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ECHL This Week

Published on February 22, 2010 under ECHL (ECHL) News Release


Make Goals, Not War

When it comes to making a statement on the ice, the Victoria Salmon Kings prefer to do it by accumulating points instead of penalty minutes.

Victoria is the least penalized team in the ECHL with only 707 penalty minutes while also being tied for fourth in the league with 188 goals. South Carolina is the second least penalized team with 819 penalty minutes, more than 100 minutes more than the Salmon Kings.

Alaska, the league's most penalized team, has 1,253 penalty minutes, nearly twice as many as Victoria.

Matt Siddall's 119 penalty minutes makes him the only player on the Salmon Kings' roster with over 100 penalty minutes. He has registered 29 penalty minutes since being reassigned to Victoria on Feb. 2; 90 of those penalty minutes came when he was playing for Gwinnett.

Despite their low number of penalties, Victoria has the 16th ranked penalty kill in the ECHL at 79.9 percent going 187-for-234. Staying out of the box has become the team's best strategy for overcoming their poor penalty kill and has helped them to a 30-19-6 record and second place in the National Conference.

Wes Goldie became the Salmon Kings' career leader in regular-season games played on Feb. 11 when he took the ice for the 266th time in a Victoria jersey. He has 602 career regular-season points (377g-225a) scoring his 600th point on Feb. 14 with the game-winning goal in a 5-1 win against Alaska. Goldie leads the league with 35 goals, is second on the Salmon Kings with 48 points and has scored 11 points (7g-4a) in his last nine games.

David Shantz was called up to Abbotsford of the American Hockey League on Jan. 28, but registered an 18-5-4 record with two shutouts, a goals-against average of 2.88 and a save percentage of.910 and was voted the starting goaltender for the National Conference in the 2010 ECHL All-Star game before heading to Abbotsford.

Since Shantz was promoted to the AHL, Leland Irving has handled most of the workload in net for the Salmon Kings and has posted a record of 2-3-2 with a 2.92 goals-against average and a.915 save percentage in seven appearances.

Chad Painchaud currently leads the team in scoring with 55 points (23g-32a) in 49 games. He has points (5g-4a) in six of his last nine games and had a 14-game point streak in which he scored 22 points (8g-14a) that lasted from Dec. 19 - Jan. 16.

Victoria will try to keep their trend of staying out of the box this weekend with two games at Bakersfield on Friday and Saturday.

All-Star Classic Headed To Bakersfield For 2011

When the ECHL heads to Bakersfield, Calif. for the 19th Annual All-Star Classic next year, the players and coaches will only be 121 miles north of the 2010 All-Star game site, which was played in Ontario, Calif.

On Feb. 18, the ECHL announced that the Bakersfield Condors were selected to host the 2011 ECHL All-Star Classic which is scheduled to take place on January 26, 2011.

This season, the Condors rank in the top 20% of minor league hockey attendance nation-wide, sitting fourth in the ECHL at 5,339 per game and out-drawing 63 of the 77 minor league hockey teams between the AHL, ECHL, CHL, IHL and SPHL.

Bakersfield currently sits atop the Pacific Division of the National Conference with a 28-18-5 record and 61 points. They were represented by five individuals at the 2010 All-Star Game in Ontario, California: G Timo Pielmeier, D Sasha Pokulok, D Eric Regan and LW Shawn Weller, as well as Head Coach Marty Raymond. RW Dan Sexton and C MacGregor Sharp were also selected to the National Conference roster but were unable to attend as they were with the Anaheim Ducks of the National Hockey League and San Antonio of the American Hockey League, respectively.

The Condors are led by Pielmeier, a rookie who leads the league with 20 wins, four shootout wins and ranks second with 2,411 minutes played.

Leading the way offensively is right wing Stephane Goulet who has 47 points (18g-29a) in 48 games for the Condors. Goulet has had points (2g-9a) in four of his last seven games including six points (2g-4a) on Feb. 14 against Ontario.

Regan is tied for second among defensemen in the ECHL with 13 goals and has registered six points (3g-3a) in four of his last six games.

Pokulok has been a solid contributor to the Condors' defense corps all season posting 28 points (11g-17a) and a plus-minus rating of +9 in 39 games. Since returning to the Bakersfield lineup on Feb. 19 after a month-long stint with Springfield of the AHL, Pokulok has three points (1g-2a) in three games.

