Baltimore Skipjacks

HockeyWashington Capitals -- Assigned D Shawn Chambers to Baltimore (AHL) for reconditioning.Baltimore Skipjacks (AHL) -- Recalled G Byron Dafoe (6-4-0, 2.78 goals-against average) from Hampton Roads (ECHL).

Steve Kolbe, the radio voice of the Capitals, was born and raised in Baltimore. As a kid, he learned to skate at the ice rink at Patterson Park “before they had a bubble on that thing.” He watched the Baltimore Clippers' home games at the Civic Center and tuned in for Capitals whenever they were on TV. Needless to say, Kolbe is pretty pumped up for the inaugural Baltimore Hockey Classic. “I can’t tell you how excited I am for September to come around because getting back [to 1st Mariner Arena]

The Baltimore Skipjacks have placed single-game tickets for the American Hockey League's Calder Cup playoffs on sale to the public.Tickets, priced at $13, $11 and $9, are on sale at the Baltimore Arena box office and at all Ticketron locations. For information, call 727-0703 or 481-6000.

Walter R. "Bud" Freeman, a longtime fixture in public relations for several Baltimore sports teams including the Orioles, died early yesterday at Sinai Hospital of leukemia. He was 69.Freeman started in 1966 with the Orioles as director of sales and also was involved in promotions, community relations and ticket sales."If you look up the word gentleman in the dictionary you will find Walter Freeman," said Chuck Thompson, longtime radio and TV voice of the Orioles and Colts.For the past four years, Freeman worked with Bob Brown for the Maryland Baseball Limited Partnership, which owns the Frederick Keys, Bowie Baysox and the Delmarva Shorebirds.

A game was omitted from the Baltimore Skipjacks' schedul yesterday. The Skipjacks will play at Binghamton, N.Y., at 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 23.The Sun regrets the errors.The Baltimore Skipjacks announced yesterday that they will open their 10th American Hockey League season against the Hershey Bears at the Baltimore Arena on Oct. 4.The Jacks will face Southern Division rival Hershey 16 times in 1991-92, and their three other division opponents -- Binghamton, Utica and Rochester -- eight times each.

The Baltimore Skipjacks yesterday returned center Harry Mews to the Hampton Roads Admirals of the East Coast Hockey League.Mews, who did not score in two games with the Skipjacks, was to rejoin the Admirals in Johnstown, Pa., for their game with the Chiefs.Baltimore, in first place in the Southern Division of the American Hockey League and a 5-2 winner over the Utica Devils on Saturday night, will play Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. at Hersheypark Arena against the Hershey Bears.

The Washington Capitals assigned two players -- goalie Olaf Kolzig and center Rob Murray -- to the Baltimore Skipjacks yesterday.Kolzig was called up by Washington Wednesday as a backup to Don Beaupre when goalie Mike Liut suffered a groin injury. Liut is ready to play, and Kolzig was expendable.Murray was sent to Baltimore on a two-week reconditioning assignment. He had no goals and three assists in 17 games for the Capitals.Both are expected to be in uniform when the Skipjacks play the Hershey Bears at the Baltimore Arena tonight.

The Washington Capitals recalled right wing Tim Bergland from the Baltimore Skipjacks yesterday in time for tonight's game against the Edmonton Oilers at the Capital Centre.Bergland's recall was necessitated by an injury to rookie right wing Reggie Savage in practice at the Mount Vernon rink. Savage, who was called up from Baltimore on Monday and played in one game, will be out indefinitely, said Capitals general manager David Poile.This is Bergland's second stint with the Capitals. He began the season with Washington, and had a goal and four assists in 24 games.

It was incorrectly reported in yesterday's editions of The Sun that the Baltimore Skipjacks will face each member of the Atlantic Division of the American Hockey League four times next season. In fact, the Skipjacks will face each member of the Atlantic Division -- except St. John's -- two times. They will face St. John's four times.The Sun regrets the errors.The AHL announced last weekend that it will have three divisions for the 1991-92 season, with the Baltimore Skipjacks a member of the Southern Division.

BaseballLos Angeles Dodgers -- Announced P Don Aase (3-1, 4.97 ERA) chose to become free agent rather than accept assignment to Class AAA Albuquerque Dukes.Oakland Athletics -- Announced SS Walt Weiss will miss the res of American League playoffs with a sprained left knee.St. Louis Cardinals -- Named former New York Yankees manager Bucky Dent, Dave Collins, a utility player with the club this season, Joe Coleman and Galen Pitts coaches.BasketballDenver Nuggets -- Announced F Bill Hanzlik will be lost for season to recover from surgery for a herniated disk.

