All the Rage: fashioning a contender

After inaugural flop, Egeland builds winner in Broomfield

By Pat Rooney, Special to the Rocky

Published January 15, 2008 at 12:45 a.m.

Text size

Rage right wing Brent Cullaton joined the team as a player and assistant coach after receiving a call from old friend Egeland.

Photo by Evan Semon / The Rocky

Trevor Weisgerber, center, one of the few holdouts from last season's team, says, "We all go out and play for each other."

Photo by Photos By Evan Semon / The Rocky

Rage coach Tracy Egeland, a former junior-level hockey teammate of Joe Sakic and Mike Modano, says his team's inaugural year was poisoned by selfishness and poor work habits.

More More Sports

More stories »

For those who toil in relative obscurity at the fringes of the professional hockey landscape, enduring long bus rides, cheap hotels and sparsely filled arenas simply is part of the game.

Still, pursuing such a career tests the limits of a man's patience and endurance, no matter how deep his love of the game is.

Less than one year ago, Brent Cullaton was pondering the direction of his commendable minor league career. After spending the 2005-06 season splitting time between San Antonio of the American Hockey League and Laredo (Texas) of the Central Hockey League, Cullaton spent most of the 2006-07 campaign with the Elmira (N.Y.) Jackals, then of the United Hockey League.

For all intents and purposes, playing in the UHL was a letdown for a forward who had produced several 50-point seasons in the AHL and CHL.

Then an old friend named Tracy Egeland placed a call, tossing Cullaton a life preserver. Together, they have made the second season of the Broomfield-based Rocky Mountain Rage a memorable one.

It is fitting the Rage will serve as host of the CHL's All-Star Game on Wednesday night at the Broomfield Event Center because the franchise's remarkably thorough turnaround has been the most stirring story of the league's first half.

"I think it really all started last year, in February," said Egeland, the Rage's coach and director of player personnel who has known Cullaton for years.

"We were out of the playoffs. We were down and out. I know I wanted to get back to not just talent, but character. Brent wanted to come here. After Brent . . . Brent brought Scott Wray. Scott brought Tyler Butler. Scott Reid, our goalie, was a guy I wanted to recruit and get here. Everything kind of lined up the right way. That's why they're all here."

Cullaton signed as a player/assistant coach July 5. After dragging along several of his talented friends, Cullaton now is the top scorer on the top team in the CHL's Northwest Division and he will serve as captain of the Northern Conference squad in the All-Star Game.

False start

The Rage entered the All-Star break with a 24-5-3 record. The team's dominant first-half run already has erased many of the nightmares of the franchise's inaugural campaign.

The Rage completed its first season in Broomfield 17-40-7. Yet it wasn't the terrible record, or the league-low 41 points the Rage accumulated, or even the 2-10 mark the Rage produced against the Colorado Eagles - the wildly successful Loveland-based franchise that immediately became Rocky Mountain's heated rival - that left Egeland searching for answers.

Egeland, a former veteran minor leaguer himself who also played junior-level hockey with future NHL standouts Joe Sakic and Mike Modano, wanted to surround himself with players of a different mind-set. Without naming names, Egeland said last season's squad ultimately was poisoned by selfishness and poor work habits.

Even if the Rage did not improve in the standings this season, Egeland knew his team required an attitude adjustment.

"Chemistry, but not only that, work ethic," Egeland said. "You can go through our whole team and talk about All-Stars and everything else, but most of them, their best attribute is their work ethic. Their skill, talent level, scoring goals, is the second-best thing about them. When you get a group of guys that want to work first, it's amazing what the results are."

One of the first players Egeland targeted was Cullaton. While coaching the CHL's Rio Grande Valley (Texas) Killer Bees, Egeland became familiar with Cullaton, who was the captain of a Laredo Bucks team that reached three consecutive CHL finals, winning two.

Cullaton's father also was the ice manager at Rio Grande Valley and, as Egeland said, "I knew the apple doesn't fall far from the tree."

