Toledo Storm

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Toledo Storm
Founded	1991
Home ice	Toledo Sports Arena
Based in	Toledo, Ohio
Colors	Red, White
Championships	2
Division Titles	6
League	ECHL
Head coach	Nick Vitucci
Team President	Barry Soskin
General manager	Patrick Pylypuik
Owners
NHL Affiliates	Detroit Red Wings / Chicago Blackhawks
AHL Affiliates	Grand Rapids Griffins / Norfolk Admirals

The Toledo Storm is an ECHL ice hockey team located in Toledo, Ohio, USA. The team is in the North Division of the ECHL's American Conference and is affiliated with the Grand Rapids Griffins and Norfolk Admirals of the AHL and the Detroit Red Wings and Chicago Blackhawks of the NHL.

The Storm play in the Toledo Sports Arena and their colors are red and white. Their jerseys are almost identical to those of the Red Wings, their NHL affiliate.

In fact, the Red Wings' octopus tradition has made it on the Storm a few times, with one image of an octopus holding two Riley Cups making the rounds after their consecutive wins. The tradition of the octopus thrown onto the ice is also a large part of a game. in fact, it is rare to see a game where the squid isnt thrown on the ice, at least once.

The Storm have adopted many of their own, origional, traditions. Before every game, during the national anthom, before the last line of the song, the entire arena, it seems, shouts HIT SOMEBODY!!. Another tradition, adopted somewhere around the 2003-2004 season was a chant that the crowd uses when the Storm score. During the song Rock n' Roll part 2 by Gary Glitter, the fans yell 'YOU SUCK!! after the lyric Hey. This is, of course, directed towards the visiting team.

In 2005, the Storm unveiled a commemorative 15th-anniversary logo designed by Thread Information Design, a firm based in Maumee, Ohio. The logo features colors of light blue, dark blue, black and red, with a lightning bolt extending from the "R" in "STORM". The team had originally planned to use this logo from the beginning of the 2005-06 season, however because of ECHL rules regarding advances for logo changes, the new logo was not officially used until 2006, featuring a modified version of the logo with a red "XV" to the right of the lightning bolt.

The previous Storm logo, used from 1991-2005, was often voted as the worst in professional American athletics.After the 2005-2006 season closed, however, the origional logo was comissioned again, putting an end to the rumor that the 15th anniversery logo would be adopted permanently.

[edit] Season-by-season record

Note: GP = Games played, W = Wins, L = Losses, T = Ties, Pts = Points, GF = Goals for, GA = Goals against

[edit] Women's Hockey Firsts

The Toledo Storm once featured a female goaltender, Erin Whitten, who on March 7, 1996 became the first woman ever to appear in a professional hockey game in a position other than goaltender; she played at forward for 18 seconds in a game against the Madison Monsters. She was the first U.S.-born woman to play professional hockey when she appeared for the East Coast Hockey League's Toledo Storm, and on October 30, 1993, became the first woman goaltender to record a professional victory. Erin was a goaltender for the United States National Women's Team for the 1992, 1994, and 1997 World Championships. She was cut from the American national women's hockey team shortly before the 1998 inaugural trip to the Olympics where the US Women's took home the first ever gold medal in women's ice hockey in Olympic history.

[edit] Miscellaneous

1991-2006 Official Logo. A new logo, based on the 15th anniversary logo, will be officially adopted as of the 2006-07 season.

Division Titles: 6 - 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 2003, 2006

Riley Cup Titles: 2 - 1993, 1994

Brabham Cup Titiles: 2 - 1992, 2003

Main Rivals

Cincinnati Cyclones

Dayton Bombers

Wheeling Nailers

[edit] External links

• Toledo Storm official site
• Toledo Storm Hockey Boosters (fan club)
• Erin Whitten Pictures
• Women's Sports Foundation Erin Whitten Page
• Erin Whitten as Assistant Coach at UNH
• Women's Behind the Mask Profile on Erin Whitten
• PBS Story on Women's Olympic Team, Erin Whitten Commentator.
• 1999 Article on Erin Whitten