This one comes from Ronn, who wants to know who everybody thinks was the best fighter(s) the Komets have had, and who they have fought against. Now it's easy for everybody to say Fletch, and who could argue, but try to think of specific incidents maybe that stood out for you. Think of opponents as well.
I'll start. Though I didn't see it, Bob Fitchner challenging the entire Flint team in 1973 should have been something, especially when no one had the guts to immediately accept the challenge. Now that's tough.
The other one was seeing Shawn Cronin take on about three Indy Ice players after Prokopec hit McBain in Indy. I have NEVER seen a great show of strength than seeing Cronin the barbarian throwing Jeff Buchanan around. The whole place got eerily quiet. Funny thing was, I'm guessing word must have gotten around pretty quick, because no one came near Shawn in the remaining games he was able to play. What a warrior. And a class act.
As for opponents, Mark Major was by far the classiest of a class bunch. Enrico Ciccone was always a favorite to despise.
Comments
The guys I remember from early on were Steve Salvucci and Tony Cammazola. I always loved it when Vuc got real mad he would skate by the other teams bench and bang his stick on the boards just under those guys when they were leaning over. I remember the Cronin incident; but I cant remember anyone more scary than "The Rock" when he lost it....Robin Bawa especially early in his career was nasty. John Hillworth never fought much but when ya pushed the right button he would chase ya down and leave ya behind the wood shed...cryin....Mike Natyshak and Scott Shaunessy were a couple of my favorites...just a few off the top of my head...
The guys I remember from early on were Steve Salvucci and Tony Cammazola. I always loved it when Vuc got real mad he would skate by the other teams bench and bang his stick on the boards just under those guys when they were leaning over. I remember the Cronin incident; but I cant remember anyone more scary than "The Rock" when he lost it....Robin Bawa especially early in his career was nasty. John Hillworth never fought much but when ya pushed the right button he would chase ya down and leave ya behind the wood shed...cryin....Mike Natyshak and Scott Shaunessy were a couple of my favorites...just a few off the top of my head...
Chris Mcrae as far as I remember never lost
a fight as a komet
Fletch is the all time top notch
never from behind always face to face
only going when you were ready! his battles
with Major are some of the all time best,
clean and with respect for each other and the game
Bawa was as tough as they came
but number 2 on my list captain Dale Baldwin
not a heavyweight in size but nobody tougher!
as for other foes
John Craighead seemed to always come out on top very skilled at his trade
and for KOMETS that I did not like the two worst
Carl Mokosak
Andy Bezau
cheap and dirty from behind
no respect for either of them
The most surprising and enjoyable of recent years had to be Kevin Schmidt holding his own in front of the net against the "Jerk of Jerks" Brad Wingfield. I never expected Kevin to drop them with Wingfield, but he did, and he got some pretty good licks in. I hate Brad Wingfield, he is a dirty player.
The Calvinator in the 60's. Teddy Wright after he put on a little weight and moved back to defense. I don't think I ever saw D'Arcy Keating lose a fight. Fitchner always liked to throw 'em. Rodney Cox was the guy who came off the Flint Bench and when he returned, he was bleeding from his eye.
Flint's announcers later said that "the only reason Fitchner challenged the Flint bench was because he knew that Doug Kerslake -- Flint's bad guy -- wasn't dressed." The next game, in Flint (which I went to) Fitchner pointed tp center ice, challenging Kerslake. Kerslake skated to center ice, threw one right hand which hit Fitchner in the side of the head. Fitchner grabbed Kerslake behind the neck, pulled his head down and nailed him with 3 quick uppercuts, breaking Kerslake's nose and ending the fight right then. A thing of beauty.
pound for pound think robbie was good as we have ever had, and a little porker name IEN Mcfee for the golddiggers, had some of the fastest hands i have ever seen.
