Walleye set to honor former Toledo teams

The Toledo Walleye will wear throwback jerseys to honor the Toledo Hornets, who played from 1970-74. Saturday night will be the Walleye's second Hockey Heritage Night to commemorate the former players and teams who suited up for Toledo's various professional hockey teams. Enlarge

The 11 championship banners that hang from the rafters at the Huntington Center represent Toledo's rich pro hockey tradition dating back to the 1940s.

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Cup titles captured by the Mercurys, Blades, Goaldiggers, and Storm are recognized at the downtown arena.

On Saturday night, Toledo's current organization will honor a team that played from 1970-74.

The Walleye players will be wearing retro Toledo Hornets jerseys during a special Hockey Heritage Night.

Ted Tucker, a former goaltender who led the Goaldiggers to a title in 1975, said the night offers him a chance to thank fans for their support.

"It's nice to see and talk to the fans," Tucker said. "It's nice to be acknowledged. It's a special feeling to see those banners up on the wall. The fans have always treated me very special. They're the reason why me and some of the other players stayed in town. This is our chance to give back to the community because of how they treated us."

The event, which is sponsored by The Blade, will include an auction after the game. The Hornets jerseys worn by the Walleye players will be auctioned off with the proceeds to benefit the Salvation Army.

The first 3,000 fans in attendance will receive a mini pennant that depicts all 11 hockey titles.

Walleye coach Nick Vitucci was part of the last Toledo team to win a championship. He was a goaltender for the Storm team that won a Riley Cup in 1994.

"There have been a lot of great hockey teams and hockey players here that have paved the way for the Walleye," Vitucci said. "It's great that we're recognizing those people and those franchises."

Vitucci went on to become the head coach of the Storm from 2003-07 and has been coach of the Walleye since the team's inaugural season in 2009-10.

Vitucci said his players were thrilled to wear the sweaters of the Toledo Mercurys, which played at the old Sports Arena from 1947-62, during a similar event last season.

"[The Hornets] jerseys look great," Vitucci said.

"That's a nice little logo they have," Tucker agreed.

Mike Keedy, the Walleye's manager of special events, said the team is organizing an official alumni group of former Toledo pro hockey players.

"We want to grow our alumni database and organize it," Keedy said.

Tucker has signed as the group's unofficial alumni director.

In 2005, Tucker spearheaded an effort for a 30-year anniversary of the Goaldiggers championship. He said the players enjoyed reminiscing about winning Turner Cups, playing for legendary coach Ted Garvin, and the nastiness of the Murder Inc. line of Paul Tantardini, Willie Trognitz, and Doug Mahood.

Tucker, who lives in Temperance, said he tries to get to a handful of Walleye games each year.

"To look up at the banners and say I was on that team is a special feeling," Tucker said. "To be a part of that team it is hard to describe. As a person it's a big achievement. But it was a team effort."

Tucker and Mahood are expected to attend and the former Toledo Storm mascot "Dukes" will make an appearance.

Vitucci, who is an ECHL hall of fame goalie, said he hopes the heritage night will help educate some of the more novice fans to the history of the sport in Toledo.

"For those that aren't diehard fans, it's a great idea to educate them on the past teams that played here," Vitucci said. "They gave all their efforts and left a lot of blood on the ice. So it's nice that they can be remembered for their efforts."

The last title won by a Toledo team came in 1993-94 when the Storm won its second straight Riley Cup.

A championship is not on the radar of Toledo's current team which has struggled to reach the .500 mark this season. The Walleye (16-20-3) have lost two of their last three games and remain in the basement of the ECHL North Division.

Toledo hosts Chicago (17-16-6) on Friday before Reading comes to the Huntington Center on Saturday. The Walleye then travel to Johnstown to play Wheeling once again.

The Walleye were outscored 13-6 and went 1-2-0 in three road games last week.

Call ups to the American Hockey League and injuries continue to put the team's roster influx. The team is playing without three of its top six scorers.

Forwards David Toews and Brian Matte also are on the injured reserve list. Both have concussion-like symptoms.

Vitucci said he will not know whether Toledo's AHL affiliates in Rockford or Grand Rapids will be re-assigning any players to his team until Thursday.

"There's no point in complaining about it," Vitucci said. "But it's a tough, tough grind. We went from getting six of eight points and feeling good to losing [five players] to recalls."

Riley Emmerson, a 6-8 forward, made his debut in a Walleye uniform against Reading on Saturday. Emmerson, acquired in a trade last week to infuse some physicality, won a fight on Sunday.

On Saturday, Toledo trailed Reading 4-2 with less than seven minutes left in the third period but rallied for a 5-4 win.

The comeback was even more remarkable because on Friday night the team's bus broke down on the Pennsylvania Turnpike on the trip from Johnstown to Reading.

"A trip that should have taken three and half hours took 13," Vitucci said. "The bus just died on the spot."

Vitucci said both state troopers and snowplow operators stopped throughout the night along with various repairmen. After the rough night with little sleep, the bus did not arrive in Reading until 12:30 Saturday afternoon and the team played at 7.

"We didn't know it until the next day but the driver couldn't pull all the way over to the shoulder, and we were six inches on to the interstate," Vitucci said. "We sat for nine hours on the bus with transport trucks blowing past us and shaking the bus every couple of minutes."

Contact Mark Monroe at: mmonroe@theblade.com, 419-724-6354, or on Twitter @MonroeBlade