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Gwinnett Pulling Away In South Division

Published on February 13, 2006 under ECHL (ECHL) News Release


Winning a team record nine consecutive games and going 10-1-1 in the last 12 games, the Gwinnett Gladiators are 33-10-5 and lead the South Division with 71 points. The nine-game winning streak eclipsed the team record set Nov. 29-Dec. 14, 1996 and tied Oct. 15-Nov. 2, 1999 and Dec. 25, 2005-Jan. 7, 2006.

The Gladiators will visit Augusta on Tuesday before hosting Florida for games on Friday and Saturday. Gwinnett is 0-2-0 at Augusta and 3-2-1 overall against the Lynx and is 2-0-0 at home against Florida and 4-2-0 overall against the Everblades.

Brad Schell has led the Gwinnett offense the last five games with six assists and nine points and in the last 10 games with 14 assists and 21 points. Schell is second on the team with 50 points in 38 games while his 31 assists rank third and his 19 goals tie him for third. Milan Gajic had a career-best four points (2g-2a) on Feb. 7 and he leads the team in goals the last five games (4) and the last 10 games (8). Jeff Campbell has 17 points (4g-13a) in the last 10 games and leads the team with 61 points (20g-41a) in 48 games while recording his 50th goal as a Gladiator on Feb. 12.

Gwinnett is 10 points ahead of Florida, which has won its last three to improve to 29-14-3, and 15 points ahead of third-place Greenville at 27-16-2. Florida will host Greenville on Tuesday and Wednesday while the Grrrowl will visit Charlotte on Friday before hosting South Carolina on Saturday and Pensacola on Sunday. Florida and Greenville split the first two meetings of the season, both played at Greenville. The Grrrowl is 2-0-0 at Charlotte and 4-1-0 overall against the Checkers while going 0-2-0 at home and 2-5-0 overall against South Carolina and 2-0-1 at home and 5-0-2 overall against Pensacola.

Ernie Hartlieb, who leads Florida with six assists and six points in the last three games and eight assists and eight points in the last five games, has a six-game assist streak (9a) while Daniel Sisca has six goals and nine points in his last seven games.

Bembridge Continues Quest For 50 Goals, 100 Points

Garett Bembridge of the Idaho Steelheads leads the ECHL with 71 points in 48 games and is still on pace to become the first player since 2002-03 to score 100 points, and despite not scoring a goal in his last five games he still can become the first player to score 50 goals since 2000-01. The five games is the longest time that Bembridge has gone without scoring a goal.

The last player to score 100 points was Buddy Smith of Arkansas, who had 104 (30g-74a) in 72 games in 2002-03, while the last 50-goal scorer was Andrew Williamson of Toledo, who had 52 goals in 66 games in 2000-01.

Bembridge has registered two assists in each of his last two games giving him 10 multiple-assist games and 20 multiple-point games. He scored a team record and ECHL season-high six points, including a team record-tying three goals, on Nov. 25 against Utah and had a team record-tying four assists on Dec. 27 at Utah. He has scored a goal in 25 games, including a three-goal game and eight two-goal games, and he has registered a point in 36 games. The Steelheads are 23-9-4 when he scores a point and 3-7-2 when he doesn't tally, and are 17-5-3 when he scores a goal and 9-11-3 when he doesn't score a goal.

Chris Minard of the Alaska Aces led the league in 2004-05 with 49 goals, the most goals scored since Greg Pankewicz of Pensacola had 46 in 2002-03 and the fourth-highest total since 2000-01.

Trio Of Sellouts Raise Attendance

Sellout crowds in Charlotte, Idaho and Stockton and season-high crowds in Pensacola and Utah helped the ECHL draw 140,214 over the weekend to raise its average attendance to 4,214 per game which is an increase of more than eight percent from 2004-05 and almost 13 percent from 2003-04 and more than 18 percent from 2002-03.

