TimesLeader.com

Penguins alumni game

Ex-WBS players savor homecoming

By Tom Venesky tvenesky@timesleader.com
Sports Reporter

WILKES-BARRE TWP. – While he stood in the tunnel waiting to be the first player announced for the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins alumni team on Saturday afternoon, Jean Paul Tessier had a case of the jitters.

No, Tessier wasn’t nervous about playing the Hershey Bears alumni team, which won the game 6-4.

In fact, Tessier really wasn’t nervous at all.

The jitters stemmed from Tessier’s excitement to skate in front of the Wilkes-Barre fans for the first time in 10 years.

It was a feeling shared by all the members of the Penguins alumni team.

“When they said my name and I heard the crowd go, it was like I never left,” Tessier said. “I most definitely feel 10 years older, but when I got out there on the ice with the guys it felt like I was back here playing again.”

The team consisted of players from the first Penguins team in 1999-2000 – such as Tessier, Casey Harris, John Slaney, Greg Crozier, Dennis Bonvie and Chris Kelleher.

The game even featured the return of the team’s first head coach – Glenn Patrick.

“It’s gone by too quick,” Slaney said in the locker room after the game. “This reminded me of the first game here the way the fans stand up and cheer every time they get a chance. It’s nice to see that again and remember the good times you had here.”

For Harris, that meant hearing the cheers again and signing autographs in the tunnel.

“It felt like it was yesterday,” he said. “When I saw these guys and the fans again, a lot of memories came back.”

Eric Meloche was thankful to hear the fans cheer for him again. He played for Wilkes-Barre/Scranton from 2000 to 2004, but in his last appearance at the arena Meloche wore the jersey of the rival Philadelphia Phantoms.

“It was brutal playing here when I was a Phantom,” he said. “But it’s good to be on the cheering side again. It’s pretty special when you come to a town where you haven’t played for five or six years and they still know who you are.”

For Crozier, not only was it good to play in Wilkes-Barre again but it was also nice to simply find a team that would allow him to skate. After Crozier stopped playing in 2004, he dominated in a Boston recreational league for a brief stint.

“It’s an elite league in Boston. I had taken four years off and I thought I would slow down and not be as good anymore, but I came back and I really didn’t miss a step,” Crozier said. “They let me play for two games and then said I couldn’t play anymore.”

The alumni team even included an alumni broadcaster – Tom Grace, who conducted on-ice interviews during the game.

Grace said it was an honor to come back to Wilkes-Barre and be included in the event.

And just like the players, Grace witnessed the same aura that reminded everyone they were back in Wilkes-Barre again.

“I was the last guy out of the tunnel (for pregame introductions) and just to hear that crowd when Dennis (Bonvie) was announced, and the roar when they announced John Slaney’s name… that told me I was back in Wilkes-Barre,” he said.