Highlights from the 2000 WCHL Campaign

Ray Z. Perea
 
The West Coast Hockey League celebrated a successful 2000-01 season.  It was a strong campaign. There was something for every hockey fan, broken records, player call-ups, a first-class All-Star Game, the acquisition of the Long Beach Ice Dogs, and the first Game 7 in the Taylor Cup Championship Finals.
 
The Long Beach Ice Dogs slid over from the International Hockey League (IHL) to become a member in the West Coast Hockey League.  Long Beach quickly became a contender in the Southern Division, developing several rivalries with nearby California teams.
 
The WCHL version of the Ice Dogs was just as, if not more, entertaining than the IHL product.  The Ice Dogs had three players promoted to the All-Star team, one player named first team All-WCHL, and two All-WCHL Rookies.
 
Long Beach finished the regular season just one point behind the second place Fresno Falcons in the Southern Division, and made it to the division finals in the playoffs before being eliminated by eventual Taylor Cup Champion San Diego Gulls.
 
With the addition of Long Beach, the WCHL saw a new league-record 1,450,617 total fans through turnstiles at its nine arenas in 2000-01. Events such as the 2001 WCHL/CHL All-Star Game in San Diego drew more than 8,500 fans for the January 24 matchup between the WCHL and CHL All-Stars.
 
WCHL fans showed up in record numbers for the 2001 Taylor Cup Championship Playoffs. The average attendance for last season’s playoffs was 4,333. That’s 19 percent higher than the previous year’s playoff average.
 
The puck was dropped for the first time in a game seven of a championship series in the West Coast Hockey League last year.  In that game, more than 9,100 fans at the San Diego Sports Arena witnessed the Founders Cup champion San Diego Gulls win the Taylor Cup Trophy for the fourth time in six years. The Gulls defeated the Idaho Steelheads 4-1.
 
In addition to the first seven-game series in Taylor Cup Championship history.  The  2000-01 marked the debut for the new Taylor Cup Trophy. The Gulls were familiar with the feeling of hoisting the previous Taylor Cup Trophy, but the 2001 Championship Gulls became the first team to hoist the WCHL’s new three-tiered trophy (see yearbook cover).
 
The finals also showcased the top two goaltenders in the WCHL, one of which was called up to the National Hockey League (NHL).
 
Idaho Steelheads goaltender Chad Alban was called up to the Dallas Stars as a back-up goaltender for a game against the New York Islanders on Friday, March 23.
 
Alban wore a Stars sweater, but Marty Turco made the 22 saves to put the Islanders away 2-1. Although Alban deaden’t get between the pipes, he became the first WCHL player to be called up to the highest level of hockey in the same season he was playing in the WCHL.
 
Including Alban’s NHL call-up, 15 different players were called up from the WCHL to play in the IHL and the American Hockey League (AHL) on 23 separate occasions. Some of those players were promoted several times to the same team, while others were loaned to a variety of teams over the season.
 
The highlights of last years incredible season was only a prelude of the 2002 Taylor Cup Championships.