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Fans Choose Rankin As 2007 Rbk Hockey All-Star Idol

January 23, 2007 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


PRINCETON, N.J. - The ECHL in association with Rbk Hockey announced that American Conference rookie forward Rob Rankin of the Pensacola Ice Pilots is the winner of the 2007 Rbk Hockey All-Star Idol contest following an online vote of ECHL fans.

National Conference forward Derek Nesbitt of the Idaho Steelheads finished second followed by American Conference defenseman Mike Jarmuth of the Columbia Inferno and American Conference forward Ryan Lang of the Augusta Lynx.

Sean Collins of the Wheeling Nailers was voted as the winner in 2006 and Jean Desrochers of the Johnstown Chiefs was selected as the inaugural winner in 2005.

Sponsored by Rbk Hockey and hosted by the Idaho Steelheads and the City of Boise, the ECHL All-Star Game saw the American Conference beat the National Conference 6-3 in front of a crowd of 4,371 at Qwest Arena on Wednesday.

Adam Berkhoel of Dayton was named the Most Valuable Player after stopping 10 of 11 shots in the first period for the American Conference. The American Conference also won the Skills Competition on Tuesday, marking the 10th time in 10 years that the winner of the Skills Competition has gone on to win the game. The highlight of the Skills Competition came in the hardest shot competition where Gwinnett's Jon Awe hit 102.2 mph on the radar gun, breaking the ECHL record of 99.3 mph by Jaroslav Obsut in 1999.

Showcasing some of the top prospects in the Premier 'AA' Hockey League, the game had 24 rookies and 38 players played in their first ECHL All-Star Game. Attended by representatives from both the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League, the All-Star Game has produced 38 players who have gone on to play in the NHL including 21 since 2002 when the format was changed to feature younger players.

The game was televised to more than 31 million homes including being shown live for the sixth year in a row and available on The NHL Network, NHL Center Ice and America One as well as being shown in Cincinnati, Dayton and Tampa. It was rebroadcast by Altitude Sports & Entertainment, the official television network of the Colorado Avalanche, Comcast Sports Southeast, Comcast SportsNet West, Cox Sports Television in Connecticut and Rhode Island and Metro Sports in Kansas City. The television play-by-play was done by Joe O'Donnell of the Idaho Steelheads while Neil Smith provided color commentary for the sixth straight game and Mike Kelly of the South Carolina Stingrays handled ice-level interviews.

Thousands were able to watch the game broadcast and the skills competition online courtesy of B2 Networks, the "Official Broadband Broadcast Provider of the ECHL" which also made the audio broadcast available online.

The audio broadcast was produced by NHL Radio and was available in the United States on XM Satellite Radio, the nation's leading satellite radio service, and in Canada through XM partner Canadian Satellite Radio; as well as in Boise, Idaho on 1350 KTIK - The Ticket; in Fresno, Calif. on 1550 Sporting News Radio KXEX-AM; in North Charleston, S.C. on ESPN 910 The Team; in Stockton, Calif. on AM 970 ESPN Radio; and in Salt Lake City, Utah on KKAT AM 860. The radio broadcast team was Mike Benton of Stockton, Kevin Reiter of Florida and Mike O'Brien of Trenton.


ECHL

The league officially changed its name to ECHL on May 19, 2003.

The Premier 'AA' Hockey League, the ECHL has affiliations with 25 of the 30 teams in the National Hockey League in 2006-07. There have been 314 former ECHL players who have gone on to play in the NHL after playing in the ECHL, including a record 47 in 2005-06. There have been 169 players who have played in the NHL after the ECHL in the past five seasons.

The ECHL was represented for the sixth consecutive year on the National Hockey League championship team, including Carolina Hurricanes head coach Peter Laviolette, who is the first ECHL coach to win the Stanley Cup.

The ECHL has affiliations with 24 of the 27 teams in the American Hockey League in 2006-07 and for the past 17 years there has been an ECHL player on the Calder Cup champion. The ECHL has had more players called up to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined each of the past four seasons with 1,646 call ups involving almost 1,000 players.

In 2005-06 the ECHL and its member teams contributed more than $2.3 million for charity and relief funds, including those benefiting victims of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, while also making thousands of appearances by players, coaches, team personnel and mascots at schools, hospitals, libraries and charity functions.

Further information on the ECHL is available from its website at ECHL.com.

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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.


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