ECHL ECHL

Kelly Cup Playoffs National Conference Semifinals Open Sunday

April 20, 2007 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


Clicking a team vs. team match-up below will open the head-to-head match-up page as a PDF in a separate browser window.

No. 1 Las Vegas Wranglers (46-12-14) vs. No. 4 Idaho Steelheads (42-24-6)


No. 2 Alaska Aces (49-16-7) vs. No. 3 Bakersfield Condors (41-19-12)



PRINCETON, N.J. - Led by Brabham Cup champion Las Vegas and regular season runner-up Alaska, the top four seeds in the National Conference all advanced to the conference semifinals that begin Sunday.

The semifinals are a best-of-seven series with the winners advancing to the best-of-seven National Conference Finals scheduled for May 7-19.

No. 4 seed Idaho will host No. 1 seed Las Vegas at Qwest Arena on Apr. 22 and 23 before the series travels to the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas for Game 3 on Apr. 25 and Game 4 on Apr. 26. Game 5, if necessary, would be Apr. 27 at Las Vegas and Game 6, if necessary, would be Apr. 29 at Idaho. Game 7, if necessary, would be played at Las Vegas on Apr. 30.

Defending Kelly Cup champion and No. 2 seed Alaska will host No. 3 seed Bakersfield at Sullivan Arena on Apr. 23 and 25 before the series travels to Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield for Game 3 on Apr. 27 and Game 4 on Apr. 28. Game 5, if necessary, would be Apr. 30 at Bakersfield and Game 6, if necessary, would be May 3 at Alaska. Game 7, if necessary, would be played at Alaska on May 4.

It is the fourth straight year that Alaska has advanced to the Elite Eight while Bakersfield and Las Vegas are each making their second consecutive appearance. The Steelheads are returning to the Elite Eight for the first time since 2004 when they became only the second expansion team to win the ECHL championship, joining the Greensboro Monarchs, who beat Winston-Salem in 1990.

Las Vegas has won an ECHL record 17 consecutive games, sweeping its four-game series with Phoenix in the conference quarterfinals after closing out the regular season with 13 straight wins. The longest winning streak, including playoffs, in the National Hockey League is 15 games by Detroit (9 regular-season games, 6 playoff games) from Feb. 27-Apr. 5, 1955 and New Jersey (11 regular-season games, 4 playoff games) from Mar. 27-Apr. 29, 2006. The longest winning streak, including playoffs, in the American Hockey League is 15 games by Hershey (last 2 regular-season games of 1987-88, 12 playoff games, and first game of 1988-89).

The Wranglers and Steelheads series is a rematch of the division semifinals from 2006 and 2004. In 2004, Las Vegas won the first two games at home and Idaho evened the series with back-to-back home wins before winning the series on the road with a 3-0 win in Game 5. Losing only one game in each series, the Steelheads defeated Alaska in the division finals, Gwinnett in the conference finals and Florida in the Kelly Cup Finals. In 2006, the Wranglers won their first-ever postseason series when they became only the second team in league history to come back after trailing 3-1 in a series. Las Vegas outscored Idaho 17-4 in the final three games to advance to the division finals where the Wranglers lost in six games to eventual champion Alaska.

Every meeting in Las Vegas this season was decided in either overtime or shootout with Idaho winning 3-2 in a shootout in the last meeting on Mar. 6 and the Wranglers winning 3-2 in a shootout on Feb. 27. Las Vegas won 5-4 in overtime on Jan. 27 and the Steelheads won 3-2 in overtime on Jan. 26. The Steelheads won the last meeting in Idaho 3-1 on Feb. 17, but the Wranglers lead the season series at Qwest Arena 4-1-1 with a 2-1 shootout win on Feb. 16 and a 5-4 overtime loss on Feb. 14 after sweeping a three-game series in late November and early December.

Lance Galbraith led Idaho with seven goals, four power-play goals and 13 points and tied for the team lead with six assists in 10 games against the Wranglers. Derek Edwardson led Las Vegas with five goals, four power-play goals, 11 assists and 16 points in 10 games against the Steelheads. Las Vegas' Mike McKenna was 4-0-1 with a goals-against average of 2.31 in five games against the Steelheads while Idaho's Steve Silverthorn played all 10 games against the Wranglers and was 4-3-3 with a goals-against average of 2.63.

The Aces and Condors series is a rematch of the 2005 division semifinals that saw Alaska win the first two games at home before Bakersfield captured back-to-back one-goal wins at home, including an overtime win in Game 4, to send the series back to Alaska where the Aces won 6-2 in Game 5. After sweeping Long Beach in the division finals, Alaska lost in seven games in the conference finals to eventual Kelly Cup champion Trenton.

Bakersfield won the last meeting at Alaska 3-2 in overtime and the Condors were 2-0-3 on the road and 4-2-3 overall against the Aces, who were 28-6-2 at Sullivan Arena in the regular season.

Brett Lutes led the Condors against Alaska with seven assists and 11 points in nine games and tied for the team lead with four goals and two-game winning goals. Kimbi Daniels led the Aces against Bakersfield with nine assists and 12 points in nine games while Oliver Filion had a team-high six goals and three power-play goals. Bakersfield's Jamie Hodson was 3-0-3 with a goals-against average of 2.88 in six games against Alaska while teammate Rejean Beauchemin was 1-0-0 with a goals-against average of 1.85 against the Aces.

Broadcasting the Kelly Cup Playoffs for the fourth year in a row is B2 Networks, the "Official Broadband Broadcast Provider of the ECHL". Fans can access the B2 Networks broadcast from the scores page on ECHL.com.


Clicking a team vs. team match-up below will open the head-to-head match-up page as a PDF in a separate browser window.

No. 1 Las Vegas Wranglers (46-12-14) vs. No. 4 Idaho Steelheads (42-24-6)


No. 2 Alaska Aces (49-16-7) vs. No. 3 Bakersfield Condors (41-19-12)

Check out the ECHL Statistics



ECHL Stories from April 20, 2007


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.


Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central