By Dan Hickling
MinorLeagueNews.com

Binghamton, NY - 03.07.03 -

Dennis Bonvie is what he is, and has never pretended otherwise.

Every once in a while the 10-year veteran of pro hockey wars does creates a little offense.

"Bones can sure dangle," said Bonvie's one-time teammate John Emmons, after Bonvie had set him up for a game winner.

Bonvie himself will admit, "I wish I was a 50 goal scorer, but that's not the case."

Perhaps not, but the number Bonvie was chasing wasn't 50, but 2,901.

Bonvie adds to his record
[Photo Courtesy: Binghamton Senators]

That was the AHL career record for penalty minutes, held by Springfield's
Rob Murray, until Bonvie, who patrols right wing for the Binghamton Senators,
claimed the mark himself.

Needing just two PIMs to nose pass Murray, on Feb. 26, when the Senators
visited the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Bonvie came away with 16 and a
spot in the AHL record books.

"It would have been nice to go in as the all-time leading scorer," said the
native of Antigonish, N.S. "But that wasn't going to happen."

Instead, Bonvie has made a career out of creating room for his teammates.

"I'm a crasher," he says. "I'm a banger."

According to conventional hockey wisdom, Bonvie's pro career wasn't going
to happen. He went undrafted after winding up his junior career in 1993.

He did land a tryout with the old Cape Breton Oilers, and battled his way into a full time job.

Ever since then he's protected the backsides of more gifted teammates in
such AHL ports of call as Hamilton, Philadelphia, Wilkes-Barre, Providence,
and now, Binghamton.

"He was my roommate the first year we broke into the league," said AHL
veteran Terry Virtue, now of Worcester. "He was a great guy. He just wanted
to play. He's improved immensely since he started. He would go out and fight
anybody."

In 1996-97, after the Oilers moved from Cape Breton to Hamilton, he fought
with practically everybody in the league, as he set the AHL's single season
penalty mark with 522.

He still brawls on occasion. As the years have passed, and fewer
willing challengers take him on, he's done less of that.

"If he didn't do all those things, he probably still wouldn't be in the
league," said Dean Melanson, Bonvie's chum since childhood and current
Binghamton teammate. "He knows what's going to keep him here. There are
some guys out there, whose only role is to go out there and fight. Dennis is
a little different. He does a lot of fighting for us, and he does it well, but he can play hockey, too. He can turn the game around with a big hit."

Providence Bruins heavyweight Brantt Myhres, who broke in with Bonvie as an
Oiler farmhand concurs. "It's even more true now, because he's turned into a
pretty good player, too. He's definitely improved his game over the years."

Through the years, he's improved enough to earn the occasional shot
in the NHL, including this year with Ottawa.

"You've got to give credit to Dennis," said Virtue. "He stuck with it. He
knew wasn't a greatly talented player. But he really worked hard on his game.
He still puts his body on the line for the guys."

Said Bonvie, "I'd still love to get back into Ottawa. But I'm just going to
keep proving I can play and I can work, and do all the good things, then keep
my fingers crossed. That's all I can do. I can't worry about other stuff.
Just play hard, and keep banging, and crashing and scrapping, and doing what
I do."

Bonvie was doing all of those things when his appointment with history
arrived.

At 9:58 of the first period, of what played out as a 6-3 loss by his Senators, Bonvie locked up in a goalmouth struggle with the Pens' Ross Lupaschuk.

Referee Ryan Fraser whistled off both players, Lupaschuk for roughing, and Bonvie for a "mere" unsportsmanlike conduct call.

After all those years of scrapping, something more severe would have
seemed more fitting for such a benchmark.

"It's not the way I really wanted to get it," said Bonvie. "I wasn't really
concentrating on getting it, I was concentrating on trying to win the hockey
game. You look back, and getting a mark like this is a heck of a thing.
I'm really trying to help the hockey club. That's the most important thing."