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As North Division Heats Up Cincinnati Stays In Control

February 5, 2007 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


Going 3-0-1 last week and 6-3-1 in its last 10 games, Cincinnati remains in first place in the North Division with 52 points (24-16-4). Trenton is in second place with 49 points (22-16-5) and Toledo, which is 7-1-0 in its last eight games, is in third place with 47 points (23-18-1). Dayton is in fourth place with 46 points (21-14-4) while Reading has the fifth and final playoff berth with 44 points (19-22-6). Johnstown, which posted back-to-back wins against Reading last week, is in sixth place with 40 points (18-20-4) followed by Wheeling with 38 points (18-22-2).

In the North Division, berths in the Kelly Cup Playoffs will be awarded to the first-place team as well as to the next four-best teams, based on regular-season point totals. The fourth seed and the fifth seed will play a best-of-three series in the Division Quarterfinals with the winner advancing to meet the division winner in the Division Semifinals, a best-of-five series that also had the second seed playing the third seed. The winners will advance to the best-of-seven Division Finals with the winner advancing to the American Conference Finals to meet the winner of the South Division.

Trenton, which has won its last two games to improve to 3-2-1 in its last six games, travels south to meet Augusta on Friday and Columbia on Saturday. Toledo will conclude its trip west playing at Las Vegas on Tuesday and at Bakersfield on Wednesday. Dayton visits Wheeling on Tuesday before heading south to play at Columbia on Friday and at South Carolina on Saturday. Johnstown plays at Cincinnati on Wednesday before hosting Wheeling on Saturday and Reading on Sunday.

Dayton, which has already equaled its point total and surpassed its win total from last season, is looking to return to the postseason for the first time since it lost in the Kelly Cup Finals in 2002.



Power Play Important For South Leader Gwinnett

Going 5-1-1 in its last seven games and 10-2-1 in the last 13 games, Gwinnett continues to lead the South Division with 59 points (27-13-5). The Gladiators will host Texas on Friday and Augusta on Sunday while playing at Augusta on Saturday.

Gwinnett leads the league with 4.29 goals-per game, 87 power-play goals and a power-play percentage of 26.0. The Gladiators led the ECHL a year ago with 4.22 goals-per game, 115 power-play goals and a power-play percentage of 24.1 percent which was the highest percentage since 1999-2000 when Greenville had 24.3 percent. Gwinnett is on pace to score 139 power-play goals which would easily break the record of 115 power-play goals by Nashville in 1995-96.

Texas is second with 58 points (25-12-8) which is 13 points more than it had in its last season in 2004-05. The Wildcatters, who have not qualified for the postseason in their first two seasons since relocating to Beaumont in 2003-04, have already eclipsed team records for wins and road wins and need only one home win to tie the 14 home wins from 2003-04.

Florida is in third place with 56 points (27-14-2) while Augusta, which is 9-1-2 in its last 12 games, is fourth with 52 points (25-20-2). Charlotte (24-16-3) and South Carolina (24-17-3) are tied for the South Division's fifth and final berth in the Kelly Cup Playoffs. The Everblades have reached the postseason in all of their first seven seasons while Augusta is looking to make its first back-to-back playoff appearances since 2000 and 2001. Charlotte is looking to reach the playoffs for three consecutive years for the first time since 1996, 1997 and 1998 while South Carolina has not missed the postseason in any of its 13 seasons, holding the ECHL record for most appearances and most consecutive appearances.

In the South Division, berths in the Kelly Cup Playoffs are awarded to the first-place team as well as to the next four-best teams based on regular-season point totals. The fourth seed and the fifth seed will play a best-of-three game series in the Division Quarterfinals with the winner advancing to meet the division leader in the Division Semifinals, a best-of-five series that also had the second seed playing the third seed. The winners will advance to the best-of-seven Division Finals with the winner advancing to the American Conference Finals to meet the winner of the North Division.



Gladiators' Schell On Record Pace For Assists

Tying his career-high with four assists on Feb. 3, Brad Schell of Gwinnett raised his league-leading totals to 69 assists and 88 points in 45 games.

Schell remains on pace to break the ECHL record of 93 assists set by Dan Gauthier of Knoxville in 1990-91 and is trying to become the first player to reach 100 points since 2002-03 when Buddy Smith of Arkansas led the league with 104 points and 74 assists.

Scott Mifsud of Gwinnett is second in the league with 50 assists and 67 points. Colton Fretter of the Gladiators leads ECHL rookies with 29 goals and 58 points while he is third overall in goals and tied for fifth in scoring.

The trio could become the first teammates since 1993-94 to finish ranked in the Top Five in scoring. Greensboro's Phil Berger led the league with 139 points (56g-83a) while teammate's Dan Gravelle (38g-66a) and John Young (35g-69a) tied for third with Richmond's Darren Colbourne (69g-35a).

Schell and Mifsud could become only the second set of teammates in ECHL history to finish first and second in assists, joining Louisiana's Ron Handy and John De Pourcq, who were first and second, respectively, with 67 and 63 assists in 1996-97.

The assist and scoring leader each of the last two years have been from the Alaska Aces. Scott Gomez had 73 assists and 86 points during the NHL lockout in 2004-05 and Alex Leavitt had 65 assists and 91 points a year ago.

Leavitt's teammate Mike Scott was second in the league with 87 points, marking the first time since 1996-97 and only the fourth time in ECHL history that teammates have finished first and second in scoring.

