They came, a franchise-record 16,001 of them; they saw, five goals, a fight and a 3-2 overtime victory over the Hamilton Bulldogs; and they went home happy. At 10 bucks a ticket, why wouldn't they?

The American Hockey League made its much anticipated debut in Edmonton last night and if the early returns are any indication, the Road Runners are going to be a hit.

"The crowd was spectacular,'' said general manager Scott Howson. "And to win in overtime made it that much more special. It was a great night.''

PLAYERS DID THEIR PART

The players did their part, delivering exactly what they'd advertised. Squint your eyes and it could have just as easily been the Edmonton Oilers in their dark blue third jerseys playing the Montreal Canadiens. When the Road Runners were shaking off the early nerves and went 0-for-2 on the powerplay and didn't manage a shot for the first eight minutes, you'd swear you were watching the Oilers.

"I thought we were very uptight in the first period as a team,'' said Howson. "But after that we just got better and better.''

And the crowd was in mid-season form from the start.

"The crowd kept building and building all week,'' said Howson. "First it was, OK, we're going to be over 10,000. Then at mid-week it's OK, we're going to be over 12. Then yesterday, we thought we had a chance to be over 14 and we ended up over 16,000.''

A lot of those seats were filled by families, a demographic that was rendered virtually extinct by NHL prices.

"It's a different crowd, a younger crowd, a lot of kids,'' said Howson. "That's our audience.''

So how come there wasn't a single "Beep Beep'' or cartoon of Wile E. Coyote getting smashed by an Acme truck? Unfortunate for a franchise that's trying to win over young fans to ignore an automatic hook like that.

But that's nit-picking. If there was any real problem last night it was a PA announcer who made it sound like amateur night in Dixie. The secret in hiring a good PA guy is to get someone who has actually seen a hockey game before. PA on this night stood for Pretty Awful. Two minutes for "stick holding?'' At least he didn't announce the Dan Baum-Dan Jancevski fight as "face hitting.''

He was a source of comic relief all night. The first two penalties of the game went unannounced, as did the assists on the Road Runners' historic first goal. The assist on Hamilton's first goal simply was "number 4.''

And when No. 25 for the Road Runners, JJ Hunter, brought the house down with his overtime winner, Pretty Awful announced No. 25 from the Bulldogs instead, but he did credit the assist to Hunter.

Doh!

The guy made you feel like you were watching the Alabama Crawdads or something.

"Opening night jitters, I guess,'' said Howson, rolling his eyes.

PASS THE PEROGY

There were other patently minor-league moments, like a Pass the Perogy game during one stoppage, but opening night was a home run anyway.

They gave away a trip for four to Disneyland. The players skated out of a giant inflatable Road Runner head.

They unveiled their new mascot, a road runner with red and grey dreadlocks who unveiled himself by cracking out of the shell, waving to the crowd and was never seen again - save for a brief cameo appearance midway through the second period and another with 1:16 left in the game. Jimmy Hoffa would have been on camera more.

They introduced the coaches and players, with Kelly Buchberger and Jarret Stoll getting the largest ovations. When that was over, little children watched in horror as the nine arena guys ran onto the ice and squeezed the air from the once-proud Road Runner head and hauled it off the ice in a crumpled heap.

It was a good night.

At times it was as exciting as the Oilers, at times it was as boring as the Oilers. There were a few more mistakes here and there, a few more of the concentration lapses that get you drummed out of the NHL, but from a spectator's standpoint that's not necessarily a bad thing. The NHL, after all, was boring everyone to death with flawless defensive systems anyway, so a few cough-ups and goof- ups, and the resulting offensive chances, were a positive.

And when Hunter won it in overtime and the truck horn blared and the fans raised the roof, it was as loud and genuine as anything you heard when the big team played here.

It wasn't the NHL, but as 16,000 filed out of the building, they didn't seem to care.