IceGators lead Central Division

January 26, 2004 - ECHL (ECHL)
Louisiana IceGators News Release


Lafayette, LA -- The Louisiana IceGators have won seven games in a row, dating back to their 2-0 shutout of the Pensacola Ice Pilots on January 11, 2004. The IceGators are 29-10-2 and have 60 points. They are tied with the Wheeling Nailers for the ECHL lead. Acadiana's home team also leads the league in winning percentage with .732.

The IceGators played three games in three nights this past weekend, with a home-and-home series against the Texas Wildcatters and a game against the Florida Everblades. The first game of the set with the Wildcatters was a road game for the Gators, as they traveled to Ford Arena in Beaumont.

Derek Gustafson earned his first win of the weekend by making 39 saves for the Gators. Gustafson started all three games and racked up 123:57 in shutout time from Friday to Sunday. He faced a total of 90 shots and made 88 saves.

On Friday, the Gators struck first and never looked back. Rod Sarich opened the scoring in the first period, Armands Berzins put Louisiana up 2-0 in the second and Bobby Brown and Brian Herbert, fresh off the IR, added tallies in the third. Jamie Johnson and Alex Materukhin both earned two assists on the evening. Maxime Fortunus, Ben Storey and Semir Ben-Amor each added one assist to their season totals.

On Saturday, with the Gators back on home ice, they fired an offensive volley at the Wildcatters, putting a total of 56 shots on Catter Davis Parley. Four of those shots found their way home as the Gators earned their fifth shutout of the year. Konstatin Kalmikov lit the lamp twice, once on the power play. Jamie Johnson continued his points-scoring streak with 3 (1g – 2a) and Ed McGrane knocked one in for his seventh goal as an IceGator. Contributing to the offense were Ben Storey (2a), Rod Sarich (1a), Maxime Fortunus (1a) and Bobby Brown (1a).

Sunday's game against the Florida Everblades marked the third meeting of the season between the two teams and the first at the Frozen Swamp. In the first period, the teams were fairly evenly matched in goals (none), shots (LA 16, FLA 13) and penalties (LA 5, FLA 4, including a fighting major each to Semir Ben-Amor and Ian Forbes). The second period was a different story. Captain Bobby Brown put the Gators on the board within the first minute of play. Brown would finish the night with 3 points (1g – 2a). Ed McGrane earned his first assist of the evening on Brown's goal.

Alex Materukhin scored a natural hat trick to put the Gators up 4-0. Materukhin set a new IceGators record for the fastest three goals by one player. He scored three in a row within 3 minutes, 22 seconds. The previous record was 4:07, set by Shawn McNeil on December 10, 1999. Rookie Ed McGrane tied a league record for most assists in a game this season by assisting on all five Gators' goals. Ben Storey finished the scoring by blasting a shot from the blue line that found its way through some traffic in front of the Everblades' net.

The IceGators will have a few days off this week before they host division rival Mississippi on Friday, January 30th. The Sea Wolves are also on a seven-game winning streak and are two points behind the IceGators in the Central division standings.

UPCOMING GAMES

Mississippi Sea Wolves – January 30, 2004 @ 7:05 pm – The IceGators host their division rival at the Frozen Swamp. This will mark the ninth tilt between these two teams this season. The Gators lead the season series 5-3.

Pensacola Ice Pilots – January 31, 2004 @ 4:05pm – The Pensacola Ice Pilots return to the Frozen Swamp for their fifth visit of the season. On their last visit to Lafayette, the Gators posted eight goals against the Pilots. The Gators are 4-1-2 against the Pilots this season.

PROMOTIONS

Friday, January 30, 2004 – College Night: Game tickets are $5 with a valid college ID and beer will be specially priced at $2.

The Month of January, 2004 – Acadiana Proud Project: Bring supplies for Acadiana's troops overseas and receive $2 off any game ticket for any game in January. A list of supplies is available at www.icegators.com.

IN THE COMMUNITY

Wednesday, January 28, 2004 – Two IceGators will visit Eaton Park Elementary to make a classroom visit.

Thursday, January 29, 2004 – Two IceGators will visit SJ Montgomery Elementary to speak to an assembly of fourth and fifth graders.

WHO'S HOT

The Louisiana IceGators – Acadiana's home team has now won seven straight games. The streak started on January 11 with a 2-0 shutout of the Pensacola Ice Pilots. In three games this past weekend, the Gators scored 14 goals and allowed only two. They registered 162 shots on goal in that span.

Bobby Brown – The Gators captain is currently tied for fourth place among ECHL goal-scorers with 23. He also posted 6 points (3g – 3a) in his last three games. The right wing has 41 points (23g – 18a) in 41 games this season and he is second in the league in shots on goal with 196.

Maxime Fortunus – The defenseman is currently second in the league among rookies with a plus/minus of plus-19.

Jamie Johnson – The rookie center earned 6 points (1g – 5a) in his last three games. He extended his point-scoring streak to 6 games, tallying 13 points (2g – 11a) since January 16.

Derek Gustafson – The netminder is currently ranked fourth in the ECHL with a goals-against-average of 2.23. He faced 90 shots and made 88 saves in his last three starts and posted his third shutout of the season.

Konstantin Kalmikov – The right wing has five goals in his last three home games and leads the league in shots on goal with 223.

Ed McGrane – The rookie center tied a league record for the season with five assists in one game.

Ben Storey – The All-Star defenseman won the hardest shot contest at the 2004 Par-A-Dice ECHL All-Star Game Skills Competition with a 96.3 mph shot. He also is in fourth place in the league among defenseman scorers with 39 points (11g – 28a). This also ties him for second place in goal-scoring by a defenseman, with 11 tallies. Storey is leading the league in power play goals (10) and shots (182) among defensemen as well.

IN OTHER NEWS...

Power-Aid: Defenseman Kevin Mitchell's first goal in an Aeros uniform came Saturday on the power play, but that shouldn't be a surprise. In his three-year pro career, including ECHL totals, Mitchell has 19 goals - and an eye-popping 15 have come on the power play. Each of Mitchell's four AHL goals has been on the power play. Mitchell's last non-power play goal came 13 months ago - on December 7, 2002, while he was with Louisiana, against Arkansas. Last season with the IceGators, Mitchell had 23 of his 34 points on the power play. With the Aeros, three of his six points are on the power play.

It Just Keeps Getting Better: As of Monday, January 26, 2004, the IceGators are still leading the league in power play percentage, at 23.6%, up from last week's 23.07%. The Gators have scored 52 goals on 220 man-advantage chances this season.

Injury Report: Left wing Brian Herbert has been activated from seven-day injured reserve. Center Kenny Corupe has been placed on thirty-day injured reserve. Defenseman Josh Mizerak had been placed on seven-day injured reserve.



ECHL Stories from January 26, 2004


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