There has been a tradition of hockey in Glens Falls dating back to 1979 when they began play as the Adirondack Red Wings, the AHL affiliate to the Detroit Red Wings. During their 30 years in Glens Falls, New York they would always call the Glens Falls Civic Center, now the Cool Insuring Arena, home. They’ve had six different names while playing across three different leagues. In this piece, we’re going to take an in-depth look at each one of the teams, starting with the Red Wings.
Adirondack Red Wings
In 20 years as the AHL affiliate to the Detroit Red Wings, Adirondack went 739-676-166-14-50 and won four Calder Cup Championships, two of which came under Bill Dineen. In 2014, Bill was inducted into the AHL Hall of Fame. He won the Louis A.R. Perri award for the most outstanding coach in the AHL in 1985 and 1986.
The Arvida, Quebec native is only one of 12 coaches to win the more than one Calder Cup. Robbie Ftorek and Dinnen are the only coaches to win the Perri award in consecutive seasons.
Dineen’s brother Pete is currently of the assistant coaches with the Adirondack Thunder. He spent five games behind the bench during the 1988-89 season while Barry Melrose was serving a five-game suspension. He went 4-1 over those five games.
In an article from the Post Star regarding the signing of Head Coach Alex Loh, Dineen said, “If I was going to get blamed for a bad story, then I would’ve blamed it on one of my brothers,” Dineen said with a laugh about coaching the Red Wings. “But I’ll take credit for this one.”
Barry Melrose also led the Wings to a cup in his final year as head coach in 1992. In those 20 years, the team only missed the Calder Cup Playoffs once which was during the 1984-85 season, they would redeem themselves by winning the Championship the following year.
Glenn Merosky would finish as the Adirondack Red Wings franchise leader in all offensive categories. He would rack up 204 goals and 212 assists for 416 points in 430 games. However, he spent most of his career as an AHL’er as he only played in 66 career NHL games with the Minnesota North Stars, New Jersey Devils and Detroit Red Wings. In those 66 games, he would record five goals and 12 assists for 17 points.
Adirondack IceHawks
Once Detroit ended their affiliation with Adirondack, the team would move to the United Hockey League. The Icehawks as they would be called spent five years in the UHL and went 171-165-0-0-38 in five seasons in the league. They would end up making the playoffs in their first four years and went as far as the second round in their second season.
In 2003, they would sign an agreement to receive players from the Phoenix Coyotes AHL squad. Hugo Belanger would end up leading the Ice Hawks in all-time points by a landslide. He would put up 156 goals and 325 assists for 481 points in 298 games.
This included scoring 30+ goals in his four years with the team, he would stay with the club through their next two seasons as they would be rebranded and renamed to the Adirondack Frostbite.
The final season for the Icehawks would be an interesting one as they would not only miss the playoffs, but have three head coaches that season. Byran Wells would begin this season as head coach, but would be fired after the team started off with a 17-22-5 record. Marc Potvin would manage for the rest of the season besides one game and the team didn’t do much better. Under Potvin, they went 5-22-0-4. The UHL would end up ceasing operations in 2010 after 65 years of operations.
Hugo Belanger would end up leading the Ice Hawks in all-time points by a landslide. He would put up 156 goals and 325 assists for 481 points in 298 games.
Adirondack Frostbite
According to an article from Robin Wood of The Albany Business Review, in 2004, Eric Margenau, who was one of the owners of Glens Falls Professional Hockey LLC, ended up taking over the team and changing the team’s image. This process normally costs around $150,000, according to Glen Morelli who was one of the Frost Bite owners. However, Morelli also owned Red Rocket Merchandise.
During the two years of existence, the Frostbite had two different logos one for each of their seasons. They would miss the playoffs in both years of existence however, the team had a remarkable record going 94-48-0-0-14 with a winning percentage of over .600.
Despite all the work that was done on the ice, there wasn’t much of a huge roster or coaching shake-up compared to past seasons. However, the attendance in the first year for the Frost Bite went up almost 300 on their daily attendance before it ended up dropping almost 500 in the following year which would end up being the final season for the Frostbite.
Adirondack Phantoms
In 2009, for the first time in 10 years, AHL hockey was back in Glens Falls as the Philadelphia Flyers would move their team out of Philly and into Upstate New York because of the Spectrum in Philadelphia was being torn down.
The Phantoms would spend five years in Adirondack. Over those five years, guys like Shane Gostishbere, Patrick Maroon, Brayden Schenn, Sean Couturier and Carter Hutton would also see some time in Glens Falls. Despite all those big names, it would be Jason Akeson who is currently playing in Germany who would lead the Phantoms over during their five years in Upstate New York.
He would put up 58 goals and 114 assists for 172 points in 208 games. The Phantom would miss the Calder Cup Playoffs in all five seasons that they spent in Glens Falls.
Adirondack Flames
Calgary would end up taking over for Philadelphia in 2014 and the most notable thing would be their mascot. The unveiling video of the mascot Scorch, who ironically was a Flame would be controversial as some people found it offensive. His unveiling video can be found here. A fire in 1864 would end up almost burning down the city as 112 wooden buildings were destroyed. To make a long story short, they would end up not having a mascot.
Micheal Ferland who spent time with the Flames would end up putting up three goals and two assists for five points in nine games during the 2015 Stanley Cup Playoffs for the Calgary Flames. In their only season of play, the Flames would go 35-33-0-6-2 and would end up missing out on the Playoffs. The eight games lost in extra time will bring back sour memories to those who followed the 2019-20 Thunder team who lost 13 games in extra time.
Adirondack Thunder
In 2015 the Adirondack Thunder partnered with the New Jersey Devils to become their ECHL affiliate. Prior to this season, the Thunder had made the Kelly Cup Playoffs in each of the past three seasons. They hold an overall record of 179-126-0-26-20. It comes as no surprise that management is disappointed about the 2019-20 season and almost guaranteed to put out a better product next season.
It would be safe to say that captain James Henry is the best Thunder player in the franchise’s history as he’s been with the team since the beginning. He’s put up 78 goals and 185 assists for 263 points in 353 games in Adirondack. However, Mackenzie Blackwood has seen the most success since leaving the Thunder despite playing in only five games with the team. He’s currently the starting goaltender for the New Jersey Devils.