Written By: Andy Chaves
On April 19, 1975, the Omaha Knights lost to the Salt Lake Golden Eagles 4-3 in game 4 of the Central Hockey League’s Adams Cup Playoffs semifinals, and for the next 4,186 days the city of Omaha would be without a hockey team to call its own.
When Tom and Marilyn Edwards announced in May of 1986 that the Omaha Lancers would be joining the United States Hockey League and would begin play just five months later, you can imagine the buzz it created among hockey fans in the city. And after drafting, hiring a coach, scouting, recruiting, holding tryouts, practicing, behind-the-scenes organizing, exhibitions, and even some bumps in the road, the Lancers were finally ready for their first game on October 3, 1986. Of course, the process from May to October wasn’t that simple, but we’ll get into those stories another time.
Around 900 fans filled Hitchcock Ice Arena that night in anticipation of the Lancers’ official opening game against the Des Moines Buccaneers. But even before the doors opened, there were indications that things would not go very smoothly, starting with the sweaters. “We developed a logo and it was a pretty good looking logo. So we ordered from the vendor that everyone else was ordering from,” Lancers founder and first team owner Tom Edwards told us. “The day of our first game, the boxes show up and they're not our logo! They decided that they would create a better logo because they knew more about it!” The logo was never supposed to have an orange ring--it was supposed to be black, which was the logo’s design following the first season.
As anxious fans packed into the arena, it was time for pregame introductions! And like the sweaters, that didn’t go off quite as planned, either: “There was going to be the hoopla with player introductions,” Edwards recalls. “So we had the introductions with the spotlight and to make that work, you turn off the lights in the arena. We had never practiced turning off the lights, so we turned the lights back on, and it took a long time for them to come back on. So it took away a little bit of the initial charge.”
Finally the referee dropped the puck and it was hockey time in Omaha! Well, the game itself didn’t turn out to be much of a game. Des Moines jumped out to an early lead, but about midway through the second period, the Omaha Lancers scored a goal for the first time in team history! According to Omaha World Herald archives, “[Tim] Lowndes scored on a breakaway at 6:28 of the second period to make it 5 - 1. Lowndes took a pass from Kevin Kamenski just before breaking over the Des Moines blue line. He skated in on goalie Mike Gulenchyn and beat him from close range.”
Finally after 11 Des Moines goals (yes, 11) on 59 shots (yes, 59), the game came to an end, with 11-1 being the final score. For most everyone involved with that first game, the excitement of the night was over. Everyone that is, except for head coach Les Gall. According to an Omaha World Herald report, an errant puck hit Gall during the game. Throughout the third period Gall was feeling dizzy and nauseous, and the feeling continued after the game as well--so much so, that Gall ended up going to the hospital.
In interview after interview, and phone call after phone call, we couldn’t find anyone that could recall exactly what happened or who shot the puck that injured Gall. For me, it had turned into a little side pet-project—finding the mystery puck-shooter! Was it a Lancer? Was it a Buccaneer? Was it intentional? (That would be cruel, but not every player on the team thought highly of Gall. It’s our duty to explore every possibility!) Finally, in one of our final interviews, winger Bruce Weaver filled us in on the mystery of Gall’s injury.
“Brian Knieriem had this wicked slap shot, but he couldn’t control it! He didn’t know where it was going. Nobody knew: the crowd, the goalies, nobody knew where it was going.” Weaver recalls, as he laughs about it—Knieriem’s shot that is, not Gall’s injury. “Les Gall was sitting on the bench, on the edge of the boards running some drills, and Piscopo rips a shot and it goes all the way around and hits him and knocks him backwards. He falls off and cracks some ribs on the players’ bench where they sit.”
Side note: players on the team called Brian Knieriem “Piscopo,” because they thought he looked like Saturday Night Live star Joe Piscopo. Editor’s note: I can see it.
Weaver’s version disputes the reports we had seen, but Weaver is certain it happened before the first game was even played. “It was the morning skate and then after the game he wasn’t feeling good and turns out he had a couple cracked ribs. He didn’t go right away,” Weaver recalls. “It was kind of a surprise because he [Gall] was a tough guy and he just kind of wiped himself off. He was hurting, then he ended up in the hospital and we’re like, ‘What happened?’ They said he got hurt during the game and we’re like ‘no, it was a practice injury.’” According to the World Herald, Gall’s injury was serious enough that he had to remain in the hospital for a number of days, and even missed the Lancers’ next two games.
Thankfully, the pre and post-game excitement was calmer for most of the remaining games. “Most” is the operative word here, but those are stories that you’ll learn more about as this project progresses. But the story of the Lancers’ first ever game is a story that is probably more interesting than most any other teams’ first ever game, and just one story that was a part of this unique team.
Thanks to DropYourGloves.com and the Omaha World Herald for facts and information in this post.