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Attendance Continues To Rise As Matchups Heat Up

January 29, 2007 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


A rematch of last season's South Division Finals between Gwinnett and Florida drew more than 14,000 in Estero, including a sellout crowd of 7,463 on Jan. 27, while Las Vegas drew almost 18,000 for three games highlighted by a season-high 7,562 on Jan. 27.


It was the second sellout of the year for Florida and the 14th sellout of the season for the ECHL as the league surpassed the two million mark for the 14th straight season, averaging almost 4,600 for the weekend to raise average attendance for the second week in a row to 4,061 per game.


Alaska, Columbia and Johnstown each have their second-largest crowd of the year and Dayton and Reading both had their third largest on Jan. 27 while Trenton had its second-largest crowd of the year on Jan. 26 and its third-largest crowd on Jan. 28.


Stockton leads the league with 6,861 per game which is up 7.55 percent from a year ago when the Thunder led the league in their first season. Florida is second at 6,060 per game and Bakersfield is third at 5,795 per game, up 3.31 percent from last season as the Condors look to raise their average for the fourth year in a row since joining the ECHL as an expansion team in 2003-04.


Utah has seen the largest increase in average attendance with 15.33 percent to 4,540 while Dayton has seen the second-largest increase from last season with 13.78 percent to 4,007 per game. The average attendance in Texas is up 7.86 percent from 2004-05, the last season that the Wildcatters played.


Toledo has raised its average attendance by 6.63 percent to 4,252 per game and Gwinnett has increased its average by 2.57 percent from last season to 5,524 per game. Alaska's average is up almost two percent to 4,981 and Fresno has raised its average by one percent to 4,511.


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.



Lynx's Lang Entends Point Streak To 15 Games, One Shy Of ECHL Season-High


Ryan Lang of Augusta had two points (1g-1a) on Jan. 28 to extend his scoring streak to 15 games, tying Brad Schell of Gwinnett for the second-longest point streak in the ECHL this season.


The longest scoring streak in the league this year is 16 games by Kevin Baker of Texas, who had 28 points (16g-12a) from Oct. 20-Nov. 28.


Lang has 26 points (6g-20a) during his scoring streak which began on Dec. 22. He is tied for third in the league with 36 assists and tied for fourth with 55 points (19g-36a) in 40 games.


Schell had 32 points (8g-24a) during his streak from Nov. 25-Dec. 30, including an 11-game assist streak (20a) from Dec. 3-30 which is the longest assist streak in the league this season. Since having his point and assist streaks end on Jan. 4 at Augusta, Schell has an assist and a point in all 10 games he has played (5g-18a) giving him a point in 25 of his last 26 games (13g-42a) and an assist in 21 of his last 22 games.


Schell leads the league with 64 assists and is on pace to break the ECHL record of 93 assists set by Dan Gauthier of Knoxville in 1990-91. He is also the league leader with 83 points and can become the first ECHL player to reach 100 points since Buddy Smith of Arkansas had 104 points and a league-leading 74 assists in 2002-03.


The assist and scoring leader each of the last two seasons has 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.



Two Points Separates Five Teams In North


Posting back-to-back road wins at Dayton and Reading, Toledo extended its winning streak to a season-high five games to improve to 21-17-1 and move into a tie for fourth place in the North Division with Reading (19-20-5) with 43 points.


The Storm and Royals are two points behind Trenton (20-14-5) and Cincinnati (21-16-3), who are tied for first with 45 points, and one point behind Dayton (20-12-4). Toledo hosts Trenton on Wednesday before heading west for games at Las Vegas on Friday, Saturday and Feb. 6 and at Bakersfield on Feb. 7.


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 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 South Division.


Toledo has two shutouts and has outscored its opponents 10-3 in the last three games and has three shutouts and has outscored its opponents 19-6 during the five-game winning streak. Signed after Mike Brodeur was reassigned to Norfolk of the American Hockey League, rookie Ervins Mustukovs is 2-0-0 with a shutout and goals-against average of 1.50 in two starts for the Storm. Mustokovs made 41 saves to record his first professional shutout on Jan. 26 at Dayton and had 35 saves in a 5-3 win at Reading on Jan. 27. Brodeur was 3-0-0 with two shutouts and goals-against average of 1.00 in his last three starts before being called up.


Chris Blight (4g-4a) and Evan McGrath (3g-4a) lead the Toledo offense the last five games. Blight is third on the team with 11 goals and fourth with 24 points in 38 games while McGrath, who is assigned to Toledo by the Detroit Red Wings, has an assist (4a) and a point (3g-4a) in each of the four games that he has played for the Storm.



Gwinnett, Texas Tied For Lead In South Division


The race in the South Division remains tight with seven points separating leaders Gwinnett (25-13-4) and Texas (24-12-6) with 54 points and sixth-place Charlotte (22-15-3) with 47 points. Florida (25-13-1) is third with 51 points while South Carolina (23-16-3) and Augusta (24-18-1) are tied for fourth with 49 points.


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.


