Guest post: Celebrating Binghamton’s first AHL championship

Editor’s note: This is the first in an occasional series of guest posts from blogging friends of mine about their experiences as hockey fans. This entry is by Nicki Wright Conroy, a freelance writer from my hometown of Endicott, New York. Nicki publishes a very thoughtful and introspective blog at http://www.nickisnook.net. Photos in this post are copyright of Nicki.
_____

By: Nicki Wright Conroy

Major league sports teams spend a lot of time worrying about when their last championship run was. Many blame the inability to make a playoff run on goats, fans eagerly trying to reach a ball or even just a curse. These are teams and towns/cities that have had a championship run before. Think about the energy in a location where the team never quite makes it. Think about the energy in an arena when the wait has been since franchise inception, 38 years ago.

Hockey came to Binghamton, New York in 1973 as the Broome Dusters were set to play in the now defunct North American Hockey League. In the next season, the Binghamton area got its first test of playoff hockey at the team was a finalist for the Lockhart Cup. The Lockhart Cup was the championship trophy for the NAHL. To be a finalist means you were in second place. The area liked that but would have preferred winning that cup.

Since that first playoff taste, the number of years that whatever the team was that was playing in Binghamton – can you say ch-ch-ch-changes? – only did not make the playoffs 12 seasons. This was accomplished through many affiliation and league changes. Hockey fans in Binghamton have come to expect a playoff birth but not a championship banner.

Lo and behold, the 2010-2011 AHL season came around and that all changed. The parent team, Ottawa Senators, did not make the Stanley Cup playoffs so a lot of very good hockey players that had been picked out of Binghamton throughout the year were sent back to play in the Calder Cup playoffs. The fans got their money’s worth as the first couple of rounds saw a lot of overtime games. Even when it came to the championship series, Binghamton couldn’t close it out at home but did it on the road.

Imagine the excitement that filled the capacity Broome County Veteran’s Memorial Arena on October 7th as the Calder Cup was skated around the ice and the elusive championship banner was raised.

Advertisement