South Carolina's Ed Courtenay (54g-56a) and Mike Ross (50g-60a) tied for the lead with 110 points in 1996-97. Erie's Scott Burfoot led the league with 97 points (29g-68a) and teammate Stephane Charbonneau was second with 91 points (50g-41a) in 1994-95. Stan Drulia of Knoxville led the league with 140 points (63g-77a) and teammate Gauthier was second with 134 points (41g-93a) in 1990-91.



Attendance Climbs For The Third Consecutive Week

A standing-room-only crowd of 14,023 in Fresno combined with almost 11,000 in Gwinnett and the largest crowds of the season in Augusta and Charlotte helped ECHL attendance climb for the third consecutive week to 4,070 per game.

The crowd in Fresno is the largest in team history and the seventh-largest in ECHL history. The Falcons increased their average to 4,944 which is up 9.67 percent from a year ago, the third-highest increase in the league.

Gwinnett had 10,853 for its Kelly Cup Finals rematch with Alaska on Feb. 3, the second-largest crowd of the year behind only a sellout crowd of 11,355 on Nov. 14. The Gladiators are fourth in the league with 5,739 per game which is up 3.75 percent from last season.

Charlotte had 9,570 on Feb. 2 which is the largest crowd of the season as well as the third consecutive sellout and league-leading fifth sellout of the season. The Checkers are fourth in the league with 5,739 per game. The listed capacity for the Bobcats Arena is 6,800, but additional sections can be opened to accommodate larger crowds.

Utah, which had its second-largest crowd of the year on Feb. 3, has seen its average attendance grow by a league-leading 15.79 percent from last season while Dayton is second in attendance growth with 13.88 percent.

Stockton had 8,379 on Feb. 2 to raise its league-leading attendance to 6,933 per game which is up 8.51 percent from a year ago when the Thunder led the league in their first season. Johnstown, which had its second-largest crowd of the year on Feb. 3, and Pensacola, which had its second-largest crowd of the year on Feb. 2, have both raised their average attendance from last season.

Florida, which has never drawn less than 220,000 or averaged less than 6,200 per game while leading the league in attendance in five of its first seven years, is second in the league with 6,060 per game. Bakersfield is sixth with 5,708 per game as the Condors look to raise their average attendance for the fourth season in a row since joining the ECHL as an expansion team in 2003-04.

The league has raised average attendance each of the last three years, including 2005-06 when it had its largest per-game average since 1999-2000 with 4,372 per game as 13 of 22 returning teams raised attendance.



National Race Getting Tight As Utah, Victoria Make Kelly Cup Push

Posting back-to-back wins against Phoenix on Feb. 2 and 3, Utah improved to 17-24-4 with 38 points to move to within one point of Victoria (19-27-1) for the National Conference's final berth in the Kelly Cup Playoffs.

Alaska leads the ECHL with 62 points and a 30-12-2 record while Bakersfield (26-12-5) and Las Vegas (23-9-11) are tied for the Pacific Division lead with 57 points. Fresno is fourth in the conference with 52 points (24-15-4) followed by Idaho with 49 points (23-17-3), Stockton with 48 points (20-13-8) and Phoenix with 47 points (22-19-3).

In the National Conference, playoff berths will be awarded to the first-place team in each division as well as to the next six-best teams, based on regular-season point totals, and all playoff series will be best-of-seven games. In the Conference Quarterfinals, which will be best-of-seven game series, the division winners will be seeded first and second in order of points and the next six-best teams will be seeded third through eighth in order of points. In the Conference Semifinals and the Conference Finals, teams will be re-seeded according to the same criteria as the Conference Quarterfinals with division leaders seeded first and second while the remaining teams will be seeded in order of regular-season points.

Utah has come from behind in six of its last seven wins and is 8-2-1 in its last 11 games with two shootout wins and an overtime win. The Grizzlies, who are 2-0-1 on their current 10-game home stand and 9-6-2 overall at home, will host Long Beach on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. In its first season in 2005-06, Utah lost in the division semifinals to Kelly Cup champion Alaska.

The Salmon Kings, who have won their last four road games, will play at Idaho on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Victoria, which had its team record five-game winning streak end on Feb. 3 against Idaho, has missed the postseason in each of its first two seasons.

Despite missing the first five games of the season, Utah's Ryan Kinasewich is tied for fourth in the ECHL with 27 goals while he is sixth with 11 power-play goals and seventh with 53 points in 40 games. He has a five-game scoring streak (4g-6a) and 19 points (9g-10a) in the last 11 games. Rob McVicar has started the last five games (3-1-1) and he is 7-1-1 with a shutout, two shootout wins and an overtime win in his last nine starts to improve to 15-15-4 overall.

Wes Goldie leads the Victoria offense and he has eight points (5g-3a) in the last six games and is tied for fourth in the ECHL with 27 goals while he is tied for 11th in scoring with 48 points in 47 games. Francois-Pierre (F.P.) Guenette has six points (2g-4a) in the last four games while Marc-Andre Bernier has eight points (5g-3a) in the last five games and 14 points (10g-4a) in the last 11 games.

Bakersfield has won its last two games to improve to 6-1-2 in its last nine games and 10-2-2 in its last 14 games. The Condors will host Toledo on Wednesday and Stockton on Friday. Josh Liebenow has scored the game-winning goal in each of Bakersfield's last two wins and has moved into the ECHL lead with six game-winning goals.

Phoenix has already surpassed its point total and its win total from its expansion season in 2005-06 when the RoadRunners were 20-47-5.

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