolf Pack’s championship coach, John Paddock, will also be on hand for the festivities.

The record this championship group is shooting to break is the Wolf Pack’s attendance records.

The first one was set on January 6, 2006, against the now-defunct Portland Pirates, when 12,206 hockey fans came out and paid tribute to three former Whaler greats, Ron Francis (#10), Ulf Samuelsson (#5), and Kevin Dineen (#11) whose numbers hang in the rafters. The goal is to eclipse that mark.

They hope to even take a run at Game 2 of the 2000 Calder Cup Finals against Rochester on May 26, 2000, when the team set a franchise playoff best attendance of 11,168. The all-time, best-attended Wolf Pack home game is 14,115. That record was set on January 24, 1998, against the also-defunct, Springfield Falcons.

There will be a fantastic autograph and picture session with the players and the coach at the game.

This will be a tremendous event honoring Hartford’s championship team as well as the fans who love them.

A post-game celebration at a local venue is under consideration. There will be more details forthcoming.

All the exciting info can be found in this space over the next few months.