ECHL ECHL

Bakersfield, Trenton Still Perfect 5-0-0

November 8, 2004 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


Following the third week of play in the ECHL, Bakersfield and Trenton are both 5-0-0 while Johnstown and Toledo have not had regulation loss. The league record for consecutive wins to begin the season is eight games, set October 19-November 4, 1994 by Dayton and tied October 12-26, 2001 by Trenton.

Bakersfield is tied for the West Division lead with defending Kelly Cup Champion Idaho (5-2-0) at 10 points. The Condors, who were 14-17-5 at home in 2003-04, improved to 4-0-0 at home, beating Alaska 5-2 on Tuesday and defending Brabham Cup Champion San Diego 4-1 on Saturday. Bakersfield will host Toledo on Thursday and Friday and San Diego on Saturday.

Trenton is in first place in the North Division with 10 points, one point ahead of Toledo (3-0-3) and two points ahead of Johnstown (2-0-4) which is tied for third place with Dayton (4-3-0) and Wheeling (4-4-0). Trenton improved to 3-0-0 on the road, winning 4-1 at Charlotte on Friday and returned home on Saturday to post a 3-2 shootout win against Johnstown. The Titans host Johnstown on Wednesday and Dayton on Friday before traveling to Atlantic City on Saturday.

Bakersfield leads the league in scoring with 4.60 goals per game and ranks fourth in fewest goals allowed with 2.00 per game. Trenton leads the league in fewest goals allowed with 1.40 per game and is tied for 10th in scoring with 3.00 goals per game.

Every game involving Johnstown has been a one-goal game and only two games have been decided in regulation. The Chiefs are 0-3 in shootouts and 0-1 in overtime games. Five of Toledo's six games have been one-goal games and the last four games have all gone past regulation, including three consecutive shootouts. The Storm is 1-0 in overtime and 0-3 in shootouts.

The ECHL record for consecutive shootouts is nine by Huntington from January 31-February 20, 1998. The second longest streak for consecutive shootouts is six by Richmond from November 24-December 9, 1995 while the third longest is five by Atlantic City from January 28-February 4, 2004.

Idaho Hosts Florida In Kelly Cup Finals Rematch

It will be a rematch of the 2004 Kelly Cup Finals when Florida travels to Idaho to meet the defending Kelly Cup Champions for three games on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Led by Most Valuable Player Dan Ellis, the Steelheads beat the Everblades in five games to capture the championship in their first ECHL season. Ellis, who led the postseason with 13 wins and three shutouts, was 4-1 with a shutout, a goals against average of 1.95 and a save percentage of .933 in the Finals.

Idaho is 5-2-0 and tied for first place with Bakersfield in the West Division while Florida is 4-4-0 and tied for third place with Mississippi in the South Division, three points behind leader Gwinnett. The Steelheads are 3-1-0 at home while Florida is 1-3-0 on the road.

Playing the first-ever coast-to-coast "AA" championship in May, for the first time in the 16-year history of the ECHL every game in the Finals was a sellout, drawing 31,224 fans for five games, an average of 6,245, which is the highest per-game average since 1999. The five sellouts surpassed the record of four sellouts set in the Finals in 1998. Idaho averaged 5,474 fans per game for its three Finals games, which is 109.4 percent of the capacity of the 5,006-seat Bank of America Centre. Florida averaged 7,401 for its two Finals games, which is 104.5 percent of the capacity of the 7,080-seat Germain Arena.

Gladiators Have Record Sellout Crowd Of 11,355

The ECHL had two more sellouts over the weekend as the Gwinnett Gladiators had 11,355 on Friday and the Louisiana IceGators had 4,481 for their home opener on Saturday, and Mississippi enjoyed its largest crowd of the season with 6,074 on Saturday. The Gladiators crowd surpassed the team attendance high of 8,586 for the home opener on October 29. Nine teams have had sellouts for their home openers, surpassing the eight home opener sellouts last season, and there have been 11 sellouts in the first three weeks of the season. In its first three weeks, the ECHL is averaging 4,421 per game, an increase of 15 percent from the first three weeks of 2003-04.

