Columnist Ron Kantowski: Fire and ice — and insects — in the NHL

Tuesday, Nov. 25, 2003 | 9:37 a.m.

Ron Kantowski is a Las Vegas Sun sports writer. Reach him at ron@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4088.

It was one degree below zero with a wind chill of minus 15 when they dropped the puck for Saturday's Heritage Classic, a throwback hockey game held outdoors in an Edmonton football stadium, where the Montreal Canadiens and Edmonton Oilers played in front of an NHL record crowd of 57,157 icicles disguised as spectators.

At least they didn't have to worry about a grasshopper invasion.

That wasn't the case on Sept. 27, 1991, when the Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers met in an exhibition game on a temporary outdoor rink at Caesars Palace.

Before the game, many wondered if the ice would melt before the first high-sticking penalty. Although it rained during the day and the temperature was 85 degrees at gametime, the ice and refrigeration system held up nicely.

The only problem was the bright arena lights, which attracted swarms of grasshoppers that eventually made their way to the ice. By the start of their period, it looked like the beginning of a bad science fiction movie, as the game was delayed to sweep away the six-legged intruders.

And here you thought Tie Domi was a pest.

"The only problem was the thing with the grasshoppers, or whatever they were," said Wayne Gretzky, who was with the Kings then and scored the game's final goal. "They kept coming on the ice. It got pretty bad toward the end."

The game also marked the NHL debut of "Helmet Cam," a tiny camera that was fixed to the helmet of Kings goalie Kelly Hrudy and gave TV viewers a novel up close and personal viewpoint of the game.

A capacity crowd of more than 13,000 turned out, which might have been the catalyst for bringing professional hockey to the desert. Two years later, Las Vegas was awarded a franchise in the International Hockey League and the Thunder initially was a big hit, even though it played indoors at the Thomas & Mack Center.

No fan jam

UNLV picked a bad week to entertain football recruits, as Sam Boyd Stadium was about two-thirds empty for Saturday's game against Colorado State.

In fact, the Rebels would have been better off taking the prospective newcomers to somewhere like ESPN Zone, where there probably were more UNLV fans watching the game on TV than were at the stadium.

This is what happens when you agree to televise home games and start them at 4 p.m. on days more conducive to ice fishing than football.

Let's hope the Mountain West schools that were so quick to accept a pay check from the SportsWest network spent it wisely, because this is a deal that winds up costing them in the long run.

This is how you do it: Put road games on TV, to create interest in your product, then make people buy a ticket to see the team at home. I've been saying this until I'm blue in the face which Saturday, would have been midway through the second quarter.

On the bright side, at least there weren't any fights in the stands. Unless you hail from Laramie, it was too cold to drink beer. And most fights I've seen usually require that two people be sitting within a 20-foot radius of one other.

Around the horn

Is it me, or does the UNR-UNLV rivalry only work in the fall? While their football game is one of the Silver State's hottest sports tickets, you didn't even need a ticket to watch Monday night's basketball game between the instate rivals, as an empty can of Pepsi entitled one to a seat in the T&M upper deck. I'm not sure, but I think a bottle of Yoo-hoo will get you seats under the basket for Wednesday's Western Illinois game. ... One-game on TV does not make a career, but if the Rebels are going to stop Andrew Bogut, Rick Majerus' latest man-mountain in high tops, they may have to put point guard Jerel Blassingame on Louis Amundson's shoulders. ... John Winston, a reserve guard on the UNLV basketball team, bears a striking resemblance to actor Forrest Whitaker. Only Winston has a better jump shot (I think). ...

While it was nice to see the UNLV Lady Rebels step up to play UCLA on Sunday, their nonconference schedule still consists primarily of cupcakes, or at least members of the Hostess Athletic Conference. Centenary, which the Lady Rebels whacked Friday, San Diego, Cal State Fullerton, Georgia Southern (or Richmond), Loyola Marymount, South Florida, Texas-San Antonio, Cal Poly and Northern Arizona are this year's record-padders. Besides UCLA, UNLV's only nonconference game against a BCS-conference opponent is Mississippi State, a No. 3 seed in last year's NCAA Tournament, on Dec. 28. ... Speaking of women's hoops, Rachael Schein, who led Centennial High to consecutive state championships, is coming off the bench as a true freshman for 21st-ranked Arizona. ...

Only the Ball Was Tan: That could be the working title for the Arena Football story (if it's ever written), as the football league in a can will play with a tan football featuring an avant-garde black swoosh. Actually, it doesn't look all that bad. ... In case you've got a calendar lying around and are dying to mark on it, the Las Vegas Gladiators will open their second AFL season Feb. 6 in Colorado. ... Anthony Calvillo, who played quarterback for the Las Vegas Posse in its one and only Canadian Football League season, came up short in his second consecutive Grey Cup appearance, as Calvillo's Montreal Alouettes dropped a 34-22 decision to the Edmonton Eskimoes in last week's CFL Super Bowl. Calvillo, who also led Utah State to a Las Vegas Bowl appearance during his college days, was the MVP of the 2002 Grey Cup. ...

There's a rumor that has a new Las Vegas team in the on-again, (mostly) off-again reincarnation of the old ABA being formed and playing its games in the new Orleans Arena with the eccentric Dennis Rodman as coach. Steve Stallworth, who runs the arena, said he had an informal discussion with a representative of the proposed franchise (no, it wasn't Rodman) but that the Orleans isn't interested. ... Once again, the Las Vegas Bowl committee must be living right, as New Mexico, with its legions of loyal fans, and Oregon State, with its legions of local high school players, is about the best matchup it could hope for, now that UNLV has been eliminated. The Lobos already are committed to the Christmas Eve game while the Beavers may wind up being the Pac-10 representative after all is said and done.

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