Gwinnett, which is 8-2-0 in its last 10 games, will host Alaska in a rematch of the Kelly Cup Finals on Tuesday and Saturday and South Carolina on Friday while Texas hosts Long Beach on Thursday, Friday and Saturday. South Carolina, which is 7-2-1 in the last 10 games, plays at Gwinnett on Friday and at Columbia on Saturday while Florida travels to Pensacola on Tuesday, Augusta on Thursday and Saturday and Charlotte on Friday. Charlotte, which is 5-1-2 in its last eight games, plays at Columbia on Tuesday and at Pensacola on Saturday while hosting Florida on Friday.


Gwinnett leads the league with 4.21 goals-per game, 82 power-play goals and a power-play percentage of 26.5. 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 140 power-play goals which would easily break the record of 115 power-play goals by Nashville in 1995-96.


Brad Schell of Gwinnett leads the league with 64 assists and 83 points while teammate Scott Mifsud is second with 47 assists and 61 points. Gwinnett's Jon Awe, who signed with Chicago of the American Hockey League on Jan. 23, leads ECHL defensemen with 43 points and 20 goals, becoming only the fourth defenseman since 2000-01 to reach 20 goals. Awe leads the ECHL with 17 power-play goals which breaks the league record for power-play goals by a defenseman held by Joe Cook, who scored 16 power-play goals in 1993-94, and four-time ECHL Defenseman of the Year and seven-time All-Star Chris Valicevic, who had 16 power-play goals in 1995-96. Colton Fretter of the Gladiators leads ECHL rookies with 27 goals and 51 points which rank third and sixth overall.



Bakersfield Takes Lead In Pacific Division


Registering a point in six of its last seven games (4-1-2) and going 8-2-2 in the last 12 games, Bakersfield is 24-12-5 and in first place in the Pacific Division with 53 points, one point ahead of Las Vegas at 21-8-10 and three points in front of Fresno at 23-14-4.


The Condors, who are second in the league in scoring with 4.00 goals-per game, host Las Vegas on Wednesday before traveling on Friday to Stockton, which is 19-11-8 and in fourth place with 46 points. Las Vegas hosts Fresno on Tuesday and plays at Bakersfield on Wednesday before hosting Toledo on Friday and Saturday.


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, 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.


In the six games he has played since joining Bakersfield on Jan. 10, Alex Kim has 11 points (6g-5a) with four two-point games and a three-point game while scoring a goal and a point in five games.


Brett Lutes and Kevin St. Jacques lead the Condors in January with 11 assists and 17 points while Sean Venedam has 10 assists and 15 points. Lutes, who has six two-point games in January, leads the team with 21 goals and nine power-play goals and is tied for second with 45 points and tied for third with 24 assists in 38 games. St. Jacques, who had back-to-back five-point games on Jan. 6 (2g-3a) and on Jan. 10 (1g-4a), leads the team with 32 assists and 47 points in 34 games. Venedam is second on the team with 27 assists and tied for second with 18 goals and 45 points in 40 games.



Aces Looking To Repeat As Brabham Cup Champions


Sweeping its three-game series with Stockton to improve to 9-1-0 in the last 10 games, defending Kelly Cup champion Alaska is 28-11-2 and leads the ECHL with 58 points. The Aces are 17-3-2 in their last 22 games and 22-5-2 since beginning the season 6-6-0.


If Alaska remains in first place they would become the first team in ECHL history to repeat as the Brabham Cup champion. Alaska was 53-12-7 in 2005-06 and had the second-highest point total in history with 113 points while tying the record for second-most wins. Alaska became only the second team in history to win both the regular season point championship and the postseason championship, joining the South Carolina Stingrays who captured the Brabham Cup and the Kelly Cup in 1997. The Aces became the first team to win the postseason by defeating three teams that had 100 points in the regular season and their 113 points is the highest point total to win the postseason championship.


The Aces travel to Georgia this week where they will face Gwinnett in a rematch of the Kelly Cup Finals on Tuesday and Saturday and Augusta on Friday.


Alaska has the top six plus-minus performers in the league with Matt Shasby at +29, Vladimir Novak at +24, rookie Julian Talbot at +21, Kimbi Daniels at +18 and Florian Iberer and Patrick Wellar at +17.


Daniels leads the Aces and is tied for third in the league with 36 assists while his team-high 47 points tie him for ninth. Alaska's leading goal scorer is Olivier Filion, who is tied for fifth in the ECHL with 11 power-play goals and tied for 11th with 20 goals in 41 games.


In January, Derek Gustafson is 8-0-0 with a shutout, goals-against average of 1.48 and a save percentage of .944 while Chris Beckford-Tseu, who was reassigned to Alaska by the St. Louis Blues, is 1-0-0 with goals-against average of 1.00 and a save percentage of .944. Gustafson has won nine consecutive starts and since Dec. 8 is 13-1-1 with three shutouts, goals-against average of 1.72 and a save percentage of .937.


Overall, Gustafson is 15-7-1 with three shutouts, goals-against average of 2.45 and a save percentage of .914 while Beckford-Tseu is 6-0-0 with two shutouts, goals-against average of 0.82 and a save percentage of .966 and Isaac Reichmuth is 7-4-1 with goals-against average of 2.75 and a save percentage of .900.

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