Sports stats



Falcons Overcome Four-goal Deficit

January 8, 2003 - ECHL (ECHL)
Fresno Falcons News Release


ANCHORAGE – Trailing 5-1 with seven minutes remaining in the second period and then later 6-5 in the game's final minute, the Fresno Falcons came from behind twice in the third period on Tuesday to defeat the Anchorage Aces, 7-6 in a shootout, at Sullivan Arena in front of a crowd of 1,901.

For the second straight game Fresno found themselves down 2-0 before the game was five minutes old after Dean Larson and B.J. Young both scored for the Aces. Falcons captain Jason Weaver cut the lead in half at 11:30 of the first but Anchorage's Don Martin responded at 15:50 with his fourth goal in as many games against Fresno to give the Aces a 3-1 lead after one.

Anchorage extended its lead just 33 seconds into the second period off a re-direct from Yvan Corbin with a man draped all over his back. The Aces would take their biggest lead of the night 13:04 into the middle frame when Wes Dorey scored a power play goal to apparently bury the Falcons, 5-1.

Fresno began to chip away at the deficit by converting two straight power play chances. Cory Murphy beat Anchorage goaltender Ryan Person at 14:26 of the second and then fed Weaver for his second goal of the evening 17 seconds into the third to cut the Aces' lead to 5-3. Kris Porter scored his team-leading 15th goal at 7:21 before Scott Borders capped off the come-back at 10:55 with his sixth of the season.

Riding high with momentum and on their seventh power play of the game, Fresno looked to take their first lead of the game only to give-up a short-handed goal to Corbin at 14:37. Forced to come-from-behind a second time, defenseman Kevin Haupt ripped a slapshot by Person for the equalizer with just 42.8 seconds to play as the Falcons skated on another power play with the goaltender pulled. Tied at six into the shootout, Mark Gowan, who had replaced starter Terry Friesen in goal for Fresno after the second period, stopped all four Aces shooters and Murphy and Colin Embley each scored to deliver the 7-6 shootout win.

The two points lift Fresno back above .500 to 13-12-4 and 30 points. They now own a four-point advantage over the Long Beach Ice Dogs in fourth place in the standings, seven points behind the third-place Bakersfield Condors.

The Falcons and Aces square off again tomorrow night in Anchorage. All of the play-by-play action can be heard on 103.1 FM, The Mountain Cat, beginning at 7:50 p.m. PST with the Mail Boxes, Etc. Pre-game Show. Fresno' s longest road trip to date then continues on Friday at Bakersfield and Saturday at Long Beach before the club returns home to face Anchorage again on Sunday, Jan. 12, at 5 p.m. at Selland Arena.

• Discuss this story on the ECHL message board...

ECHL Stories from January 8, 2003


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Fresno Falcons Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central