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Fresno Falcons Weekly Update

April 5, 2004 - ECHL (ECHL)
Fresno Falcons News Release


LAST WEEK'S RECORD: 2-2-0 FINAL OVERALL RECORD: 23-43-6, 52 pts.

March 29 vs. San Diego, 5-1 Loss – Fresno's Kris Porter scored the first goal of the game early in the first period, but the rest of the contest belonged to the Gulls, who scored three times in the middle period before putting the game on ice with another pair of goals in the third.

March 30 vs. Alaska, 3-2 Shootout Win – After the Falcons took a 2-0 first period lead behind goals from Neil Posillico and Kris Porter, the Aces eventually squared the game at two :12 seconds into the third. Fresno goaltender Terry Denike then took over. He stopped 11 shots through the remainder of regulation, made two acrobatic saves in the scoreless five-minute overtime period and denied all four Alaska shooters in the shootout. Tapio Sammalkangas and Brian Passmore converted in the shootout to aid their goaltender in delivering the Falcons' second shootout win of the year.

April 2 vs. Idaho, 2-1 Loss – Brian Passmore's third period power play goal cut the Steelheads' 2-0 lead in half, but Fresno failed to muster anymore offense against Idaho netminder Blair Allison.

April 3 vs. Idaho, 4-3 Shootout Win – The Falcons ended the regular season with a nail-biter. Staked to a 3-1 lead off goals by Kris Porter, Nathan Horne and Neil Posillico, Fresno allowed the Steelheads to tie the contest in the final minute of regulation with their goaltender pulled in favor of an extra attacker. Falcons netminder Mike Brusseau did not yield another goal in overtime nor the shootout, and Daniel Bohac and Porter lit the lamp in the shootout to send Fresno into the off-season victorious.

NOTES

· Kris Porter finished the season as the team's leading scorer for the second consecutive year. He completed the campaign with nine goals in his last 15 games for a team-high 22 tallies to go along with 30 assists and 52 points.

· Coupled with the Long Beach Ice Dogs' loss to the Texas Wildcatters on the final night of the season, Fresno's win over Idaho on Saturday vaulted the team out of the basement and into sixth place in the Pacific Division to finish the 2003-04 campaign.

· Rookie All-Star Kevin Truelson ended the year as the team's leader in scoring among defenseman with 31 points (9g-22a).

· Truelson's -2 rating also led the club in +/- among those players that appeared in more than 30 games for the team this season.

· After an extremely rocky start at home through 22 games (5-13-4), the Falcons finished their first season at Save Mart Center with a record of 9-4-1 over their final 14 home dates.

· Garret Stroshein (2001-02) became the first former Falcon to play in the NHL after playing in Fresno when he appeared in three games for the Washington Capitals last week. Goaltender Nolan Schaefer, who began this season with the Falcons before receiving a permanent call-up to the AHL's Cleveland Barons, was summoned to dress for the San Jose Sharks on two different occasions this year, but he never saw any game action as a back-up goaltender.

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