Hartford, CT … Whalers Sports and Entertainment announced today that Bill Bennett, Jeff Brubaker, Norm Barnes and Garry Swain will join the group of featured players for the Hartford Whalers legends vs. Boston Bruins legends game February 19, 2011 at Rentschler Field in East Hartford.
The legends game comprises part of the “Harvest-Properties.com Whale Bowl,” the featured event of the two-week outdoor Whalers Hockey Fest spectacular at Rentschler Field that will include numerous collegiate, high school, prep school and youth hockey games. The legends game will face off at 4:00 PM on February 19 and will be followed by the outdoor AHL game between the Connecticut Whale and the Providence Bruins at 7:00 PM.
Bennett, a left wing from Warwick, Rhode Island, skated for both the Boston Bruins and the Hartford Whalers during his two NHL seasons. His best season came while playing for the Whalers in 1979-80, when he skated in 24 games, scoring three goals and adding three assists for six points while accruing 63 penalty minutes.
Overall, Bennett played in 31 career NHL contests, finishing with four goals and seven assists for eleven points and 65 penalty minutes. Bennett also totaled 184 games in the American Hockey League, playing with the Rochester Americans, Springfield Indians and Hershey Bears.
Brubaker, a winger and a native of Hagerstown, Maryland, skated in parts of three seasons with both the New England Whalers of the World Hockey Association and the Hartford Whalers. Brubaker has 12 WHA games to his credit with New England, and took part in 46 NHL contests with the Whalers during the inaugural 1979-80 and 1980-81 seasons, totaling five goals and four assists for nine points, along with 95 penalty minutes. Brubaker was originally a sixth-round draft pick of the Boston Bruins.
Brubaker played in 178 total NHL games with the Whalers, Montreal, Calgary Flames, Toronto Maple Leafs, Edmonton Oilers, New York Rangers and Detroit Red Wings, amassing 16 goals and nine assists for 25 points and 512 penalty minutes. He also has 12 seasons of coaching experience, from 1989-90 to 2004-05, and has been behind the bench in the ECHL, IHL and SPHL. Brubaker led the ECHL’s Greensboro Monarchs to the championship in his first season as a head coach in 1989-90.
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Barnes, a defenseman hailing from Toronto, Ontario, played 74 games for the Hartford Whalers from 1980-1982, totaling two goals and 14 assists for 16 points and 101 penalty minutes. Barnes played three seasons of collegiate hockey at Michigan State University before being selected as the Philadelphia Flyers’ eighth-round pick in the 1973 NHL draft.
Barnes played 156 games with the Flyers and Whalers over five NHL seasons, scoring six goals and adding 38 assists for 44 career points and 178 penalty minutes. He won back-to-back Calder Cups with the Maine Mariners of the American Hockey League in 1977-78 and 1978-79, and was a member of the 1979-80 Flyer team that went to the Stanley Cup Finals, losing to the New York Islanders in six games. Barnes also played in the 1980 NHL All-Star Game.
Swain, a centerman from Welland, Ontario, played three seasons with the New England Whalers of the WHA from 1974-1977. Swain played 171 WHA games with the Whalers, scoring 22 goals and 33 assists for 55 points. He has the distinction of having scored the overtime game-winning goal in the first game ever played at the Hartford Civic Center, a 4-3 Whaler victory over the San Diego Mariners January 11, 1975.
Drafted fourth overall by the Pittsburgh Penguins in the 1968 NHL draft, Swain played nine NHL games for the Penguins, all in 1968-69, scoring once and adding one assist. He also saw pro time in the Central Hockey League, International Hockey League and Southern Hockey League, and played 177 career games in the AHL with the Baltimore Clippers and Rhode Island Reds. Swain currently works with the Whale in corporate development.
Tickets for the February 19 Harvest-Properties.com Whale Bowl, which include admission to both the AHL game and the legends game, are on sale now at Ticketmaster.com, as well as at the Bushnell box office from Monday through Friday, 12 noon-5:00 PM. Ticket prices range from $20 to $85 and can also be purchased by calling the Connecticut Whale at 860-728-3366. Tickets purchased online can be printed immediately (via Ticketmaster).
