Originally published on Feb. 16, 2023
By Zane Miller
On February 16th, 1993, the Philadelphia
Flyers and Calgary Flames played to a 4-4 tie in the first and final NHL game to
date to take place at Riverfront Coliseum, as well as the city of Cincinnati as
a whole. Although the game was scheduled as a neutral-site contest to test if
Cincinnati would be viable for an NHL franchise, the game itself would be met
with a myriad of issues.
After opening on Tuesday, September 9th,
1975, Riverfront Coliseum (now Heritage Bank Center) hosted the World Hockey
Association’s Cincinnati Stingers from the 1975-76 season to the 1978-79
season, where the team reached the postseason in 1977 and 1979, although they
would be knocked out in the first round on both occasions. On April 24th,
1979, as the Stingers fell to the New England Whalers 2-1 to end their
postseason run, it would also be the final WHA game for the team as well, with
the league folding on June 22nd.
Although the team would remain at Riverfront Coliseum
after joining the Central Hockey League in the offseason, this attempt would
quickly unravel after financial issues forced the team to shut its doors for
good on December 18th, 1979. For more than a decade since that date,
there had been little chance of hockey returning to the Coliseum any time soon,
as the original Cincinnati Cyclones (now Adirondack Thunder) opted to instead
play their games at the Cincinnati Gardens when they entered the East Coast
Hockey League in 1990. However, this would be flipped on its head before the
1992-93 NHL season.
On April 10th, 1992, the league announced
that the upcoming regular season schedule would be increased from 80 games to
84, with two of these extra games for each team to be held at neutral-site
venues in a variety of new markets. Out of the 15 cities to host for the
1992-93 season, Cincinnati would be one of them, with Riverfront Coliseum selected
to secure its first ice hockey matchup in over 13 years.
Beginning with the game itself, the Flyers came into
the matchup in the midst of a trying season, possessing a 19-28-9 record. Despite
this, there was still a lot to be excited about on their end, as Philadelphia
had acquired forward Eric Lindros, the first overall pick of the 1991 draft, prior
to his debut season and had established himself as one of the most talented
rookies in the league. As for the Flames, they held a far more intimidating
record at 31-19-8, thanks to the play of forward Theoren Fleury, who would go
on to finish 1992-93 with 100 points, as well as defenseman Gary Suter, who
would eventually finish seventh in Norris Trophy voting for the year.
Starting in net for the Flyers would be backup Dominic
Roussel, who would go on to have mixed results in his sophomore season with a
13-11-5 record, although with a save percentage of .881. Meanwhile, Calgary
called upon veteran netminder Mike Vernon, already with a Stanley Cup ring from
the Flames’ title in 1989, though he too struggled in what would be a
suboptimal season, going 29-26-9 while claiming a .887 save percentage.
The first period would be all offense from both sides,
with Flames forward Joe Nieuwendyk drawing first blood less than two minutes
into the game, before Lindros it up at the 7:15 mark. However, Calgary quickly
responded, as Fleury found the back of the net just 57 seconds later.
The teams would swap goals once again, as forwards Ron
Stern and Pelle Eklund scored for Calgary and Philadelphia respectively, before
Flames forward Gary Roberts restored the two-goal advantage just six seconds prior
to the end of the first period, making it a 4-2 game in favor of Calgary.
Before the start of the second period, however, Philadelphia
would pull Roussel in favor of regular starter Tommy Soderstrom. Soderstrom, in
his rookie season in the league, put together respectable numbers by season’s
end at a 20-17-6 record and .892 save percentage and had already earned two
career shutouts. As it turned out, this would be just what the team needed
following their slow start.
Soderstrom and the Flyers would not allow another goal
for the rest of the contest, enabling the team to slowly begin chipping away at
the deficit. Forward (and should-be Hall of Famer) Rod Brind’Amour added the
only goal of the second, before fellow forward Brent Fedyk evened the game up
with the lone power play tally just under five minutes into the third period.
Neither side would have the edge for the last 15 minutes of regulation, sending
it into overtime.
In overtime, despite a power play opportunity for
Calgary as Flyers defenseman Terry Carkner was given a holding call at the 1:48
mark, they would be unable to capitalize as the five-minute OT frame ended with
a 4-4 tie.
Although the Flyers improved during the remainder of
the season following their trip to Cincinnati, it wouldn’t be enough to avoid a
losing record as they finished at 36-37-11 to miss the playoffs. Conversely, the
Flames continued their upward trajectory to take a 43-30-11 showing to reach
the 1993 playoffs, though the team would have a disappointing postseason,
losing in the first round to the eventual Stanley Cup finalist Los Angeles
Kings.
Despite the competitive on-ice performance, there were
several reasons that the NHL never again visited the Coliseum. Likely the most
important factor was that players complained of terrible ice conditions, which
can not only create an unfair advantage for one team but, more pressingly, also
increase the likelihood of injuries. With the league coming off of a player’s
strike just a few short months earlier, that along could make them rethink any
future commitments to playing at the Coliseum. However, this was just the tip
of the iceberg of grievances.
According to postgame articles from the Cincinnati
Enquirer, the start of the game was delayed by 37 minutes due to one of the
nets being unable to stay connected with the ice surface. Not only that, there were
smaller electrical issues that piled on over the course of the game, as the
goal lights were not working and the scoreboard shut off at one point in the
first period, which led to another delay.
As if this wasn’t bad enough, the final attendance
numbers would likely be what sank any chance of the NHL returning to the Queen
City for the next season, as the Flyers-Flames matchup only brought in 7,973
fans, or roughly half of Riverfront Coliseum’s capacity at the time. With that,
when the seven cities were announced for the neutral-site program for the
1993-94 campaign, it came to the surprise of no one that Cincinnati was not on
the list.
Riverfront Coliseum would be without pro hockey for four
more years, until the Cincinnati Cyclones of the International Hockey League
(not to be confused with the original Cyclones franchise mentioned earlier) moved
into the facility for the 1997-98 season. Despite the IHL’s closure in 2001, the
Cyclones would reform in the ECHL for the 2001-02 season, calling what is now
known as the Heritage Bank Center home to this day. However, barring any major renovations
or unforeseen circumstances, the NHL will never put another regular season game
at the arena in all likelihood.
Sources:
https://www.hockey-reference.com/boxscores/199302160CGY.html
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