Gulls' Clark Scores In Seven Straight Games

After being held scoreless in the season opener on October 22, San Diego's Darren Clark has scored in every game and has a league-leading seven-game scoring streak (4g-7a). Clark is tied for the league lead with seven assists and is tied for second in the ECHL in scoring with 11 points. He leads the Gulls in scoring and is tied for the team lead in goals.

Ice Pilots' Beechey Has Six-Game Assist Streak

Pensacola's Tyler Beechey has registered an assist in each of the Ice Pilots first six games and has a league-leading six-game assist streak (7a). Beechey is tied for the league lead with seven assists and is second on the Ice Pilots and tied for seventh in the league in scoring with nine points.

Scoreless Streak For Wheeling's Sabourin Reaches 210:02

Coming off the bench to make eight saves in the final 19:38 of a 5-0 loss against Reading on Sunday, Wheeling's Dany Sabourin extended his streak without allowing a goal to 210:02. Wheeling hosts Reading on Thursday before traveling to Reading on Friday and returning home to host Peoria on Sunday.

The ECHL record is 236:03 by Darryl Paquette of Hampton Roads, who did not allow a goal from March 23-April 2, 1997, including a league record three consecutive shutouts March 25-29, 1997. Trenton's Andrew Allen tied the record for consecutive shutouts with three from February 5-14, 2003 and he had a scoreless streak of 199:40 from February 5-15, 2003.

Under contract to Wilkes-Barre/Scranton of the American Hockey League, the 24-year-old Sabourin is 4-1-0 in six games and leads the league in goals-against average (0.91) and shootout wins (2). He is tied for the league lead in wins (4) and shutouts (2) and ranks second in save percentage (.970).

The streak began on October 30 following a goal by Toledo with 26 seconds remaining in regulation. After making two saves in overtime, Sabourin stopped eight of nine shooters in the Nailers' 2-1 shootout win. He made 32 saves in regulation and one save in overtime before stopping all five shooters in the shootout to give Wheeling a 2-1 win over Atlantic City on October 31. The Atlantic City goal was inadvertently scored by the Nailers, who knocked the puck into the empty net vacated by Sabourin on a delayed penalty. Sabourin was named Reebok Hockey ECHL Saver of the Week after going 2-0-0 with a goals-against average of 0.46 and a save percentage of .985.

After making 34 saves in a 2-0 win at Dayton on Friday, Sabourin made 30 saves in a 2-0 win against Reading on Saturday, tying him for the league lead with two shutouts.

Gladiators' Brown Is ECHL Career PIM Leader

Gwinnett's Cam Brown has become the ECHL career penalty minute leader with 2,258 penalty minutes in his 11 seasons in the league, beginning in 1991. Brown broke the record of Brian Goudie, who had 2,253 penalty minutes in 11 ECHL seasons with Hampton Roads, Pee Dee, Richmond and Florida from 1992-2003.

Brown is tied for the league lead with three game-winning goals while ranking fourth in goals with five and tied for 13th in scoring with eight points (5g-3a) in eight games.

Brown tied the record with a four-minute double-minor penalty for high sticking in a 6-1 win against Mississippi on Friday, and he broke the mark on Saturday after receiving a five-minute major for boarding in a 4-1 loss at Mississippi. Brown has played the past two seasons for Gwinnett after previously playing for Baton Rouge, Columbus (Ohio), and Erie.

The 35-year-old Brown has 658 career ECHL regular-season games, 20 shy of the record of 678 games held by Rod Taylor, who played from 1991-2003 with Hampton Roads, Peoria, Richmond, Roanoke, South Carolina and Toledo.

ECHL Feature Games Of The Week
North Division

Dayton at Trenton
Friday at 7:30 p.m. ET

* Division leader Trenton hosts third-place Bombers.
* Trenton was 5-1-1 against Dayton in 2003-04.

East Division

Columbia at Pee Dee
Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET

* Pee Dee lost 3-0 at Columbia on Friday.
* Columbia went 6-2-2 against Pee Dee in 2003-04.

South Division

Gwinnett at Pensacola
Friday at 7:05 p.m. CT

* Gwinnett leads the South Division with 11 points, on point ahead of Pensacola.
* Gladiators are 1-1-0 all time against the Ice Pilots.

West Division

Florida at Idaho
Saturday at 7:05 p.m. MT

* Last of three games between the two clubs meeting for first time since Idaho beat Florida in five games to win the Kelly Cup in 2004.

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