By KEVIN OKLOBZIJA
Until Friday night, Dixon Ward’s last appearance in Rochester was on June 15, 1996, the day he packed up his hockey-season belongings and headed home for the summer.
Just 24 hours earlier, Ward, his Rochester Americans teammates and a few thousand of their suddenly closest friends celebrated 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 hasn’t been back either, at least not for a celebration with the Amerks. That’s 30 years of no championships, which makes memories of the 1996 championship that much more special.
Ward, the scoring star for that team, and Wayne Primeau, who launched his 13-year pro career that spring in the stars and stripes sweaters, returned to the War Memorial on Friday to help the Amerks celebrate 90s night.
“Driving back into town, the city’s a lot bigger than I remember,” Ward said.
Neither had been in the building since the night of June 13, 1996, when the Amerks outlasted the Portland Pirates 2-1 in a Game 7 for the ages. But three decades later, the on-ice memories are still vivid.
“I loved 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, producing 22 goals and 52 points in 70 games.
But as quickly as he had made an impression on the game’s biggest stage, he faded. He bounced from the Canucks to the Los Angeles Kings to the Toronto Maple Leafs and then to free agency, signing with the Buffalo Sabres organization in the summer of 1995.
He had a terrific training camp with the Sabres, leading the team in preseason scoring, but that still didn’t earn him a roster spot. He was assigned to Rochester to start the season.
Realizing his career was at a crossroads, he knew he had to make a change.
“You either figure it out or you never make it back,” 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 kept on scoring, leading the Amerks in assists (56) and finishing a point behind Craig Charron for the team lead in points with 94.
He was even more explosive in the postseason, piling up 11 goals, 24 assists and 35 points in 19 games to earn the Jack Butterfield Trophy as the league’s playoff MVP.
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 skill,” said Ward, a partner in Okanagan Hockey Group.
While Ward was building the foundation to a more well-rounded game that vaulted him to full-time NHL duty 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 final eight games of the regular season, 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 his 20th birthday, knowing that him playing meant someone who was part of the team all season would be out of the lineup.
But he earned his ice time, and was playing a regular shift right through the Calder Cup finals. Though late in Game 7 he was questioning why he was on the ice.
“I had just turned 20, there was probably a minute and a half left and Torts had me out there to take a defensive-zone faceoff,” Primeau said. “I kept looking at the bench like, ‘Are you serious, you want me out here?’ ”
Sanity quickly prevailed and Tortorella sent a veteran to take the draw.
Primeau started the 1996-97 season with the Amerks but by midseason earned what became a permanent recall to the NHL. He still remembers getting that 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 seen, getting called up from Switzerland to Buffalo,” he said.
Ward and Primeau signed autographs before and during the game with the Calder Cup, wearing replicas of their 1995-96 stars and stripes sweaters.
“I think these jerseys,” Primeau said, “are some of the coolest in pro sports.”
It helps that they also evoke memories that will never fade.
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