Louisiana game notes vs. Arkansas, 12/6

December 6, 2002 - ECHL (ECHL)
Louisiana IceGators News Release


RiverBlades at IceGators – Following a rare two-game winless streak (0-1-1) against Arkansas last month, Louisiana welcomes the RiverBlades to the Cajundome tonight in the first of two straight games at the Frozen Swamp. Arkansas, which had dropped 10 of 11 games against the IceGators heading into a November 7 matchup at the Cajundome, emerged from that game with a 5-2 victory. Two nights later in North Little Rock, the RiverBlades earned a 3-2 overtime win, as Eric Long scored with three seconds left in the extra session. The IceGators sport a 16-7-4 all-time record against Arkansas. Louisiana had won six straight home meetings with the RiverBlades by a combined score of 28-11 prior to the November 7 matchup, and the IceGators are 8-4-1 all-time at home against Arkansas. Louisiana is 2-1-1 against Arkansas this season.

Saturday night – Frederic Cloutier made 25 saves for his eighth career shutout, and Shawn McNeil and Kenny Corupe scored 58 seconds apart in the second period, as the Louisiana IceGators beat the Mississippi Sea Wolves 3-0 at Mississippi Coast Coliseum. The win moved the IceGators' unbeaten in regulation streak to seven games (6-0-1), and also gives the IceGators, 5-1-0 this season against Mississippi, a three-point Southwest Division lead over the Sea Wolves. Greg Gardner was magnificent in net for Mississippi, making 40 saves, but the IceGators had too much firepower. The Sea Wolves lost both games of the home-and-home series with Louisiana, having dropped a 4-3 decision at the Cajundome on Friday. Bruce Richardson also scored and Cloutier (10-3-3), who tied an ECHL record last season with seven shutouts, earned his first since last March 28, a 4-0 win in Baton Rouge. The second-year netminder made four saves in the first period, 10 in the second and 11 in the third. Cloutier helped turn aside all eight Mississippi power plays on the night, as the Sea Wolves dropped to 2-for-38 with the man advantage against Louisiana this season.

Scouting the RiverBlades – Arkansas has struggled since starting goaltender Jason Saal went down with an injury, dropping its last three games (0-2-1) to fall four points behind the IceGators for first place in the Southwest Division. The RiverBlades, who led Louisiana by four points on November 19, couldn't hold a pair of three-goal leads in going 0-1-1 against Baton Rouge on Friday and Saturday, then faltered with a 3-1 advantage on Sunday, falling 6-4 in Jackson in a game they led by two goals. Jason Bermingham's goal at 4:17 of the second period put Arkansas up 3-1 Sunday, but Jackson scored four straight goals to take control. Buddy Smith did get the RiverBlades within 5-4 early in the third, but the RiverBlades couldn't get the equalizer, and they yielded an empty-netter to Sean O'Connor in the final 30 seconds. Jimi St. John, playing his fourth straight game in place of Saal, made 29 saves, falling to 4-3-1. Smith leads the RiverBlades with 14 goals and 34 points, and is tied for first on the team with 20 assists. Terry Marchant has been a valuable free-agent signing, notching 27 points (7g, 20a). Jason Bermingham (10g, 16a) and Ernie Hartlieb (8g, 15a) are also averaging a point per game. Arkansas has one of the top defensive corps in the ECHL, as their fifth through eighth leading scorers are all blueliners. The RiverBlades' top four defensemen have combined for 63 points, led by Eric Long (4g, 18a) and former IceGator Matt Pagnutti (7g, 11a). Saal was the team's No. 1 goaltender when he went down, and he sports an 8-5-2 mark with a 3.18 goals against average and a .909 save percentage. Saal's availability for this weekend is not known. St. John sports a 3.45 goals against average and a .890 save percentage. Arkansas sports a different look from last month, as well. Rookie Kyle Kos was dealt to Dayton as part of a three-team trade Wednesday that brought young defensemen Garry Toor and Philippe Lakos to the RiverBlades.

The Cloutier they're used to seeing – Frederic Cloutier picked up his eighth career shutout and first of the season Saturday against Mississippi. It marked his first whitewashing since last March 28, a 4-0 win over Baton Rouge. Cloutier owns eight of the IceGators' 23 shutouts in team history. Coming into last season, Louisiana had 12 shutouts in franchise history. Counting Cloutier's seven and Marc Magliarditi's three last season, the IceGators have 11 in the past 1 ½ seasons. Cloutier entered the season 2-2-0 with a 2.93 goals against average against Mississippi, but has stood strong this season against the Sea Wolves, going 4-1-0 with a 2.00 goals against average and a .919 save percentage. Cloutier is unbeaten in five games (4-0-1) since getting pulled after two periods of a 6-1 loss at Pensacola on November 15.