February in Baltimore is no picnic. The skies are the color of dishwater, the air is cold and the mood is grim -- and that's on a good day.Now, to make matters worse, you can be standing on any street corner and have a stranger rush up and blurt in a jangled, five-cups-of-Folgers voice: "I don't know . . . I kinda like Baltimore Ravens. Do you like Baltimore Ravens? Or what about Clippers? Clippers isn't bad. Am I right or am I right?'Hoo, boy. Clearly, it's in our best civic interest that we get on with the naming of our new football team, the former Cleveland Browns, now that every columnist and sports talk show host is weighing in on the subject and we're all this close to going out of our minds.

Portland, Maine -- The differences are at once obvious. The team that was the Baltimore Skipjacks -- and little more than an afterthought in Baltimore -- is now the Portland Pirates, the hottest ticket in this city of 65,000 on Casco Bay.The story of the Pirates' success is as much a story of the mind-set of the city's residents as it is a story of the team's striking on-ice accomplishments. In 1993-94, their first season here, the Pirates won the American Hockey League's Calder Cup. They opened this season with a 17-game unbeaten streak, setting a record for the best start by any North American hockey team.

The Baltimore Skipjacks didn't win last night, but they didn't lose, either.Baltimore also did something it had done only once before this season. The Skipjacks did not lose a game when trailing after two periods.The Skipjacks rallied with a pair of third-period goals to tie the Adirondack Red Wings, 3-3, before 4,443 at the Baltimore Arena.The tie was the second for Baltimore when trailing after two periods. The Skipjacks are 0-13-2 in that situation. It was also Baltimore's second game in a row without a loss and kept the Skipjacks from falling more than one point behind the Binghamton Rangers, who defeated the New Haven Nighthawks, last night, in the AHL Southern Division.

For the Baltimore Skipjacks, it's either feast or famine. After nearly a month of famine, the Skipjacks appear to have begun another feast.Baltimore's unbeaten streak stretched to three games last night with a 5-3 victory over the Moncton Hawks at the Baltimore Arena as the Skipjacks rallied with three third-period goals.The victory was the second straight at home for the Skipjacks, who moved into a first-place tie in the AHL Southern Division with the idle Utica Devils.Tim Bergland was the chief architect of the Baltimore victory, with two goals and two assists, including the goal that broke a 3-3 tie at 18:13 of the final period.

The Baltimore Skipjacks, who are 1-7-2 in their past 10 AHL games, received some player help yesterday from the Washington Capitals.Washington sent center Tim Bergland, who had one goal and three assists in 14 NHL games this season, to Baltimore on a two-week reconditioning assignment.Bergland, who split his time between the Capitals and Skipjacks last season, joins defenseman Shawn Chambers, sent to Baltimore last week on a conditioning assignment. Chambers has played in two games with no points.

HockeyWashington Capitals -- Assigned D Shawn Chambers to Baltimore (AHL) for reconditioning.Baltimore Skipjacks (AHL) -- Recalled G Byron Dafoe (6-4-0, 2.78 goals-against average) from Hampton Roads (ECHL).

Even though only two teams in American Hockey League history have rebounded from an 0-3 deficit to win a playoff series, Binghamton Rangers goalie Mark Laforest says he's not taking the Baltimore Skipjacks lightly."

The Baltimore Skipjacks apparently are serious about this miracle comeback stuff.They've won two straight games and forced the front-running Binghamton Rangers to win Game 6 at the Baltimore Arena tonight at 7:30 to prevent a Game 7 tomorrow night in Binghamton, N.Y.The Skipjacks are down, 3-2, in the best-of-seven American Hockey League Southern Division semifinal series, but suddenly there is talk about Baltimore's becoming only the third team in the...

The East Coast Hockey League, once considered the lowest of the U.S. minor hockey leagues, has been growing steadily the past five years under Pat Kelly, the league commissioner.The ECHL has as many teams as the well-established American Hockey League (15) and five more than the International Hockey League. Two of its teams, the Cincinnati Cyclones and Hampton Roads Admirals, have the best attendance in minor-league hockey. Cincinnati, with former Baltimore Skipjacks radio broadcaster Terry Ficorelli as general manager, is averaging nearly 10,000 customers to the Cincinnati Gardens.

TROY, N.Y. -- John Purves spent the afternoon watching Eric Lindros and the Canadian national team defeat Team USA in nearby Albany. Saturday night, Purves staged his own impersonation of Lindros by accumulating five points in powering the Baltimore Skipjacks to a 6-2 victory over the Capital District Islanders in an American Hockey League game.Purves scored three goals and assisted on two more as the streaking Skipjacks won their fourth in a row and tied Capital District for the most points (32)