Frank Banham
Two days later rookie Matt Cullen opened the scoring of the Mighty Ducks game against the Edmonton Oilers at 17:29 of the first period. Czech rookie Josef Marha scored his eight goal of the season at 11:11 of the second period to extend the Mighty Ducks lead to 2-0 before the Oilers would respond with four straight goals prior to rookie Banham pulling the Mighty Ducks within one at 8:36 of the third period when he scored his eighth goal of the season. The Oilers would seal the game with an empty net goal to win 5-3.
Matt Cullen
On April 18th, the Mighty Ducks traveled to Los Angeles to face the Kings. Another Czech, rookie Pavel Trnka netted his third goal of the season on the power play at 17:28 of the first period. 83 seconds later rookie Mike Crowley scored his first NHL goal at 18:51 to widen the margin to two goals. A little over halfway through the second period Banham scored a goal in his third consecutive game to give the Mighty Ducks a 3-0 lead. The Kings scored on the power play in the third before rookie Marha's ninth goal of the season accounted for the final 4-1 score.
The final game of the regular season came on this date in 1998 with St. Louis visiting The Pond. Rookie Crowley, from the University of Minnesota, got the Mighty Ducks on the board with his second goal of the year with 2:40 remaining in the first period. It was the ninth consecutive goal scored by Mighty Ducks rookies over a span of four games!
Mike Crowley
After a St. Louis goal in the second period, Travis Green finally got the Mighty Ducks veterans on the board to end the rookie scoring streak at 9:27 of the second period. Rookie Jeff Nielsen, also from Minnesota, scored the final Anaheim goal of the regular season with his fourth with 2:50 left in the game to make the score 4-3 for St. Louis.
Cullen has now played 15 NHL seasons and is currently with the Minnesota Wild, his sixth NHL club.
While Banham played in only 32 NHL games, 27 with Anaheim and five with the Phoenix Coyotes, scoring nine goals and 11 points, he has now played the vast majority of his career in Europe, spending time in Finland, Russia, Switzerland and primarily the Austrian league where he continues to play today in his 18th season as a professional with over 350 goals to his credit.
Frank Baham with EC Red Bull Salzburg
during the long European portion of his career
Marha originally played for the Colorado Avalanche, the Mighty Ducks and Chicago Blackhawks over six seasons, totaling 159 games and 53 points prior to finding a home with Davos in Switzerland, where he just completed his 12th consecutive season.
Nielsen played two full seasons with Anaheim followed by 59 games with the Minnesota Wild to finish his career with 252 games played.
Trnka played six seasons with the Mighty Ducks before a trade to the Florida Panthers. He returned to his native Czech Republic in 2004-05 and played an additional eight seasons before retiring at the end of the 2011-12 season.
Pavel Trnka
Crowley made it into 67 games with Anaheim over three seasons before his playing days concluded in the 2001-02 season with the Houston Aeros of the AHL.
Today's featured jersey is a 1996-97 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Frank Banham jersey. The Mighty Ducks came onto the scene in 1993-94 with their cartoonish logo, absurd team name taken from a Disney movie and "only in California" color scheme of eggplant and jade.
In addition to the name and colors, the Mighty Ducks also broke the mold of NHL jerseys of the day by introducing a diagonal stripe across the body of the jersey, something not seen in the NHL since the Pittsburgh Pirates of 1929-30. It would not take nearly as long for the next team to follow suit, when the St. Louis Blues and Calgary Flames would tilt their striping diagonally two seasons later in 1994-95 before all hell broke loose in 1995-96 with the zig-zag waist striping of the Colorado Avalanche, the watery wave striping of the New York Islanders Fishsticks jerseys and the new checkmark look of the Washington Capitals screaming eagle design, not to mention the debut of a series of third jerseys with color gradients, sawtooth striping, asymmetrical designs, a curved sash and the Mighty Ducks own "Wild Wing" abomination of sublimation, which featured a cartoon superhero duck bursting through the ice, a jersey so reprehensible it was only worn six times and the players requested not to be pictured wearing in the following seasons's media guide!
In addition to the name and colors, the Mighty Ducks also broke the mold of NHL jerseys of the day by introducing a diagonal stripe across the body of the jersey, something not seen in the NHL since the Pittsburgh Pirates of 1929-30. It would not take nearly as long for the next team to follow suit, when the St. Louis Blues and Calgary Flames would tilt their striping diagonally two seasons later in 1994-95 before all hell broke loose in 1995-96 with the zig-zag waist striping of the Colorado Avalanche, the watery wave striping of the New York Islanders Fishsticks jerseys and the new checkmark look of the Washington Capitals screaming eagle design, not to mention the debut of a series of third jerseys with color gradients, sawtooth striping, asymmetrical designs, a curved sash and the Mighty Ducks own "Wild Wing" abomination of sublimation, which featured a cartoon superhero duck bursting through the ice, a jersey so reprehensible it was only worn six times and the players requested not to be pictured wearing in the following seasons's media guide!
Bonus jersey: Today's bonus jersey is a 1996-97 Mighty Ducks of Anaheim Joseph Marha jersey. The Mighty Ducks wore CCM jerseys for their first three seasons before changing to Nike jerseys for 1996-97. The following season they would introduce not one, but two alternate jerseys, one in white and the other jade, which would be used for two seasons until the jade one was dropped from the lineup when the Mighty Ducks changed to ProPlayer brand jerseys for 1999-00.
As has happened before, today's video section illustrates how a player who fails to crack an NHL lineup, or is a journeyman at best, can move to Europe and have a long, successful career has a professional hockey player.
Case in point, Frank Banham, whose 32 games make him all but forgotten in NHL terms. Banham, with a total of nine NHL goals and 11 points, is considered to be "a sniper" while with with the Espoo Blues in Finland, where he scored 24 goals in 56 games in 2000-01.
Now playing with the Slovenian club Ljubljana Olimpija HK, which competes in the Austrian Erste Bank Hockey League, he electrifies the crowd with this game winning, spin-o-rama, backhanded goal, captured clearly on the replay.
2004-05 saw Banham play for SaiPa Lapeenranta in Finland, scoring 24 goals and 49 points in 56 games, captured here is this highlight reel.
While with Red Bull Salzberg he was a part of back to back Austrian championships in 2007 and 2008 and inspired a devoted following, as evidenced by this tribute video.
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