ECHL ECHL

Generals Win Four Straight

December 2, 2002 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


The Greensboro Generals have won four consecutive games and are in third place in the Northeast Division with 27 points (12-5-3), three points behind Richmond (15-9-0) and Atlantic City (13-4-4). The Generals streak is the longest current winning streak in the East Coast Hockey League, and it ties the team record for longest winning streak set December 5-9, 2001.

The Generals play three straight road games against Northeast Division foes this week, visiting Reading on Tuesday, Richmond on Thursday and Charlotte on Saturday. Greensboro is 1-1-0 against Reading, 0-0-1 against Richmond, and 1-0-1 against Charlotte.

Greensboro won three one-goal games last week improving its record in one-goal games to 7-1-3. The Generals beat Columbus 2-1 on Thursday, beat South Carolina 2-1 in a shootout on Friday, and won 3-2 in a shootout at Johnstown on Saturday, improving their record in shootouts to 3-0. With its performance last week, Greensboro lowered its goals against from 3.06 to 2.80 per game, sixth in the ECHL.

The Generals are 8-2-1 at home, a stark contrast to last season when they didn't win their first home game until November 30 en route to a 9-20-7 home record. The nine home wins were the fewest home wins ever by an East Coast Hockey League team, breaking the record of 10 set by Huntington in 1993-94. Greensboro's team record for home wins is 17 set in 2000-01 while its record for total wins is 26 in 2000-01.

Goaltender Daniel Berthiaume is 10-2-2 and ranks second in the ECHL in shootout wins (3), third in shootout percentage (.842) and eighth in goals against average (2.57). In the ECHL record book, Berthiaume has moved into second place for career wins (158) and third place for career games (273) and career minutes (16,154).

Sam Ftorek, who is the son of Boston Bruins head coach Robbie Ftorek, leads the ECHL with nine power-play goals while his 11 goals tie him for the team lead with Pete Gardiner, who leads the Generals with 19 points. The Generals rank second in the ECHL on the power play with 23.63 percent.


Former Renegade Kraft Becomes 198th ECHL Player To Advance To NHL

Former Richmond center Ryan Kraft became the 198th East Coast Hockey League player to advance to the National Hockey League when he made his debut with the San Jose Sharks on Wednesday at Pittsburgh.

The 5-9 and 185-pound Kraft scored his first NHL point with an assist in his second game on November 25 at St. Louis, and in four games he has one point (0g-1a) and is +1.

Drafted in the eighth round (194th overall) by San Jose in the 1995 NHL Entry Draft, Kraft began his professional career with the Renegades in 1998-99. He tied for the team scoring lead with 64 points (28g-36a) in 63 regular season games. He led the Renegades to the 1999 Kelly Cup Finals scoring a team-leading 20 points while tying for the team lead with 10 goals in 18 postseason games.

A native of Bottineau, N.D., Kraft scored 67 points (32g-35a) and was a team-leading +27 in 44 regular season games with Richmond in 1999-2000 before moving up to Kentucky of the American Hockey League where he scored 13 points (7g-6a) in 15 regular season games and four points (3g-1a) in five postseason games. He also played one game with Cleveland in the International Hockey League in 1999-2000 registering an assist.

The 27-year-old Kraft becomes the sixth ECHL player to make his NHL debut in 2002-03, joining Vern Fiddler (Nashville), Cody Rudkowsky (St. Louis), Tim Thomas (Boston), Curtis Sanford (St. Louis) and Fedor Fedorov (Vancouver).

Express Rookie Jaffray Is Among League Leaders

Beginning with his first professional hat trick and four points on Tuesday, Roanoke rookie Jason Jaffray scored eight points (5g-3a) in four games last week while extending his current scoring streak to nine games, tying him with Johnstown's Lukas Smital for the longest active scoring streak.

The nine-game streak, however, isn't the longest of the season for the 21-year-old Jaffray, who after not scoring in his first professional game on October 11 proceeded to score in his next 10 games. He had 19 points (8g-11a) during the 10-game streak and has 14 points (7g-7a) in his current scoring streak.

Held scoreless in only two of his first 21 professional games, the 6-1 and 204-pound Jaffray leads ECHL rookies with 18 assists and 33 points and is tied for the rookie lead with 15 goals and six power-play goals. Among all ECHL players, he is tied for second in goals, one behind Reading's Brian McCullough, who has 16 goals in 25 games. Jaffray ranks third in points, two behind McCullough (16g-19a) and one behind Arkansas' Buddy Smith, who has 34 points (14g-20a) in 23 games. Jaffray's six power-play goals tie him for fourth overall in the ECHL. Jaffray scored two power play goals and had three assists in a 6-0 win against Augusta on November 2, tying the ECHL season-high for points in a game.


Former Bomber Shutting Out AHL Foes
Currently playing with Syracuse of the American Hockey League, former Dayton goaltender Karl Goehring put together a remarkable streak of five games in November where he was 5-0 with four shutouts, a 0.20 goals against average and a .993 save percentage. Goehring posted back-to-back shutouts on November 9 and 15 and was within 3:14 of his third shutout in a row before finishing with a 3-1 win over Philadelphia on November 16. He then came back in his next two starts and posted shutouts over Albany and Hamilton on November 23 and 24.

Goehring, who was named Sher-Wood AHL Player of the Week for November 18-24, is 5-3-0 and leads the AHL with a 1.43 goals against average, a .950 save percentage and four shutouts.

Goehring was 9-5 with a 2.43 goals against average and a .917 save percentage while helping Dayton advance to the 2002 Kelly Cup Finals. In the Kelly Cup Playoffs, he ranked first in minutes (865) and second in wins (9) and saves (385). In the regular season with the Bombers in 2001-02, Goehring was 11-9-3 with a 2.24 goals against average and a .920 save percentage in 23 games. He led the team in goals against average (2.24), shutouts (2), saves (599), save percentage (.920), and minutes (1393). He had several call ups to Syracuse in 2001-02 going 5-6-3 with a 2.49 goals against average.

InGlasCo ECHL Player Of The Week

Kevin Brown Florida Everblades
GP: 2 G: 3 A: 3 PTS:6 +/-: +4

ECHL Goalie Of The Week

Daniel Berthiaume Greensboro Generals
GP: 2 W-L: 2-0 GAA: 1.38 PCT: .955


Feature Games Of The Week

Northern Conference
Wheeling at Cincinnati Saturday, 7:05 ET
- Wheeling is 2-0-0 against Cincinnati after scoring three third-period goals to win 4-3 on Novmeber 10.

Johnstown at Richmond Saturday, 7:30 ET
- First of three meetings in 2002-03.
- Richmond is 33-25-5 all-time against Johnstown.

Southern Conference

Arkansas at Louisiana Friday, 7:05 CT
- Arkansas is 2-1-1 against Louisiana following a 3-2 win on November 9.

Mississippi at Jackson Saturday, 7:05 CT
Mississippi won 3-0 on November 26, and leads the season series 4-1-1.

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ECHL Stories from December 2, 2002


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