Weller registered solid marks (18g-28a) for the Condors in 42 games before being recalled to Abbotsford of the AHL.

Bakersfield will try to keep their foothold on the Pacific Division this week when they host Victoria for back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday and travel to Ontario on Sunday.

Florida Welcomes First Sellout Crowd Of The Season

The Florida Everblades welcomed their largest crowd of the season when 7,270 fans showed up on Feb. 20 to watch Florida take a 4-3 shootout victory over Kalamazoo at Germain Arena.

The Everblades are averaging just over 5,200 fans per game with nine more home games left in the regular season. They also saw the third highest number of fans at the rink this past week as 18,040 total fans were in attendance for Florida's three home games last week. Ontario topped the league with 18,823 fans in three games.

South Carolina had 18,240 fans show up for their three home games, including 6,802 supporters who watched the Stingrays shutout Toledo 6-0 on Feb. 20 and earned South Carolina their third sellout of the season.

Elmira collected their 11th sellout of the season on Feb. 20 in only 25 home games and 11 still left on the schedule. They are well on their way to breaking their 2007-08 league-leading 14 sellouts after picking up two sellouts in less than a week and three since Jan. 30.

Elmira has raised its average 12.2 percent to 3,737 per game which is 98.8 percent of capacity at First Arena. The Jackals have had 30 sellouts since joining the ECHL five a year ago which tied for the league lead.

To purchase tickets for any ECHL game go to ECHL.com/tickets.shtml. 


Cincinnati passed the 100,000 fan mark on Feb. 20 when they welcomed 7,175 fans to watch their 2-1 shootout loss to Wheeling at U.S. Bank Arena.

Ontario's average attendance jumped to 6,107 fans per game, which kept them first in the league just ahead of Toledo's 6,013 average attendance. The attendance at Citizens Business Bank Arena is up more than four percent from their inaugural season in 2008-09 when they ranked second with 5,856 per game and had three sellouts and a team-high attendance of 9,659 on March 7, 2009.

The third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League, the ECHL is the only minor professional hockey league to increase average attendance each of the last two seasons. The Premier 'AA' Hockey League has averaged more than 4,000 fans each of the last five seasons and 17 times in the last 19 years while drawing more than 3 million fans for 16 straight seasons. 


Six returning teams are ahead of their average attendance from 2008-09 led by Cincinnati with 16.2 percent. The Cyclones led minor professional hockey with a 36 percent increase in 2007-08 and ranked second a year ago with a 23 percent increase.

Following Elmira is Utah, which has raised its average attendance by 12.1 percent to 4,099 per game; Kalamazoo raised their average attendance to 3,355 and is up 5.2 percent. Alaska broke into the sixth spot last weekend when they welcomed nearly 15,000 fans to their three-game series against Las Vegas and raised their average to 4,686 fans which is just over last year's average attendance of 4,682.

Stockton is third in the league with 5,934 per game while Bakersfield is fourth with 5,339 and Gwinnett rounds out the top five with 5,329 per game. The Thunder have led the league in attendance each of their first four seasons and are trying to tie the league record of five seasons set by Florida from 2000-05.

American Conference - East Division

Elmira Jackals * Elmira leads the ECHL with 4.11 goals per game.

* Brennan Turner leads the league in plus-minus with +38.

* Jackals host Trenton on Saturday and Wheeling on Sunday.

Johnstown Chiefs * Johnstown had a season-high 21 shots in the second period against Trenton on Feb. 20.

* Jim McKenzie can tie the Chiefs' longest goal-scoring streak of the season (3 games) and set a new career high with a goal against Toledo on Friday.

* Chiefs host Toledo on Friday and Cincinnati on Saturday before visiting Reading on Sunday.

Reading Royals

* Reading is 13-1-2 when leading after one period.

* Ryan Cruthers extended a four-game multi-point streak with a goal and an assist at Elmira on Feb 19.

* Royals host Wheeling on Friday, visit Trenton on Saturday and host Johnstown on Sunday.

Trenton Devils * Trenton scored seven goals in a game for the third time this season on Feb. 21.

* Chris Poli had six points (4g-2a) in three games last week, including a hat trick on Feb. 20.

* Devils visit Elmira on Friday and host Reading on Saturday.

American Conference - North Division

Cincinnati Cyclones * Cincinnati is tied for the American Conference lead with 19 home wins and 16 road wins.

