For one night, at least.
Friday, the CHL’s Austin Ice Bats finally hit .500 with their 6th straight win, a pair of Jason Kenyon goals pushing the Bats past Fort Worth, 3-2. Tonight’s game against Oklahoma City will mark the farewell of Ice Bats captain Dave McIntyre, who is retiring from hockey in order to take a position with the Toronto police. At least that’s his story. Another winter of post-game concerts by Vallejo would be enough to make anyone hang up the skates.
No word yet on who the new captain will be, but I think John Franco has an outside shot.
In the exciting world of the NBDL, a 26-6 3rd quarter run was the catalyst for the Austin Toros’ 120-101 defeat of Arkansas. Marcus Fizer scored 24 for the Toros with Ramel Curry (above) adding 18.
And finally, to top off an unprecedented (please don’t make me look it up) evening of local minor league success, the Austin Wranglers kicked off their third season in that hothouse of creative thinking that is the Arena Football League with a 64-46 home opening victory over the Las Vegas Gladiators. Over 11,000 persons — clearly unable to cope with this weekend’s relative lack of football action (save for the Leitch-maligned Senior Bowl and uh, other AFL games) — filled the Erwin Center, a total that compares favorably to some of the crowds Texas’ nationally ranked Men’s Basketball team have drawn this season. Football remains the most popular sport by far here in Texas, closely followed by b) football and c) football.