Gotta agree with JR on Scott Shaunessy(sp?). I remember one time in particular when he fought someone from Peoria. They dropped gloves on face-off, dropped hats and circled for about ten seconds. Out of nowhere Scott cut loose a hook and the dude went down like a lump of potatoes and had to be helped off. That was by far the coolest hockey fight I have ever seen. Outside of him(not mentioning the obvious)Andre Roy comes to mind. Of course our biggest waste of a fighter Rhett Trombley. Do a google search and see how many fight links for him come up. Watch them and see how many he loses. I'll give you a spoiler. None. Of course we only gave him about 2 weeks and then cut him loose. Sorry, didn't mean to go off on a tangent. But, while I'm on it Jorde is absolutely THE best fighter we have right now bar none. I won't get off on a huge rant about how he doesn't use his skill nearly as often as he should blah blah blah. The dude knows how to throw down though.
Shane Kenny dropping Lawmaster last year was lovely.
If someone would have done it to him in the playoffs before he ran both of our goalies maybe the outcome would have been different.
Danny Stewert dropping Jeff Ewasko of Rockford..I think Ewasko was a full foot taller than Stewert..He took a pounding right at the Komets bench...
I'll leave the prehistoric fighters to Blake and the old timers.
IHL guys who stood out were Robin Bawa, Steve Fletcher, Shawn Cronin, and one that I think was the best which is Andre Roy. You just didn't see him lose. Andy Bezeau, dirty player later in his career or not, was relentless and had balls. Didn't matter who you were or how big you were, he would throw down with some of the best of the all time greats.
UHL fighter that stood out the most for me was Steve Parsons. Guys who put on the best fights I thought were Michel Massie and Jimmy Logan. Both took a punch to give a punch. I like that. Rhett Trombley could of been something special if he got a refill on his cup of coffee he had here.
Oldtimers? Why you young whippersnipper, I ought to...
I believe that's a five-minute major for unsportsmanlike conduct there, scoops.
I would say Andre Roy or Steve Parsons. I never saw Parsons lose a fight. Also, does anyone remember Rhett Trombley? He played about half a season in the UHL and then we released him. I thought he was pretty good too.
Let's classify the fighters in 3 groups to make things easier. Group 1 will be the best of the best and not in any particular order
1 Sean Gagnon
2 Steve Parsons
3 Shawn Cronin
4 John Ferguson
5 Rhett Trombly
Group 2 (This group is big and I'm sure I'll
miss a few)
1 Steve Fletcher 2 Bob Fitchner 3 Ted Wright 4 Andre Roy 5 Shane Kenny 6 Connie Madigan 7 Cal Puriton 8 John Hilworth 9 Mark Salvucci (Steve's brother) 10 Mark Major. 11 Tony Camazolla 12 Mike Butters
Group 3 (Warrior Group)
These guys could throw'em, but can't be considered heavyweghts. 1. Robbie Laird 2. Davey Norris 3 Chris McRae 4 Andy Beezue 5 Robin Bawa 6 Steve Salvucci 7 Dale Baldwin 8 Michel Massie 9 Jim Logan
The best fighter of them all to ever play in the Colisium and possibly in all of hockey at any level was Link Gates who played for K-zoo before is was suspended. He later went on to play in the NHL, but drugs and booze got him the boot. He has been suspended for life from 5 or 6 leagues. As of last year he was playing in the Ontario Senior Professional League,a goon league famous for hockey enforcers.Some teams there have as many as 5-7 enforcers on a team. Most games are sell outs.
In a classic Sat. nite Komet/K-zoo game a full scale brawl erupted. Link Gates was involved. Three Komets challenged Gates in sucession, Robin Bawa, Mike Butters, can't recall the third player. Gates destroyed all three and I mean DESTROYED 1,2 3 He was called "The Missing Link"
One guy I remember as being underrated but always a battler was Mike Lekun. After Keith Miller got jumped here in Fort Wayne, the next game was in Indy and we brought Lekun back from the senior leagues. No one wanted a piece of him.
Steve Parsons was a kid who should have been able to make the jump to the NHL but just fell a little short. If he only could have stayed away from all the suspensions, he might have actually gotten to show his talent.
Milt Mastad was another of the big guys people tend to forget. Dave Norris was another all time favorite. Dale Baldwin could still play if the K's ever needed him. Byron Lomow was about as tough as they come as well. He was a pain as an opponent but a great asset as a Komet.
Opponents?
Kevin Evans...
