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Former Columbia Goaltender Hurme Wins AHL Award

Published on April 7, 2006 under ECHL (ECHL) News Release


SPRINGFIELD, Mass. - The American Hockey League announced Columbia Inferno and current Portland Pirates goaltender Jani Hurme has been named the CCM Vector/AHL Player of the Week.

Hurme becomes the ninth former ECHL player in 2005-06 to win the award joining Keith Aucoin (Florida and Lowell), Mike Ayers (Dayton and Syracuse), Zdenek Blatny (Greenville and Springfield), Brian Finley (Toledo and Milwaukee), Jamie Holden (Fresno and Cleveland), Brent Krahn (Las Vegas and Omaha), Lawrence Nycholat (Jackson and Hershey) and Nathan Robinson (Toledo and Providence).

After registering his first shutout of the season on Mar. 29 when he stopped 28 shots in a 3-0 win at Manchester, Hurme made 31 saves in a 4-1 win at Providence on Friday and he had 39 saves and an assist in an 8-1 win against Albany. He was 3-0-0 with a goals against of 1.00 and a save percentage of .970 for the week, improving to 8-4-0 while lowering his goals against to 2.23 and raising his save percentage to .928 in 12 games with Portland.

Selected in the third round (58th overall) by the Ottawa Senators in the 1997 NHL Entry Draft, Hurme was assigned to Columbia by the Atlanta Thrashers on Jan. 27 and was 6-7-2 with a goals-against average of 3.49 and a save percentage of .903 in 15 games for the Inferno.

Former ECHL players who were nominees for the award are Bates Battaglia (Mississippi and Toronto), Kevin Doell (Gwinnett and Chicago), Ben Guite (Tallahassee and Providence), Jason Jaffray (Roanoke, Wheeling and Manitoba), Adam Munro (Atlantic City, Gwinnett and Norfolk), Nolan Schaefer (Fresno and Cleveland) and Brad Smyth (Birmingham and Hartford).

There are eight head coaches, 12 assistant coaches and countless other personnel on the 27 teams in the AHL, including Mike Haviland, who won the Kelly Cup with Atlantic City in 2002-03 and Trenton in 2004-05 and moved up to the AHL as head coach of Norfolk. Other former ECHL coaches who are now head coaches in the AHL are Claude Noel of Milwaukee, Roy Sommer of Cleveland, Greg Ireland of Grand Rapids, Dave Allison of Iowa, Scott Gordon of Providence, Bruce Boudreau of Hershey and David Baseggio of Bridgeport.

For the each of the past three seasons, the ECHL has had more players called up to the AHL than all other professional leagues combined, including 2004-05 when over 200 players were involved in 355 call ups, accounting for almost 80 percent of the AHL roster additions. The ECHL had 425 call ups involving 234 players in 2003-04 and 450 call ups in 2002-03.

The AHL Most Valuable Player Award has been won four times by former ECHL players, most recently by former Charlotte goaltender Jason LaBarbera in 2003-04. Other former ECHL players who were named as MVP of the AHL are Eric Boguniecki in 2001-02, Martin Brochu in 1999-2000 and Brad Smyth in 1995-96.

The AHL Coach of the Year award was won by ECHL coaches four years in a row from 2001-04 with Noel (2004), Geoff Ward (2003), Bruce Cassidy (2002) and Don Granato (2001) while current Carolina Hurricanes and former Wheeling coach Peter Laviolette was the first ECHL coach to capture the award in 1999.

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