Falcons Battle Back to Earn a Point

January 19, 2003 - ECHL (ECHL)
Fresno Falcons News Release


FRESNO, Calif. – Kris Porter tied the game at three with less than a minute to play on Saturday night to bring the Fresno Falcons all the way back from a late second period deficit of 3-0 before the Idaho Steelheads prevailed in a shootout, 4-3, in front of a crowd of 7,019 at Selland Arena.

Idaho's Dan Shermerhorn, Dampy Brar and Marty Flichel all scored, the last coming at 16:23 of the second period, to give the Steelheads a 3-0 lead one night after shutting out the Falcons, 5-0. But rookie Scott Borders jump-started Fresno by scoring his 11th of the season with 1:05 left in the frame to cut the Idaho lead to 3-1.

Borders opened the third by closing the gap even further by batting a rebound by Idaho goaltender Jason Cugnet for his second of the night, and just 1:36 into the final period Fresno was within one, 3-2. The Steelheads defense tightened and kept the Falcons off the board for nearly another 18 minutes. With under a minute to go and goaltender Terry Friesen skating off in favor of an extra attacker, Jason Weaver re-centered a rebound after a shot by Jason McBain, which found Porter for the game-tying goal with just 39.6 seconds to play.

The Steelheads' Dan Shermerhorn was the first shooter and scored the only goal in the shootout as he helped Idaho escape with the two points and the 4-3 shootout victory.

Fresno does earn a shootout point and ups their fourth-place record to 18-13-5 and 41 points. The come-from-behind effort does not help them keep pace with the San Diego Gulls and Bakersfield Condors, who each won earlier in the evening, and drops the Falcons to eight points out of second behind the Gulls and four points behind the third-place Condors.

Fresno concludes a five-game home stand tomorrow with a 5 p.m. start against the Long Beach Ice Dogs. The first 1,000 fans at Selland Arena will receive a free Falcons "Department of Defense" poster courtesy of Jostens. Tickets are still available for the game at the Selland box office, all Ticketmaster locations and online at www.ticketmaster.com.



ECHL Stories from January 19, 2003


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