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Four Teams Remain Undefeated After Week Two

November 1, 2004 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


Only four undefeated teams remain after the second week and each of the four divisions has a team without a loss. Trenton (2-0-0) in the North, Pensacola in the South (2-0-0), Charlotte (4-0-0) in the East and Bakersfield (3-0-0) in the West. The league record for consecutive wins to open the season is eight games, set by Dayton (Oct. 19-Nov. 4, 1994) and tied by Trenton (Oct. 12-26, 2001).

There are five additional teams that have not suffered a regulation loss - Toledo (3-0-1), Johnstown (1-0-3), Las Vegas (1-0-1), South Carolina (3-0-1) and Gwinnett (3-0-3). Toledo leads the North Division with seven points, one point ahead of Trenton and Dayton (3-2-0) while Gwinnett leads the South with nine points, three points ahead of Florida (3-2-0) and Mississippi (3-2-0).

Bakersfield will host Alaska (2-3-0) on Tuesday and San Diego (2-2-1) on Saturday. Pensacola will play at Mississippi on Tuesday and at Louisiana on Saturday while hosting Louisiana (1-1-0) on Friday and Augusta (1-2-0) on Sunday. Charlotte will host Trenton on Friday and South Carolina (3-0-1) on Saturday. Trenton visits Charlotte on Friday and will host Johnstown (1-0-3) on Saturday.


Charlotte has set a team record with its start, surpassing its 3-0-0 start in 1996-97. The Checkers lead the league with three road wins and improved to 5-6-1 in home openers with a 5-4 win over Columbia on October 30. Eduard Pershin leads the Checkers with four assists and seven points in four games. Alex Westlund is 3-0-0 with a .908 save percentage and a goals-against average of 2.28 while Kelly Guard is 1-0-0 with a .931 save percentage and a goals-against average of 1.99.

Trenton goaltender Andrew Allen is 3-0-0 with a save percentage of .958 and a goals-against average of 1.33. Matt Zultek leads the Titans with three assists while Brent Robinson and Leon Hayward are tied for the team lead with two goals. Hayward, Robinson and Zultek are tied for the team scoring lead with Rick Kowalsky (1g-2a).

Jordan Krestanovich leads Pensacola with four assists and five points while defenseman Corey Neilson leads the team with two goals and ranks second with three points. Frederic Cloutier is 2-0-0 with a save percentage of .909 and a goals-against average of 3.00.

Bakersfield's Chris Twerdun leads league rookies and defensemen with four goals, including two power-play goals which leads league defensemen and is tied for the lead among rookies. Playing in North America for the first time since 2002-03, Mike Hofstrand leads the Condors with four assists and five points.

Aces, Gladiators Help Increase League Attendance

Back-to-back standing-room-only crowds in Alaska and a record crowd of 8,586 for the home opener in Gwinnett on Friday allowed the ECHL to continue its strong start at the turnstile. Alaska's crowd of 6,453 for its home opener on Friday is the largest in the 10-year history of the Aces, who last had back-to-back sellouts in 1999.

In its first 25 home openers, the ECHL is averaging 6,045 per game and has had eight sellouts compared to six sellouts in the first two weekends in 2003-04. In addition to Alaska, home openers produced record sellout crowds in Columbia (6,231), Reading (7,248) and Toledo (5,361) as well as the seventh-largest crowd in San Diego history (11,922) and the largest season-opening crowd in 23 years of professional hockey in Peoria (7,593). Home openers played Friday and Saturday were Atlantic City (4,486), Charlotte (7,311), Dayton (5,118), Pensacola (4,004), Texas (5,084) and Wheeling (4,754).

The ECHL has drawn 270,138 for 57 games, an average of 4,739 per game which is up almost 13 percent from last season when the league averaged 4,199 per game in the first two weeks.

Las Vegas will host Long Beach for its home opener on Tuesday while Louisiana will host Pensacola for its home opener on Saturday. In 2003-04, the Wranglers had 7,208 for their home opener while Louisiana had 6,025.

Everblades Surma Is Offensive Leader

Florida left wing Damian Surma scored nine points (4g-5a) in three games last week and the 23-year-old leads the ECHL with seven goals, 12 points and a plus-minus rating of +9 and is tied for the league lead with three power-play goals. Surma's teammate Reggie Berg is second in the league with 11 points and is tied for the league lead in assists with six and tied for second in goals with five.

In a 6-3 win against Mississippi on October 29, the 5-10 and 205-pound Surma scored his first hat trick as a pro and added an assist giving him a career professional best four points. Surma had an assist in regulation and scored in the shootout in Florida's 4-3 shootout win against Gwinnett on October 26 and had three points (1g-2a) and was +4 in a 5-4 loss at Pensacola on October 30.

Selected in the sixth round (174th overall) by Carolina in the 1999 NHL Entry Draft and under contract to the Hurricanes, Surma was one of three players who played in the ECHL, the American Hockey League and the National Hockey League in 2003-04. Surma had 15 points (6g-9a) in 18 regular season games and nine points (5g-4a) in 16 games in the Kelly Cup Playoffs for the Everblades in 2003-04. He scored eight points (3g-5a) in 48 regular season games with Lowell of the AHL and had one assist in one game with Carolina in the NHL. The others who played in the ECHL, the AHL and the NHL were goaltenders Dan Ellis (Idaho, Utah and Dallas) and Adam Munro (Gwinnett, Chicago and Atlanta).

Games Going Past Regulation

Fourteen of the 28 games played in the ECHL last week went past regulation with 11 decided in a shootout and three determined in overtime. Of the 57 games played there have been five games decided in overtime (nine percent) and 13 games determined in a shootout (23 percent). In 1,116 games in 2003-04, there were 75 games that were won in overtime (seven percent) and 143 that went to a shootout (13 percent).

Gwinnett lost three of its four games in a shootout last week and the Gladiators have been involved in a league-high four shootouts (1-3). Dayton, Mississippi and Wheeling are all undefeated and lead the league with two shootout wins each. Charlotte is undefeated in overtime and leads the league with two overtime wins while Columbia has not won in overtime and has a league-leading two overtime losses.

ECHL Feature Games Of The Week

North Division

Reading at Johnstown
Friday at 7 p.m. ET

* First meeting since Reading upset Johnstown in the Northern Division Wild Card Game.
* Chiefs were 6-3-1 against Reading last season.

East Division

Trenton at Charlotte
Friday at 7 p.m. ET

* Both teams are undefeated.
* Charlotte has not beat the Titans since 2002-03.

South Division

Louisiana at Pensacola
Friday at 7:05 p.m. CT

* Louisiana's Todd Gordon returns to Pensacola, who he coached from 2001-04, to face Dave Farrish, who coached Louisiana from 2000-04.

West Division

Victoria at Idaho
Friday at 7:05 p.m. MT

* This is the first of nine games between the Salmon Kings and the Steelheads.
* Victoria lost both preseason meetings with Idaho.

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