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| defunct ice hockey teams | |
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The Brownstown Bombers were a member of the Continental Elite Hockey league from 2001-2004. The Bombers played out of the Ice Box Sports Center in Brownstown, Mich. and were owned by Johno Norian. During the 2001-02 season, the team was known as the Downriver Lumberjacks. Tom Boileau served as the head coach from 2002-2004. His son, Jason Clements-Boileau served as top assistant. In 2002-03, his other assistants were Gerry McGlynn and Mike Henderson. In 2003-04, McGlynn and Henderson were not retained and Bob Hassan was brought on as an assistant. The Bombers made the CEHL playoffs in the 2001-02 season, but were eliminated by eventual champion Toledo. That would be the only time the Bombers made the postseason as the team finished fifth in 2003 and sixth in 2004. In the 2003-2004 season, the team did boast the league's leading scorer, Dave Stewart, who posted 50 goals with 52 assists. He joined the Bombers in November from the Metro Fighting Moose and quickly made his way to the top line with Lukas Vepy and Frank Furdero, who was later replaced by Chris Marasco after Furdero hit the CEHL age limit of 22 on Feb. 1, 2004. One of the Bombers most memorable moments in the 2003-04 season was being the first team to beat the Metro Fighting Moose at home, overcoming the Moose in a shootout in early January. From late in the 2002-03 season forward, the Bombers were considered to be "one of the most visible teams in junior hockey" by many due to an active website and the promotion of the team by teams' Director of Media Relations Matt Bishop. Despite being a high school student, Bishop traveled to the team to most away games and made sure the team had an active presence on the internet. Bishop served as the team's public address announcer from March 2003 through December 2003. Bishop went on to become a sports reporter for The State News, Michigan State University's student newspaper. The Bombers games were also regularly shown on Comcast Cable in the downriver area during the 2003-04 season. Former CEHL media relations director Larry Nader and Bombers hockey operations director Mark McKenzie served as the announce team for the first half of the season before Matt Bishop and Kurt Luckow took over for the second half. Although the Bombers did not have much success on the ice, the track record of the team in terms of promoting players to higher levels was outstanding. Both defenseman Adam Drescher and goaltender Kevin Bonikowski moved on to play for Wayne State University while forward Steve Filak went on to play in two games for the Toledo Storm of the ECHL. Many other players went on to play for various minor-pro and Division III college teams. |
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