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DETAILS |
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Names |
Cincinnati
Tigers |
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Operated |
1981-82 |
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League |
Central
Hockey League |
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Home Arena |
Riverfront
Coliseum |
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Championships |
None |
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STATISTICS |
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SEASON |
LEAGUE |
GP |
W |
L |
T |
OTL |
SOL |
PTS |
PCT |
RANK |
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1981-82 |
CHL |
80 |
46 |
30 |
4 |
0 |
0 |
96 |
.600 |
2 |
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None |
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The Cincinnati
Tigers were members of the Central Hockey League
during the 1981-82 season and were the primary
farm club to the Toronto Maple Leafs. The club
called Riverfront Coliseum their home and were
led by future New Jersey Devils head coach Doug
Carpenter. The Tigers can easily be called the
most talented team that ever hit the ice in
Cincinnati history.
Cincinnati was an offensive machine, racking up
375 goals with a staggering 4.67 goals-per-game
average. The 375 goals scored is still the most
in a single season by any Cincinnati hockey club
to date. Left wing Reg Thomas had 47 of the
goals and center Bruce Boudreau had 42. Both
Tigers totaled more then 100 points each. Had
Bruce Boudreau not been away with the Maple
Leafs, his final goal total would have been
higher. Forward Norm Aubin also missed action
with the Tigers when he was called up to the
parent club after 31 games. Aubin had scored 15
goals and was well on his way to racking up
more. Had Boudreau and Aubin played the full
season in Cincinnati, the Tigers most likely
would have cleared the 400-goal mark by season's
end.
Cincinnati also was the
most dominate in the CHL on the power play.
Boudreau, Thomas and Blight, coupled with
defensemen Dave Shand and Greg Hotham were
incredible on the power play. The
Tigers connected on 39 percent of their power
play chances.
Had defenseman Greg
Hotham
not been traded to the Pittsburg Penguins after
46 games, the total would have been stronger.
Cincinnati may have scored
plenty of goals but they also gave up plenty as
well. The Tigers gave up a total of 340 goals to
their opponents by season's end.
The club saw a total of
five different goaltenders over the course of
the season. Goaltender Curt Ridley was assigned
to Cincinnati by Toronto halfway through the
season and was suppose to be the Tigers regular
goaltender but Ridley was injured and never
regained his form when he returned to the line
up. He wound up only playing in a total of 22
games.
Bob Parent turned out to be the Tigers' main
goaltender despite being average at best. Parent
played in a total of 65 games which still stands
as the most games played in Cincinnati by any
goaltender.
The other three
Tigers goalies were Jiri Crha who came to
Cincinnati on a conditioning assignment and only
played in a couple of games.
Martin Magley who had been assigned to
Cincinnati by Toronto to be a backup but never
saw any ice time and Doug Dragasevich who played
in only one single game.
Toronto gave Cincinnati a
terrific team but regrettably support for this
great Cincinnati sports gem was dismal at best.
The Tigers seldom drew more than 1,500 fans a
game and in some cases the club played in front
of crowds in the hundreds. A handful of reasons
can be to blame for the club failing.
The Tigers' rent at
the Coliseum for one thing was high, which was
tough on the club and pushed the Tigers to have
high ticket prices. The club's annual rent
rounded out to about $ 208,000. To add to the
high ticket prices, parking fees and concession
prices were steep also. Plus the exchange rate
of currency between the U.S. and Canada was
tough on the team. With a 20% difference in
money, it was much more expensive for a Canadian
team to operate a minor league franchise in the
U.S.
To make matters
worse, coverage of the club in local papers was
dismal at best. The tiny amount of fans that did
follow the Tigers had to dig through the
newspapers to find the smallest bit of coverage.
The handful of articles that did find their way
into the papers were buried beneath extensive
coverage of the Cincinnati Bengals Super Bowl
run.
The Tigers ended
the season with a solid 46-30-4 record and
finished one point behind the Salt Lake Golden
Eagles in the division. However, the Tigers
ended their brilliant run with a thud in the
playoffs, losing to the Dallas Blackhawks 3
games to 1.
Despite head coach
Doug Carpenter's claim at the beginning of the
season that "This isn't a situation where we
come in one season and then take off", that is
exactly what happened. Despite the Maple Leafs
promise of a three year affiliation, Toronto
pulled the plug on the Tigers shortly after the
season ended and moved its farm club to the St.
Catharines Saints
in the American Hockey League. |
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