...but I'm biased ;-)
I always got excited when Fletcher was on the ice. One person not mentioned so far for opponent is Rick Hayward. I still remember the play-off series wiht Cincy when after Fletcher ran Pokey, and yes Flecther ran Pokey, Hayward started with Fletcher, after that was broken up went after Kevin Mcdonald who was standing around the K's bench and then to finish it off decied to get into with Peter Sidorkiewicz. After Sid beat Hayward in the head a few times with his blocker he finally had enough.
How about best individual fights?
how about the night bob phillips took on the whole world after getting his contacts gouged out of his eyes? and for tough how about greg tebutt who took on anybody , including the ft wayne police dept.
The only guy I ever saw who gave Gagnon a battle was Cote from K-Zoo one night here. Always liked to see Lekun vs. Indy. He'd fight their big fighter, Marc Magnan. Lekun would head butt him every fight. Once, when there were several fights going on at one time lekun had Magnan up against the boards and head butted him so many times Magnan was wobbly going back to his bench.
Individual? How about Robbie Laird and G-G-G-Gordie Lane at center ice when Laird broke Lane's nose.
Lane had a severe stuttering problem and the Komets would line up across form him on faceoffs and just say "G-G-G-Gordie." He'd go beserk.
One of my favorite memories since the name Marc Magnan was brought us was all the run ins he had with Derek Ray. I know of at least 3 occasions that D Ray hip-checked Magnan into either the Checkers bench or the Komets. I have never seen anything like that since. D Ray knew just how to take him out. As for the Phillips-Jeff Leverman fight, I was a young lad sitting right behind the visitors penalty box that night and got in the picture with Dennis Schebig trying to keep Leverman from jumping off the dasher onto Phillips. That was one of the wildest scenes I can remember along with the Komets and Checkers bench clearer on Christmas Day many years ago. I even have a bunch of pictures from that night I'll have to scan for old times sake.
mcbain vs prokopec wow !!
stewart vs ewasko
baldwin vs yakichuck
hilworth vs lorne molleken goalie for toledo
i beleive hilworth broke his goalie mask with his bare hand,he wore a chris osgood style mask and the cage was half off after
the pummeling
how about mad max middendorf vs sergei krivokrosav of the ice
when he decided to start a stick fight with
mad max and hit him in the shoulder
well max lost it and split his head open whith a mighty sherwood swing
yah - Out of all of them - the toe-to-toe fights where both guys stand up against each other - McBain vs. Prokepec. Everyone knew it was going to happen and they lined up, talked a bit and went at it. Both guys had to get in at least 10 good ones.
The most exciting one I can remember recently was right around the time of the Muhammed Ali and 1-0 Joe night. Don't even remember the opponent but everybody on both teams were going at it. Lawson skated out to center ice and motioned for the other goalie to meet him there. He promptly thrashed him if I remember correctly. What a season that was!
I would have to say some of my favorites would be Fletcher, Baldwin, Norris, Laird, Hilworth, the Sal Brothers, and Roy. Everyone would agree over the years we have had some good fighters. One of the best brawls I say was when I was a youngster when K's played Grand Rapids and Robbie Irons started it when Rick Hartman slashed him at end of game. That brawl lasted for at least 30 min. One of the best fights I saw was last year when Shane Kenny and Trevor Senn danced 3 times. The 3rd time Kenny and Senn traded rights at center ice before Kenny buckled Senn with a right cross. The 3 fights were long and very good fights.
I'm with Unit on that one! That particular night was easily one of the craziest I've ever seen. Lawson was wicked! LOL
Gee, it's too bad you guys don't have anything to say on this subject. LOL.
How about the night when Kaminski took on both Mark Peluso and Stu Grimson with Indy...Both up and coming Chicago enforcers...Or the Fletcher/Toporowski battles...and it seemed like anytime Gagnon anr Roy were patroling the ice together it was gonna get interesting...aaahhhhh fun times...
DAVID:on the Grand Rapids and Robbie Irons fight wasn't that RICK DORMAN? that was when he beat him with his blocker.not only that he beat the wrong guy.someone else hit him with a stick. it was pretty cool.