The demise of the Austin Ice Bats wasn’t mentioned in this space, and while that’s an inexcusable omission, to paraphrase Cinderella’s Tom Keifer (hopefully getting some synch dough from Darren Aronofsky’s “The Wrestler”), sometimes you don’t know what you’ve got ’til it’s gone.
The first Central Hockey League game I attended after the demise of the WPHL was an Ice Bats v. Lubbock Cotton Kings contest some years ago at the Travis Country Expo Center. A 5-0 first period lead for the hosts led to a number of fights prior to intermisison, along with some goalie-on-goalie action that couldn’t have been crazier had it been scripted. Pretty mild stuff, however, compared to this clip from December 26, 2008.
Yahoo Sports’ Greg Wyshynski has all the background info required, but rest assured, when and if professional hockey returns t the greater Austin area, I’m gonna make an effort to attend more than a couple of games a year, just on the off chance something like this happens again.