The ECHL has had 23 sellout crowds and seven crowds of more than 10,000 in 2005-06 led by San Diego which had the largest crowd in its history with 13,001 on Nov. 5. Stockton has had three crowds of 10,117 while Gwinnett has two crowds over 10,000, including a sellout crowd of 11,355 on Nov. 11, and Charlotte had 10,894 on Nov. 25.

Stockton had 10,117 on Saturday marking the third Saturday in a row that there has been a sellout crowd and the third crowd of the season over 10,000 at Stockton Arena. The first-year Thunder continues to lead the league with 6,142 per game which is the highest average since 2001-02 when Florida had 6,619 per game.

Charlotte had 7,638 on Saturday marking the fourth Saturday in a row that there has been a sellout crowd at Bobcats Arena which had 9,644 on Feb. 4, 9,844 on Jan. 28 and 9,852 on Jan. 21. The listed capacity for the new facility is 6,800, but additional sections can be opened to accommodate larger crowds. The Checkers have a league-leading seven sellouts and rank fourth in the league with 5,755 per game which is an increase of 14 percent from 2004-05.

Idaho had a sellout crowd for the third Saturday in a row with 5,182 on Saturday while Pensacola had 5,722 on Friday and Utah had a season-best 6,324 on Saturday. The Steelheads have had the second-most sellouts in the league with five and are averaging 4,350 per game.

South Carolina had over 10,600 for its games on Friday and Saturday and raised its average attendance again to 4,912 per game while Alaska also increased its attendance to 4,738 per game.

Perennial attendance leader Florida is second in the league with 6,074 per game while Bakersfield is averaging 5,793 per game which is an increase of more than seven percent from 2004-05 and more than 28 percent from 2003-04.

Kompon Streak Is Third Longest In History

Mike Kompon of the Reading Royals has scored a point in 24 consecutive games which is the fourth-longest consecutive point-scoring streak in ECHL history.

The three longest scoring streaks in league history are 38 games by Trevor Jobe of Nashville from Dec. 19, 1992-Mar. 14, 1993, 35 games by Brian Martin of Hampton Roads from Oct. 30, 1990-Jan. 18, 1991 and 32 games by Jamey Hicks of Birmingham from Dec. 30, 1997-Mar. 7, 1998.

Presently on loan to Binghamton of the American Hockey League, Kompon has 39 points (7g-32a) during the scoring streak which has 12 multiple-point games, including 10 games with two assists and one game with two goals.

He ranks third in the league with 41 assists and seventh in scoring with 54 points in 37 games. In his second professional season, the 23-year-old has played two games with Binghamton while also playing in the AHL with Manchester, registering one assist in two games, and with Hershey, scoring one goal in three games.

Kompon has a 10-game assist streak (14a) which is the longest active streak and ties the longest assist streak in the league this season and he had an eight-game assist streak (13a) from Nov. 26-Dec. 17 which is the fifth-longest assist streak of the year. Alex Leavitt of Alaska had a 10-game assist streak (16a) from Dec. 16-Jan. 10 and Daniel Sisca of Florida had a 10-game assist streak (15a) from Dec. 9-30.

Ice Dogs Chase Consecutive Road Win Record

Going a perfect 3-0-0 at Victoria, Long Beach extended its winning streak to five games and its road winning streak to nine games.

The nine consecutive road wins are a team record and tie the ECHL record for third-longest road winning streak set by Louisiana on Feb. 1-Mar. 13, 1996 and tied by Charlotte on Feb. 14-Mar. 16, 1996, by Florida on Jan. 16-Feb. 21, 1999 and by Reading on Nov. 26, 2005-Jan. 7, 2006. The league record for longest road winning streak is 10 games set by South Carolina on Nov. 2-Dec. 9, 2000 and tied by Las Vegas on Nov. 22-Dec. 31, 2005.

The Ice Dogs are 27-16-5 and are in second place in the Pacific Division, 14 points ahead of third place Bakersfield and nine points behind leader Fresno. Long Beach will continues its current seven-game road trip on Tuesday at Phoenix and then heads to Alaska to take on the Aces, who have won eight home games in a row and lead the league with 81 points and a 39-7-3 record.