"I loved to have the opportunity to play in this league again," said Cullaton, who leads the CHL with 44 assists and is fourth with 52 points. "I wanted to play for Tracy. (Forward) Scott Wray and I actually lived together, so we wanted to come here together. We talked all year about it, and we signed at about the same time. I know the character (Egeland) has and what he expects out of his teams, and I wanted to be a part of it.

"It's just about coming in and working hard. We have a good group of guys, from the core out. We have some young guys who want to work hard every day, and that's what it takes to win."

Finishing the job

So far, the Rage's raging start has not exactly resulted in a boom at the Broomfield Event Center box office.

In the Rage's inaugural season, it averaged 4,027 fans in 32 home dates. This season, the Rage has averaged 3,032 fans through 18 games, though that number surely will climb thanks to the team's great start, the spotlight of Wednesday's All-Star Game and the fact four of the team's final 14 home dates will be against the Eagles.

"Here we are, a minor league organization in a major league market. It's tough," said Rick Nichols, the team's executive vice president. "For us to get attention and to capture the fans' fancy, we have to play well and we have to do the right things on and off the ice, on and off the court.

"In Denver, we're held to a higher standard than maybe some other CHL teams in other markets because the standard is set by the Broncos, the Rockies, the Nuggets and the Avalanche. We have to look up to those guys. And so we really do strive in every phase to reach the same levels as they do.

"We're still growing our fan base and we did not have a very successful first year. This year has been a good restart on a lot of different levels.

"We're trying to be more effective in our sales and marketing. We're trying to be more effective in our operations. Obviously, the hockey team has done its part."

All that remains for the Rage is to continue its hot start deep into the season, when the glare of the playoffs will only add to its fledging fan base.

The new-look Rage already has turned the tables on the Eagles, winning three of the teams' first five games. Now the Rage is striving to duplicate the Eagles' postseason success.

"We all go out and play for each other," said forward Trevor Weisgerber, one of the few holdovers from last season. "In years' past, maybe when things aren't going right, some guys go off on their own. This year, we have an older team as well. That helps a lot. The chemistry is huge when you're playing for the guy beside you.

"We'd like to have more fans, but we can't control that. All we can control is what we do on the ice. The guys that are in the All-Star Game, it's great for our team and the organization."

CHL showcase

* What: Central Hockey League All-Star Game.

* When: 7 p.m. Wednesday.

* Where: Broomfield Event Center (5,891 capacity), Broomfield.

* TV/radio: No television; KEPN-AM (1600). Live telecast through the CHL network on CentralHockeyLeague.com or RockyMountainRage.com.

* Local all-stars (all on Northern Conference roster): Rage - F Brent Cullaton (captain), F Scott Wray, D Tyler Butler, G Scott Reid, Tracy Egeland (coach). Eagles - F Greg Pankewicz, D Aaron Schneekloth.

* Tickets: Available through all Ticketmaster outlets. Also by calling 303-439-RAGE (7243) or by visiting RockyMountainRage.com or BroomfieldEventCenter.com.

Local flavor

Right wing Chip Dunleavy is one of the few Rage players who remain from last season's inaugural team. He also is happy to be playing professionally near his home turf.

Dunleavy is a graduate of Columbine High School and played Midget AAA hockey in Arvada and Vail. He played college hockey at Division III Wisconsin-Eau Claire, serving as captain his senior year, and made his professional debut in 2005 with the Victoria (British Columbia) Salmon Kings of the East Coast Hockey League.

Dunleavy produced 12 goals and 12 assists in 41 games with the Rage last season and entered the All-Star break with four goals and 12 assists in 31 games.

He said it

"We all knew that, with Joe (Sakic), from Day 1, it wasn't going to be that he would play in the NHL and would do good, it was how good he was going to be. To me, he's gotten better and is still the same Joe that I can think back to so many years ago. There is a guy right there that I don't think is playing the sport for the money he's making."

Tracy Egeland, Rage coach, who played junior hockey with Avalanche captain Joe Sakic. Egeland also was a junior teammate of Dallas' Mike Modano and was a teammate in the minors of Detroit goalie Dominik Hasek.

Subscribe to the Rocky Mountain News