HARTFORD, January 14, 2011: Whalers Sports & Entertainment president and COO Howard Baldwin, Jr. announced today that former Hartford Wolf Pack mainstays Todd Hall and Terry Virtue will be making a special appearance at the Connecticut Whale’s home game next Friday, January 21 at the XL Center against the Hamilton Bulldogs.
Fans can meet Hall and Virtue from 6:00-7:00 PM on January 21, when the two ex-Wolf Pack greats will signing autographs in the XL Center atrium. They will also drop a ceremonial first puck before the 7:00 faceoff between the Whale and Bulldogs.
Hall, a forward who was raised in Hamden, CT, was a member of the original Wolf Pack squad in 1997-98 and remained with the team through the 2000-01 season. A third-round draft pick of the Hartford Whalers in 1991, Hall played 299 games with the Wolf Pack, third-most in franchise history, and his 79 Wolf Pack assists are tied for tenth all-time. Hall also scored 37 goals in a Wolf Pack uniform, for a total of 116 points. He was a member of the Wolf Pack’s 2000 Calder Cup-winning team and scored the game-winning goal in the Pack’s cup-clinching, 4-1 win at Rochester in Game Six of the Finals.
Hall retired early in the 2001-02 season and now an assistant hockey coach at Hamden High School, his alma mater.
Virtue, a defenseman who was born in Scarborough, Ontario but raised in Western Canada, also scored one of the most famous playoff goals in Wolf Pack history. It was his overtime strike in Game Seven of the 2000 Conference Finals against Providence that propelled the Wolf Pack past the defending-champion Bruins and into the Finals against Rochester. In addition to that, Virtue played 214 regular-season games for the Pack, scoring 14 goals and adding 66 assists for 80 points, sixth all-time among Wolf Pack defensemen.
Virtue’s 16-year pro career was highlighted by four NHL games with the Boston Bruins in 1998-99 and one with the New York Rangers in 1999-00. He also won a Calder Cup with Providence in 1998-99, before knocking his old team out of the postseason as a member of the Wolf Pack the following spring. Virtue played a total of 888 AHL games in his career, seeing action with the Cape Breton Oilers, Worcester IceCats, Springfield Falcons, Utah Grizzlies, Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins, Grand Rapids Griffins and Binghamton Senators in addition to the Wolf Pack and Bruins. He is currently an assistant coach with the Owen Sound Attack of the Ontario Hockey League.
Tickets for the January 21 Whale/Bulldogs contest at the XL Center, and all 2010-11 Whale home games, are available now at the XL Center box office, through Ticketmaster Charge-by-Phone at 1-800-745-3000 and on-line at www.ctwhale.com. Tickets start at $7 each at the XL Center ticket office on game day.
For information on Whale ticket packages, group sales and VIP packages, call (860) 728-3366.