Long Beach has outscored its opponents 22-11 during its current winning streak and is averaging over four goals-per game during the nine-game road winning streak which includes four shootout wins and an overtime win.

Sean McAslan leads the Ice Dogs offense the last five games with six goals and 13 points. All-Star Justin Aikins (7g-5a) and Cory Urquhart (5g-7a) each have 12 points during the nine-game road winning streak.

Jaroslav Halak is 3-0-0 with a goals against of 1.99 and a save percentage of .944 in his last three starts and the rookie is 6-0-0 with goals against of 2.45 and a save percentage of .935 in six road games.

Winning its last four games, including three on the road at Stockton, Fresno improved to 8-1-2 in the last 11 games and is 29-8-10 overall. The Falcons will host Idaho on Tuesday before visiting Las Vegas on Friday and Stockton on Saturday.

Shawn Mather has a four-game scoring streak (5g-4a) and scored all three goals in the Falcons 3-2 win against Stockton on Feb. 10 while Jamie Holden is 3-0-0 with goals against of 1.66 and a save percentage of .945 in his last three starts.

Former Bomber Ayers Honored By AHL

The American Hockey League announced that former Dayton and current Syracuse Crunch goaltender Mike Ayers has been named the CCM Vector AHL Player of the Week.

The 26-year-old was 3-0-0 with two shutouts, a goals against of 0.33 and a save percentage of .990 after stopping 102 of 103 shots.

Recalled to Syracuse on Feb. 7, Ayers had 34 saves in a 3-1 win at Chicago on Feb. 8 before posting 35 saves in a 2-0 win against Binghamton on Feb. 10 and 33 saves in a 6-0 win against Rochester.

Ayers is 8-3-0 with a goals against of 2.16, three shutouts and a save percentage of .932 in 12 games with Syracuse and 7-12-1 with goals against of 3.57 and a save percentage of .889 in 21 games with Dayton.

Other nominees for the awards included former Cincinnati and current Cleveland left wing Patrick Rissmiller, former Toledo and current Grand Rapids goaltender Joey MacDonald, former Las Vegas and current Omaha goaltender Brent Krahn, former Augusta and current Portland right wing Pierre Parenteau, former Louisiana and Gwinnett and current Providence center Pascal Pelletier and former Dayton and current San Antonio goaltender Karl Goehring.

The ECHL has affiliations with 21 of the 27 teams in the AHL and for the past 16 years there has been a former ECHL player on the AHL team that has won the Calder Cup.

Did You Know ... There have been 19 winning streaks of five games or more by 11 teams. (Las Vegas - 3, Wheeling - 3, Alaska - 2, Florida - 2, Gwinnett - 2, Reading - 2, Greenville - 1, Idaho - 1, Long Beach - 1, Phoenix - 1 and Utah - 1.

Feature Games Of The Week

North Division

Johnstown at Trenton - Friday at 7:35 p.m. ET
* Johnstown has won the last four meetings to improve to 4-1-3 against Trenton.
* Titans are 33-18-4 all-time against Johnstown.

South Division

Florida at Gwinnett - Friday at 7:35 p.m. ET
* Gwinnett has won the last two meetings to improve to 4-2-0 against Everblades.
* Kevin Bergin (4g-1a) and Ryan Brindley (1g-4a) lead Florida offense against Gwinnett.

West Division

Victoria at Phoenix - Friday at 7:11 p.m. PT
* Phoenix's Michael Mole is 4-0-0 with a shutout and goals against of 1.92.
* Victoria's Steve Lingren leads ECHL defensemen with 12 power-play goals and 18 goals.

Pacific Division

San Diego at Bakersfield - Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. PT
* Condors won last two meetings, 2-1 at home on Feb. 3 and 4-1 at San Diego on Jan. 22.
* San Diego is 2-1-0 at Bakersfield and 5-2-0 overall against the Condors.

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ECHL Stories from February 13, 2006


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