Quad-City Flames rivalries start to heat up
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By Craig DeVrieze | Sunday, November 25, 2007 |
It’s Rivalry Week for the Quad-City Flames.
Even if you can’t quite figure out who the Flames’ archrival is.
In the players’ world, the Iowa Stars are Michigan to the Flames’ Ohio State.
In the world of the fans, it is Rockford’s IceHogs who “Pack” it in while the Flames “Bear’’ down.
And, if the media had a say, the Peoria Rivermen might be Pirates looking to board the Flames’ Steamwheeler.
No matter. The Flames will see all three nearby West Division foes within the next four days, taking time off only to devour some Thanksgiving turkey.
It is the kind of fun-filled week Kevin Murphy and his Quad-City Sports Ventures partners envisioned when they went looking to plunk an AHL franchise smack dab in the middle of the league’s Midwestern loop.
“That’s the nice thing about this division — Iowa, Rockford, Peoria, Chicago are all natural rivals,” said the Flames co-owner. “I think that was one of the things Calgary liked, was our proximity to these teams. Omaha was out on the end of the division. Here, we’re in the middle.”
For coach Ryan McGill and holdovers from last year’s division champion Ak-Sar-Ben Knights, Iowa, which comes to the i wireless Center tonight, remains the I-80 archrival it was the past two years when the Flames called Omaha home.
“I think it has built up,” said forward Carsen Germyn. “Last year, we played them 12 times, and we’re so close. I think Iowa has always been the rival.”
Iowa remains the team the Flames will see most in the AHL’s unbalanced schedule this season. Because the Quad-Cities is the closest trip to and from Des Moines, the teams will play 12 times. They also met twice in exhibitions.
A year ago, preseason and postseason included, the two clubs played 20 times.
That’s how rivalries are made, McGill said.
“You learn to hate each other very easily. And it’s not because anybody puts fuel on the fire. It is because if you play that team that many times, you’re not going to like each other by the middle of the season.”
Last year, the Stars were the last team the Flames saw. Iowa ousted the division champs four games to two in a best-of-seven first-round playoff series.
“It is obviously in the back of our minds,” Germyn said of that playoff upset. “Every game, we want to win. But you don’t forget about that.”
Veteran Quad-Cities hockey fans can’t forget the rivalry that developed between their Mallards and the IceHogs over nine seasons of United Hockey League infighting.
In a qctimes.com survey, the IceHogs polled 35 percent of the vote of fans asked to cite the Flames’ foremost rival. Next nearest was Peoria at 27 percent.
It doesn’t matter that both teams are made of entirely new players, said Moline’s Mike Dzenkunskas.
“It’s not so much the teams,” he said. “It’s the fans. The fans in Rockford are really, really bad. Rockford is vulgar. We have had cigarettes put out in our jerseys.”
Longtime season-ticket holder Shane Petersen of Davenport is open to new possibilities, however.
“I think it is going to take a couple of years for us to get used to the league and understand and know the players,” he said. “Then the rivalries will come. I’d like to see Des Moines, Peoria, Chicago, all the close ones, become good rivalries.”
Petersen is on the same page as Flames veteran Dustin Boyd, who said he thinks new rivals also will develop with time.
Boyd, though, said the players can pick up on what the fans are feeling and he expects a rivalry with Rockford, the league’s most penalized team, won’t be long in developing.
“The more we play them, the more we are going to hate them,” Boyd said. “If the fans (dislike) them, we’ll do the same.
“I’m sure the fans hate a lot of teams that come in here. Some they hate more.”
That carries sway with players.
“When I played juniors with Moose Jaw, we had the Regina Pats,” said Boyd. “You could tell the atmosphere was more for those kinds of games.”
Murphy and friends would like that atmosphere to permeate the i wireless Center whenever one of their nearby foes visits. And vice-versa.
Already, the Flames and Peoria have worked out ticket specials for fans of the visiting team, and Murphy said the Flames plan to do the same for Rockford, Chicago and Iowa fans.
“It is definitely a good thing,” he said of red-hot rivalries. “It’s good for the fans, good for the players, and it is good for us because you sell more tickets.”
Craig DeVrieze can be contacted at (563) 333-2610 or cdevrieze@qctimes.com. Comment on this story at qctimes.com
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