Defending The Castle

Manon Rheaume's impact on hockey certainly will never be forgotten thanks to her appearance in the Tampa Bay crease in September 1992. She broke the NHL's gender barrier with her preseason debut, but we're still waiting for a team to give a woman a shot in a regular season game three decades later. That's not to say that what Rheaume did wasn't important because it certainly opened the door for other women to dream big and pursue those dreams. What shouldn't be lost here is that Rheaume did play meaningful minutes in another league that year as she broke barriers in the IHL with the Atlanta Knights! Today's article focuses on one game on December 3, 1992, though, as the Atlanta Knights played host to the Salt Lake City Golden Eagles as Rheaume smashes another glass ceiling that day!

We'll start back on November 4, 1992, though, when the Atlanta Knights, short on goaltending help, turned to Manon Rheaume for help. The Knights offered Rheaume a three-year deal on that Wednesday, and she agreed to the terms as she became the first woman signed to an IHL team in league history. We're not here to celebrate that achievement, though, as there will be others.

As Brian Landman of the Tampa Bay Times explained, "When Lightning goaltender Wendell Young dislocated his right shoulder Sunday, the team called up David Littman from Atlanta, leaving the IHL club with just goaltender J.C. Bergeron", prompting Atlanta general manager Richard Adler to reach out to Rheaume for immediate help. With Rheaume agreeing to the deal, Atlanta's goaltending situation was shored up nicely.

Rheaume had been working with the Knights following her NHL preseason debut in a strength and conditioning program as the Lightning were committed to seeing Rheaume succeed. With her signing in November, the realization of being a professional hockey player was no longer just a dream, and there was a chance that Rheaume would be in a Knights uniform sooner rather than later. From her own comments, it seems that this was contract was just a matter of time.

"It's a good chance for me," Rheaume told Cammy Clark of The Washington Post in September 1992. "I don't have to worry about going to school or working to pay for my hockey. My job now is hockey."

Atlanta hockey fans may have been anxious to see Rheuame in action, but it would be one month from her signing that we'd actually see her make a little history in becoming the first woman to play hockey in the IHL. Fans who packed the Omni Arena on December 3, 1992 would finally get that chance as David Littman, who stopped three shots in the first period against Salt Lake City, was pulled to start the second period as Manon Rheaume took her spot in the Atlanta crease!
In watching that clip, it should be noted that Rheaume wore #1 in her debut, but she would finish the season wearing #33. I'm not sure how the IHL allowed this mid-season number change, but Mike Greenlay was wearing #1 when the season ended while Rheaume was relegated to the third-string role. For some reason, though, Knights head coach Gene Ubriaco pulled Rheaume in this game after she gave up a goal despite her only playing 5:49 and stopping three of four shots. Why? According to Ubriaco, it was planned this way.

"This was different than the other game," Rheaume told reporters after the game. "The other game was an exhibition. It's not the same. Gene told me before the game that I would play five minutes at the start of the second period."

The Associated Press asked Ubriaco about Rheaume's short stint in the net, and he confirmed Rheaume's comment by saying that "he told her and starting goalie David Littman of the plan before the game, but didn’t tell the rest of the team until after the scoreless first period."

In one of the cooler things I've seen anywhere, the video of the full game below shows Rheaume making notes after she's pulled by Ubriaco. I don't know what she was writing, but I've never seen a goalie making notes like that on the bench during a game. That's a new one for me, but maybe it was Rick Lanz, #6 sitting beside her, who wanted her autograph? Or course, I'm kidding about that, but I'd love to see the notes that Rheaume took on the bench in her career. They'd be fascinating, I imagine!

Before we get too carried away with "Manon mania", she made some other historic steps in the game besides getting a quick taste of action. Salt Lake City's Shawn Heaphy, the player who recorded the first professional regular-season shot against Rheaume, was a solid goal scorer for Salt Lake City in 1992-93 as he found the back of the net 29 times to finish second in goal-scoring for the Golden Eagles.

Kevin Wortman, the player whose goal was disallowed, led the Golden Knights in scoring by a defenceman in '92-93 with 63 points, 13 of which were goals. It should be noted that he was an eighth-round pick of the Flames at 168th-overall in 1989 when NHL Entry Drafts were twelve rounds deep! You normally don't find solid scoring defenders at that position in the draft, but there were two notable defenders that were selected below Wortman who had significant NHL careers: Vladimir Malakhov by the New York Islanders at 191st-overall in the tenth round, and Vladimir Konstantinov by the Detroit Red Wings at 221st-overall in the eleventh round!

Todd Gillingham, the player whistled for the phantom goaltender interference, finished the season with 267 PIMs, two of which were earned in that sequence shown above. It should be noted that Gillingham also scored one of his 12 goals that season after leaving the box in this game - Rheaume's only goal-against in her 5:49 of ice-time - as Todd Gillingham is the trivia answer to the player who scored the first professional regular-season goal against Manon Rheaume.

How did Rheaume assess her first professional regular-season game?

"I was a little bit nervous," Rheaume told reporters. "You learn by your mistakes. I'll learn what to do."

Good players never stop looking for ways to get better, and Rheaume's answer shows she wasn't just content in being "the first". She wanted to continue to build on her successes experienced to that moment, and we'd see her do a number of other historic things in the years to come including her first professional win and more. For those wondering, she was not the goalie of record in this game as the Knights fell 4-1 to the Golden Eagles as Andrei Trefilov was the winner for the Golden Eagles in this game.

Wanna watch the full game? I went digging into YouTube and found the full three-hour presentation of this game between the Salt Lake City Golden Eagles and the Atlanta Knights. If you just want to watch Rheaume's portion of the broadcast, Prime Network runs a feature on Manon from 52:34 to 56:20 during the first intermission, and her game action runs from 1:01:51 until 1:11:50. Enjoy this historic moment as we look back 30 years on Rheaume's regular season debut!

Until next time, keep your sticks on the ice!