By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Until Friday evening, Dixon Ward’s last appearance in Rochester was June 15, 1996, the day he packed up for the hockey season and went home for the summer.
Just 24 hours earlier, Ward, his Rochester Americans teammates and a few thousand of their suddenly best friends were celebrating on the streets of downtown with the Calder Cup.
“I haven’t been back since the day after the parade ended,” Ward said.
The Cup is also no longer there, at least not to celebrate with the Amerks. That’s 30 years without championships, which makes the memories of the 1996 championship that much more special.
Ward, that team’s scoring star, and Wayne Primeau, who launched his 13-year pro career in the stars and stripes jerseys that spring, returned to the War Memorial on Friday to help the Amerks celebrate the night of the ’90s.
“When I drive back to town, the town is a lot bigger than I remember,” Ward said.
Neither had been in the building since the night of June 13, 1996, when the Amerks defeated the Portland Pirates 2-1 in a Game 7 for the ages. But thirty years later, the memories on the ice are still vivid.
“I enjoyed my time in Rochester,” Ward said. “Winning the Calder Cup is still the most exciting time I’ve had in my career.”
For Ward, the season revived his NHL career. He had burst into the NHL as a rookie with the Vancouver Canucks in 1992-93, scoring 22 goals and 52 points in 70 games.
But as quickly as he had made an impact on the competition’s biggest stage, he faded away. He moved from the Canucks to the Los Angeles Kings, to the Toronto Maple Leafs and then to free agency, signing with the Buffalo Sabers organization in the summer of 1995.
He had a great training camp with the Sabers and led the team in preseason scoring, but that still didn’t earn him a roster spot. He was assigned to Rochester to start the season.
He realized his career was at a crossroads and knew he had to make a change.
“You either figure it out or you never get back to it,” Ward said. “So I sat down with Torts (coach John Tortorella) and said, ‘Obviously they’re not going to use me as a top-six forward, can you teach me how to kill penalties and play defense?’ ”
While learning new roles, he continued to score, leading the Amerks in assists (56) and finishing one point behind Craig Charron for the team lead in points with 94.
He was even more explosive in the postseason, scoring 11 goals, 24 assists and 35 points in 19 games, earning the Jack Butterfield Trophy as MVP of the league’s playoffs.
But he was hardly a one-man show and he quickly rattled off the endless list of contributors to that Cup team, including Brian Holzinger, Barrie Moore, Steve Shields, Scott Metcalfe, Dan Frawley and Scott Nichol.
“The really good teams have a really strong mix of character and skills,” said Ward, partner at Okanagan Hockey Group.
While Ward was laying the foundation for a more complete game that would see him play full-time in the NHL for the next five seasons, Primeau was just beginning his pro career. When his junior season with Oshawa Generals ended, he joined the Amerks for the final eight games of the regular season and then played in 17 of the 19 playoff games (3 goals, 1 assist).
He still remembers the awkwardness of joining the team two months before he turned 20e birthday, knowing that his play meant someone who had been part of the team all season would be out of the lineup.
But he earned his ice time and played a steady shift through to the Calder Cup final. Although late in Game 7 he wondered why he was on the ice.
“I had just turned 20, there was probably a minute and a half left and Torts had sent me there to take a defensive zone faceoff,” Primeau said. “I kept looking at the couch thinking, ‘Are you serious, do you want me to be here?’ ”
Common sense quickly prevailed and Tortorella sent a veteran to win the draw.
Primeau started the 1996-97 season with the Amerks, but earned what became a permanent recall to the NHL midway through the season. He still remembers getting that phone call – it came while the Amerks were playing in the Spengler Cup, an international tournament in Davos, Switzerland.
“It was probably one of the longest recalls ever, getting called up from Switzerland to Buffalo,” he said.
Ward and Primeau signed autographs before and during the Calder Cup match, wearing replicas of their 1995-96 stars and stripes jerseys.
“I think these jerseys,” Primeau said, “are some of the coolest in professional sports.”
It helps that they also bring back memories that will never fade.
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