No wonder ‘Gators are streaking – There isn't a hotter line in the ECHL than Louisiana's trio of Bruce Richardson, Daniel Goneau and Tony Tuzzolino. Those three accounted for three points Saturday night, and during the IceGators' 6-0-1 unbeaten streak, they have combined for 41 points (15g, 26a). Richardson and Tuzzolino have the IceGators' two hat tricks this season. The trio has combined for 996 career games and 558 points (228g, 330a).

He's the guy who puts the power into play – IceGators defenseman Kevin Mitchell has 23 points (2g, 21a) this season, and 18 of those points (2g, 16a) have come on the power play. Six of Mitchell's nine career goals have come with the man advantage. Mitchell picked up a big power-play assist Saturday against Mississippi, helping Shawn McNeil on the game-winner midway through the second period.

Unstoppable in the third – Bruce Richardson has 13 goals this season, including a team-best eight in the third period. Shawn McNeil and Nathan Rempel (four) are the only other IceGators with more than three goals in the third period.

Goneau "helping" out – Daniel Goneau is in the midst of a career-best seven-game assist streak, with 14 assists in that span. Goneau has done the majority of the damage the last five games, notching 12 assists, including a career-high tying four helpers Nov. 23 against Columbus. Goneau's 30 points are second on the team, one behind Bruce Richardson, and his 22 helpers are one ahead of Kevin Mitchell for the team lead. Goneau's favorite players to help out are Richardson (six assists) and Tony Tuzzolino (five). Goneau, who has assisted on five of Tuzzolino's six goals with the IceGators, has recorded an assist on goals by eight different players this season. Goneau has at least one point in 11 of his last 12 games and is just four assists shy of his career-high of 26, set in the 1997-98 campaign with AHL Hartford. That season Goneau also picked up his career-high in points with 47.

Another Goneau tidbit – Daniel Goneau's seven-game assist streak is just the 20th assist streak of at least seven games in team history. Goneau – whose current streak matches Kevin Mitchell for the season high – has quite awhile to go before reaching the franchise record of 14, set twice by John Spoltore. Eight games has been a difficult streak to reach, however. Of the previous 19 players with assist streaks of seven games, seven of them never got to eight. The longest IceGators' assist streak last season belonged to Ryan Shanahan, who finished the campaign with an assist in nine straight games.

Rempel happy to see RiverBlades – Nathan Rempel has 17 goals in 81 ECHL games, and five of those 17 goals have come in 10 games against Arkansas. Rempel has 12 goals against the remainder of the league in 71 contests. Three of Rempel's goals against the RiverBlades have come this season.

December a friendly month, especially at Cajundome – The IceGators just wrapped up an 8-4-3 November and head towards their second most successful month. All-time in December, Louisiana is 60-23-9 for a .701 winning percentage. The only month that the IceGators have performed better in is March, when they sport a .709 winning percentage. At home in December, Louisiana is an impressive 44-8-3 for a .827 save percentage. Only October's .853 home winning percentage is better. The IceGators have struggled a bit on the road around the holidays, though, going 16-15-6 for a .514 winning percentage, their lowest of any month in team history. Last season, Louisiana went 8-3-0 at home in December, including an 8-1-0 mark at the Cajundome.

McNeil leads all ECHL goal scorers, since 2000-01 – Shawn McNeil has more goals than any other ECHL player since the beginning of the 2000-01 season. McNeil has 83 goals, six more than former teammate Jay Murphy.

Doing their best work while shorthanded – The IceGators yielded eight power play opportunities in Saturday's 3-0 win in Mississippi. Louisiana ranks 12th in the ECHL in penalty killing, but amazingly the IceGators are 7-0-2 when allowing eight or more power play opportunities.

Quick hits

Tony Tuzzolino has a career-best six-game point streak (6g, 5a), while linemate Bruce Richardson's six-game streak (8g, 7a) is one shy of his career-high, set from October 27-November 10 of this season.

The IceGators have five shorthanded goals this season, and Bruce Richardson has a part in four of them, including two scores.

Shawn McNeil has scored Louisiana's first goal in eight games this season, and eight of his goals have given his team the lead. He has also scored the game's first goal in four contests.

Saturday was just the IceGators' third victory when scoring three goals or less.

In its last four games, Arkansas is yielding an average of 5.0 goals per game.

The IceGators have outshot eight of 11 opponents at home.



ECHL Stories from December 6, 2002


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