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Gladiators Lead Division, Gwinnett Trio Leading ECHL Scoring

Published on October 30, 2006 under ECHL (ECHL) News Release


Two wins at South Carolina and a shutout at home against Columbia have defending American Conference champion Gwinnett sitting atop the South Division at 4-1-0.

Gwinnett will play at Charlotte on Friday before hosting Texas on Saturday. The Gladiators were 8-0-1 against Charlotte a year ago and are 17-4-3 since moving to Gwinnett in 2003-04 and are 5-0-0 all-time against the Wildcatters.

The Gladiators lead the league with 27 goals while ranking second on the power play at 22.4 percent and third on the penalty kill at 92.2 percent. The Gladiators are 2-0-0 and have outscored their opponents 8-2 at home where they were 29-4-3 a year ago, setting team records for home wins and points.

In their 8-3 win at South Carolina on Friday, the Gladiators tied the team record for most goals equaling the mark set on Mar. 26, 2004 in an 8-0 win at Texas and equaled three other times before Friday, including Mar. 22, 2006 in an 8-1 win at Charlotte.

Brad Schell leads the league with 11 assists and 14 points while Jon Awe leads ECHL defensemen with four goals and nine points and Colton Fretter leads league rookies with six goals and nine points. Awe and Fretter are tied for fifth overall in scoring and tied for third with three power-play goals while Fretter is tied for second overall in goals.

Dan Turple had 24 saves and recorded his first shutout on Saturday and improved to 2-1-0 after making 26 saves on Sunday. Selected in the sixth round (186th overall) by Atlanta in the 2004 National Hockey League draft and under contract to the Thrashers, the 21-year-old had seven shutouts a year ago for Kitchener in the Ontario Hockey League where he was 40-15-2 with a goals-against average of 2.25 and a save percentage of .924.

Stingrays Welcome Three Millionth Fan, ECHL Attendance Up

Season openers in Columbia, Pensacola, Stockton, Texas, Utah and Wheeling and a crowd of 9,124 on Saturday in Gwinnett raised the total attendance for the ECHL to 262,703 which is an average of 4,529 per game, an increase of 5.7 percent from last season.

Las Vegas and Idaho will each play their home openers on Friday with the Wranglers hosting Victoria and the Steelheads hosting Utah. Dayton plays its first home game on Saturday against Florida, marking the first time that the Bombers have played their home opener in November and the only time that they have been the last ECHL team to open at home.

Stockton had 8,747 for its home opener as it looks to lead the league in attendance again after averaging 6,343 per game and drawing 228,364 in their first year, the highest totals since 2001-02 when Florida led the league with 238,296 and 6,619. Gwinnett is second with 8,069 per game followed by Charlotte with 7,215, Bakersfield with 6,235 and Florida with 5,854.

South Carolina became the first team in ECHL history to surpass three million fans when four-year-old Jordan Brown from Goose Creek, S.C. entered North Charleston Coliseum on Sunday. The crowd of 3,397 on Sunday increases the team's season total to a league-leading 24,999 for five home games.

In their 14th season, the Stingrays have drawn 3,002,574 fans in the regular season, including leading the league in their first two seasons when they welcomed more than 600,000 fans and averaged 8,871 per game.

Florida will become the sixth team in ECHL history to welcome two million fans later this season, having drawn 23,416 for its first four home games to bring its all-time total to 1,893,482. In their first seven seasons, the Everblades have never drawn less than 220,000 or averaged fewer than 6,200 per game and led the ECHL in attendance for five straight years from 2000-05.

The league has raised its average attendance each of the last three seasons and in 2005-06 averaged 4,372 per game, the largest per-game average since 1999-2000, as 13 of the 22 returning teams increased their average attendance.

Trenton's Bertoli Scores 450th Point, Needs One Assist To Reach 300

Scott Bertoli of the Trenton Titans registered his 299th regular season assist in the second-period of Friday's 7-5 win against Cincinnati.

His next assist will allow him to become only the 20th player in ECHL history to reach 300 assists, and only the third to accomplish the feat with the same team.

Trenton will play at Johnstown on Friday while it hosts Reading on Saturday and plays at Reading on Sunday.

Bertoli, who registered his 200th assist on Mar. 6, 2004 at Cincinnati, has led the Titans in assists each of the team's seven seasons beginning in 1999-2000. He has led the team in scoring in 1999-2000, 2001-02 and each of the last two seasons while finishing as the team leader in goals in 2001-02 and 2004-05.

In his eighth season with Trenton, Bertoli is the team's all-time regular season leader with 447 games, 151 goals, 299 assists and 450 points and its all-time postseason leader with 62 games, 14 goals, 47 assists and 61 points.

He was selected as captain of the American Conference for the 2006 ECHL All-Star Game and was a starter for the 2001 ECHL All-Star Game.

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ECHL Stories from October 30, 2006


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