Published: June 25, 2009 04:57 pm      

Chiefs' GM enthused about '09-10 schedule

As he prepared for his first season as general manager of the Johnstown Chiefs last summer, Bill Bredin wasn’t exactly thrilled by the ECHL team’s 36 home dates.

Too many home games in November. Too many road games in March and early April. Too many miles during a Southern road swing that stopped in Florida.

This year, Bredin had a much more positive outlook after the ECHL officially released the 72-game schedule on Wednesday.

“Overall our schedule is a lot better than it was a year ago both competitively and from a marketing standpoint,” Bredin said at his Cambria County War Memorial Arena office. “I like the fact that we open with two home games on Saturdays. There is a very even distribution of games this year. Last year we had nine home games in November which caused us to have a long road trip to finish the season. There are a couple great traditional dates in Johnstown that we look forward to making into special events, including Veterans Day, three games around Thanksgiving, the Saturday after Christmas and our traditional New Year’s Eve game.”

The Chiefs open their 22nd ECHL season on Oct. 17 against North Division rival Cincinnati at the War Memorial.

The highlights among 36 home dates include 12 Saturdays, 13 Fridays and three Sundays.

Johnstown will host former division rival Reading on Nov. 11 for the traditional Veterans Day contest. The Royals and Trenton Devils each moved to the Southern Division this season, while Kalamazoo joined the ECHL and will play in the North.

“Trenton and Reading are both in the Southern Division, but we maintain a great number of games against them, which is good,” Bredin said. “We make only one long trip to South Carolina and Charlotte. Having Kalamazoo in our division will add some travel, but we only have one game there (on Feb. 12).”

The Chiefs have three home games during Thanksgiving week, which typically is a big attendance draw (Nov. 25, Nov. 27 and Nov. 28).

Coach Ian Herbers’ team plays host to Trenton on Dec. 26, a Saturday after Christmas, and Elmira on New Year’s Eve.

Kalamazoo will play its first game at the War Memorial on Jan. 6. Toledo rejoins the ECHL after sitting idle two years while a new arena was constructed. The Walleye play at Johnstown for the first time on Dec. 18.

“We were very involved throughout the process,” Bredin said of the schedule. “I think we were able to accomplish a lot of our goals. There are some oddball Saturdays where we don’t play at all (Jan. 23 and March 27). It’s great to finish the season with a home game.”

Johnstown will close the regular season at home against Elmira on April 3 after finishing at Cincinnati this past season and at Dayton the prior year.