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Fitzpatrick's Record Performance Highlights Six Hat Trick Week

Published on November 5, 2007 under ECHL (ECHL) News Release


The record-setting five goals in one period performance by Chanse Fitzpatrick of the Dayton Bombers on Nov. 3 was one of six hat tricks recorded in the ECHL last week, tripling the total for the season to nine.

Utah teammates Micheal Haley and Ryan Kinasewich each scored a hat trick in an 8-5 win at Las Vegas on Nov. 2, making them the first teammates to register a hat trick in the same game since, ironically, Nov. 2, 2002 when Chris Bell and Pete Gardiner of Greensboro each scored three goals in an 8-2 win at Charlotte. It is the fifth career hat trick for Kinasewich, who has scored two hat tricks each of the last two years, and the first for Haley.

Halloween produced a pair of hat tricks as South Carolina rookie Travis Morin scored three goals in a 6-5 loss at Columbia and Ash Goldie scored every goal for Victoria in a 3-2 win against Bakersfield for his second career hat trick. Ash's older brother Wes had a hat trick for Victoria in a 4-3 win against Las Vegas on Oct. 27, making the Goldies the first set of brothers since Rob Valicevic and Chris Valicevic in 1995-96 to record a hat trick in the ECHL in the same season. It was the fifth career ECHL hat trick for Wes Goldie, who has now scored a hat trick in each of the last four seasons that he has played in the ECHL, in 2002-03 and 2003-04 with Pee Dee and 2006-07 and 2007-08 with Victoria.

Marco Rosa of Texas closed out the weekend scoring his first career hat trick in a 4-0 win at Mississippi.

Fitzpatrick, who had not scored in his first three games, scored a power-play goal 52 seconds into the third period to tie the game 1-1, and he gave the Bombers a 2-1 lead with a goal at 2:58. He recorded his hat trick with a power-play goal at 15:03 and then added a third power-play goal at 16:20 and a fourth at 17:34.

Fitzpatrick set the ECHL record for power-play goals in a period while tying the league mark for goals in a period and power-play goals in a game. Lars Pettersen of Augusta scored five goals, including three on the power play, in the third period of a 7-6 loss to Birmingham on Feb. 11, 1999. Pettersen's goals were scored in a 16:04 span at 2:55, 3:44, 10:09, 11:25 and 18:56. Matt Oates of Columbus scored four power-play goals in a game on Mar. 8, 1996 at Erie.

The first hat trick of the season was scored by Brad Ralph of Columbia in a 7-3 loss at South Carolina on Oct. 20. It was the first hat trick in 270 career games in North America for Ralph.

Brett Lutes of Bakersfield scored the second hat trick of the year in a 6-5 win at Phoenix on Oct. 26, his third hat trick in the last two seasons and the fourth of his career.


ECHL Nears 63 Million Regular Season Fans

Celebrating its 20th season in 2007-08, the ECHL has had 62,916,216 fans watch 14,229 regular season games and 3,851,430 fans who have watched 1,016 postseason games for a total of 66,767,646 who have passed through the gates since the league first took the ice in 1988-89 with five teams in four states.

The third-longest tenured professional hockey league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League, the ECHL has grown into a coast-to-coast league that has 25 teams playing in 17 states and British Columbia, welcoming more than four million fans each of the past four seasons and 10 of the last 11 years.

The third week of the season saw Alaska and Reading both play their home openers while Stockton welcomed 17,842 fans for its "Pink in the Rink II" series with Idaho. The Thunder had a capacity crowd of 9,737 on Saturday and raised their average attendance to a league-leading 8,817 per game, up more than 30 percent from a year ago.

Mississippi is averaging 4,295 per game, an increase of 20 percent from 2004-05 which was the last season that the Sea Wolves played before missing two years in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Dayton and Augusta have both raised their average attendance by more than 19 percent to 4,536 per game and 3,161 per game, respectively.

South Carolina's average is up by almost 17 percent to 6,017 per game, including 8,652 for the home opener, while Florida is averaging 7,283 at the 7,080-seat Germain Arena, up 14 percent from a year ago. The Everblades have never averaged less than 6,200 since joining the ECHL in 1998-99 and they led the league in attendance for a record five straight years from 2000-05.

Utah welcomed 9,790 for its "Pink in the Rink" promotion and has raised its average attendance by almost 14 percent while Reading is up more than nine percent to 5,930 including 7,090 for its home opener on Saturday. The 25 home openers in the ECHL drew an average of 5,509 per game and included sellouts in Charlotte, Elmira, Florida and Idaho and crowds of more than 8,600 in South Carolina and Stockton.

There have been seven sellouts this season, including two for the expansion Elmira Jackals, and Gwinnett had 10,332 on Oct. 27, the sixth time in the last three seasons that the Gladiators have had a crowd over 10,000.

Premier 'AA' Hockey League Fast Facts

- Affiliations with 26 of the 30 teams in the National Hockey League, marking the 11th consecutive season that the league has had affiliations with at least 20 teams in the NHL.

- 333 former ECHL players have played in NHL.

- There were 69 former ECHL players on NHL opening-day rosters and there have been 188 former ECHL players who have played their first game in the NHL in the past six seasons.

- Twenty-six former ECHL players made their NHL debut in 2006-07, including two who played in both the ECHL and the NHL as goaltender Yutaka Fukufuji played for Reading and Los Angeles while defenseman Bryan Young skated for Stockton and Edmonton. Dave McKee played for Augusta and dressed for five games as the backup goaltender for Stanley Cup champion Anaheim.

- Four former ECHL players have made their NHL debut this season: former Johnstown Chiefs and Fresno Falcons goaltender Dmitri Patzold (San Jose on Oct. 7), former San Diego goaltender Tyler Weiman (Colorado on Oct. 4), former Charlotte right wing Craig Weller (Phoenix on Oct. 4) and former Phoenix RoadRunners center Daniel Winnik (Phoenix Coyotes on Oct. 4).

- Record 51 former ECHL players played their first NHL game in 2005-06.

- ECHL has been represented on last seven Stanley Cup champions.

- 14 Former ECHL coaches on NHL staffs.

- ECHL has been represented on last 18 Calder Cup champions.

- ECHL has affiliations with 26 of the 29 teams in the American Hockey League and for the past 18 years there has been an ECHL player on the Calder Cup Champion.

- The Stockton Thunder and the City of Stockton will host the Chase Chevrolet ECHL All-Star Game presented by Jackson Rancheria and Bud Light at Stockton Arena on Jan. 23, 2008 and the Chase Chevrolet ECHL Skills Competition presented by Jackson Rancheria and Bud Light on Jan. 22, 2008.

- In the last five seasons the ECHL has had more call-ups to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined with over 2,000 call-ups involving more than 1,000 players since 2002-03.
ECHL and its member teams contributed nearly $3 million for charity and relief funds in 2006-07.

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

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ECHL Stories from November 5, 2007


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