Okay, we're a little late with this one, but considering we run our lives on the motto "better late than never," nobody should be surprised.
The ECHL All-Star festivities took place January 19-20 in rainy Ontario, California . (We’d make Ontario “Rain” jokes, but that would be too easy. Besides, they’re not Idaho.) Despite the rain, there were good-sized crowds at the Citizen Bank Arena. The Skills Competition on the 19th drew 4,368, and the actual game the next night boasted attendance of 7,615. Well, eventually.
Rumor has it that people in the Ontario area think they will melt if they go out in the rain.
For several of the players, it was their first time playing in an All-Star game. Twenty two of the 42 players were rookies in the ECHL. Most of them didn’t really know what to expect. Ontario defenseman David Walker found the lack of hitting a little different. Considering the pounding he’s used to taking (and handing out), he commented, “I guess it’s like playing hockey in Europe.”
As you probably know, the Grizzlies had three players participating – AJ Perry, Vic Bartley, and Ryan Kinasewich. (Or Kisandwich, as he was called a few times by the XM radio announcers. They eventually figured it out.)
The skills competition was up first. All three Grizzlies participated in the Ice Town Breakaway Relay, and Ryan Kinasewich went 4-for-4 in the MeiGrey Group Accuracy Shooting Competition. Doesn’t get much better than that. In fact, that had never been done before in the history of the ECHL skills competition. Nice job, Snatch! We want to know if there’s an individual trophy for that. Anyway, the guys helped the National Conference to an 11-10 win over the American Conference. Go Grizzlies!
The report from Ontario sounded like a good time was had by all. When the players weren’t shooting or skating, they were catching up with guys they’d played with, or meeting new people. The Reign’s Peter Lenes talked about how a lot of the conversations were about mutual acquaintances, and how it seemed the players always knew a guy someone else knew too. "Everyone's connected somehow," Lenes said. "Talking to the guys, getting to know everyone. It's kind of fun." (There’s a Kevin Bacon joke in there somewhere.) Lenes, who is so short he’d have to stand on a sheet of paper to kick a duck in the butt (yes, that’s shorter than Vlady), represented his team in the 1-on-1 puck relay competition.
He said his strategy for the event was to not get confused. It must have worked, because he won the competition and got a point for the National Conference.
The next day was the ECHL Hall of Fame Luncheon, complete with an appearance by the Kelly and Stanley Cups. Check out the
interview the Reign’s blog guy – Jared Bond - did with Stanley Cup Keeper Phil Pritchard. We don’t know if any of the Grizzlies in attendance had their picture taken with it (or touched it), but we do know it wasn’t the first time seeing it for AJ Perry – his brother
Corey won the Stanley Cup with the Anaheim Ducks in 2007.
That evening was the All-Star Game – the big event of the festivities. American Conference Captain JC Saywer of Toledo started thet night off by tripping and falling near the bench. It kind of highlighted his night, as he was held off the score sheet entirely. Not his usual gig – he currently leads all ECHL defensemen in scoring this season.
Sawyer wasn’t the only one who wasn’t sure what he was supposed to do, as is kind of typical for All-Star games. By the end of the first, AJ Perry was the first Grizzly to get on the score sheet with an assist, the American Conference led 3-2, and some guy named Kisandwich had made an appearance.
The second period started with fan favorite Peter Lenes from Ontario scoring a goal to tie the game. The crowd went nuts. When asked if he was aware the crowd was going crazy for him his response was "Yeah, it was awesome. Some of the guys on the bench were teasing me, they thought it was pretty funny.”
The National Conference pulled out in front in the second as things picked up, assisted by two points (1G, 1A) from Grizzly Vic Bartley. The American Conference wasn’t done though, and came back to tie it in the third. The game ended up in a shootout with the American Conference taking the win 10-9. Idaho’s Evan Barlow was voted the MVP of the game.
Ontario’s Greg Hogeboom, who we just like because his name sounds like a Harry Potter character, talked a little bit about his experience. "I'm not really the skills competition or All-Star Game type," he said "I'm more of a regular season player. It was great to see some of the guys who have All-Star skill. The experience has been a very good one."
Everyone seemed to agree that a great job was done by the Ontario Reign in hosting this All-Star Game. "We have a lot of respect for our organization and our team, and we didn't want to embarrass ourselves or the organization," Ontario’s David Walker said. "Lenes being a fan favorite, it was nice for him to get a goal and keep the fans happy. The organization in Ontario, they went (over) and above. They treated us first-class."
Click here for the ECHL All-Star Game sheet.
For more fun and insight on the All-Star festivities, see the
Ontario Reign’s website.
Congratulations to Utah’s All-Stars – AJ Perry, Vic Bartley, and Ryan Kisandwich - er, Kinasewich!
(Photo courtesy Deseret News)