* Jeremy Smith leads the ECHL in February with a goals-against average of 1.55 and has a 4-0-1 record this month.

* Cyclones host Wheeling on Wednesday and Charlotte on Friday before playing at Johnstown on Saturday.

Kalamazoo Wings * Kalamazoo's last three road victories have all been won on the final shot of the game.

* Rookie Dean Strong has at least one point (3g-5a) in all six home games since joining the team on Jan. 22.

* K-Wings host Gwinnett on Wednesday and Friday before hosting Charlotte on Saturday and Sunday.

Toledo Walleye * Toledo is first in the league with 174,390 fans in 29 games at Lucas County Arena.

* Evan Rankin scored an ECHL season-high five goals at Charlotte on Feb. 18.

* Walleye play at Johnstown on Friday and Gwinnett on Saturday.

Wheeling Nailers * Wheeling is 84 percent (16-for-19) on the penalty kill in the last four games.

* Thomas Beauregard leads the American Conference with 33 goals.

* Nailers play at Cincinnati on Wednesday, Reading on Friday and Elmira on Saturday.

American Conference - South Division

Charlotte Checkers * Charlotte leads the league with 35.5 shots per game and ranks second with 3.62 goals per game.

* Andrew Carroll is third among rookies with 23 goals.

* Checkers play at Cincinnati on Friday and Kalamazoo on Sunday.

Florida Everblades * Florida had its first sell out of the season with a standing-room only crowd of 7,270 on Feb. 20.

* Colin Nicholson is second in the ECHL with five shootout goals after scoring in a 4-3 shootout win on Feb. 20.

* Everblades host South Carolina on Saturday and Sunday.

Gwinnett Gladiators * Gwinnett is first in the American Conference on the power play with 22.1 percent (58-for-263).

* Drew Paris leads rookie defensemen with 33 points (10g-23a).

* Gladiators play at Kalamazoo on Wednesday and Friday before playing at Toledo on Saturday.

South Carolina Stingrays * South Carolina leads the league with 86 third-period goals.

* Shane Connelly became the fourth ECHL goaltender to record three straight shutouts with a 4-0 win on Feb. 21.

* Stingrays play at Florida on Saturday and Sunday.

National Conference - West Division

Alaska Aces * Alaska has scored at least one power-play goal in eight of their last nine games for 33.3 percent (14-for-42).

* All-Star Judd Blackwater had five points (3g-2a) in three games last week.

* Aces play at Idaho on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Idaho Steelheads * Idaho leads the National Conference with 73 points.

* All-Star Evan Barlow has an eight-game point streak (11g-10a) that began on Jan. 9.

* Steelheads host Alaska on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday.

Utah Grizzlies * Utah earned its fourth victory when trailing after two periods with three third-period goals to beat Victoria 3-1 on Feb. 20.

* James Sixsmith is on a five-game point streak (4g-4a) that started on Feb. 12.

* Grizzlies host Stockton on Tuesday and Wednesday and play at Ontario Friday and Saturday.

Victoria Salmon Kings * Victoria is the least penalized team in the ECHL with 707 penalty minutes.

* Matt Siddall has scored nine points (3g-6a) in his first eight games with the Salmon Kings.

* Salmon Kings play at Bakersfield Friday and Saturday.

National Conference - Pacific Division

Bakersfield Condors * Bakersfield is second in the ECHL with 11 shorthanded goals.

* All-Star Timo Pielmeier is 4-1 in shootouts (17-for-19).

* Condors host Victoria on Friday and Saturday and play at Ontario Sunday.

Las Vegas Wranglers * Las Vegas is 9-0-1 at home when leading after two periods.

* All-Star Adam Miller is on a five-game home point streak (1g-6a) since Jan. 9.

* Wranglers host Stockton on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Ontario Reign * Ontario is on a three-game win streak that began on Feb. 19.

* Curtis Darling leads the ECHL with 1,255 saves.

* Reign host Utah on Friday and Saturday and Bakersfield on Sunday.

Stockton Thunder * Stockton leads the ECHL on the power play with 22.4 percent (53-for-237).

* All-Star Chris D'Alvise is on a seven-game point streak (6g-4a) that started on Jan. 31.

* Stockton plays at Utah on Tuesday and Wednesday and at Las Vegas on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

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