17,826 Pack Ford Center

A Central Hockey League record crowd was packed into Oklahoma City’s Ford Center Saturday night as 17,826 witnessed Amarillo’s 4-3 overtime win over Oklahoma City in the Blazers regular season home finale. The huge crowd was also the largest gathering this season for all of North American minor professional hockey. The previous high was 16,607 set by the Chicago Wolves of the American Hockey League on February 25. The previous high water mark in the CHL was Oklahoma City’s 16,929, set on February 7, 2004 against the Tulsa Oilers .

Helping draw the CHL record crowd were numerous Blazers team awards presentations prior to the game, and a “PowerBall Powerplay” promotion with Oklahoma Lottery that saw Clint Akerman of Tecumseh take home $10,000.00. Akerman was one of 10,000 fans 18 or older who received a free Powerball ticket from the Blazers, and one of 248 lucky fans who had the Powerball number of 32 on their ticket and qualified to win the cash through a random drawing.

Despite being outnumbered also 1,000 to 1, the Gorillas had more important things on their minds, such as two points in their quest to earn one of two remaining Southern Conference playoff berths. Despite a hat-trick from Blazers forward Michel Beausoleil, the Gorillas prevailed 4-3 in overtime on Dan Donnette’s second goal of the game to win their fifth straight. Their winning run has Amarillo in position to qualify for the post-season with a single point tomorrow afternoon on home ice against visiting Lubbock, guaranteeing a first round meeting with Odessa.

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