Louisiana game notes vs. Jackson

Published on January 17, 2003 under ECHL (ECHL)
Louisiana IceGators News Release


Bandits at IceGators – Louisiana looks to stay unbeaten in regulation against the Bandits this season when the two teams collide at the Cajundome tonight. The IceGators are 4-0-2 versus Jackson this season, winning the only two matchups on home ice, and are 6-0-2 in the last eight games overall. Jackson's last regulation win against the IceGators came on March 15 of last season. The last four meetings this season have all gone into overtime or a shootout, including a 3-2 Jackson win in a New Year's Day matinee. Dave Stewart's deciding shootout goal ruined a 37-save effort by Kyle Kettles. The IceGators have had a lot of success against Jackson over the past two seasons at the Cajundome. Louisiana has won six straight at home versus the Bandits since a 1-0 shootout loss on October 17, 2001, and is unbeaten in regulation in seven straight (6-0-1) since a 1-0 loss at the Cajundome on March 9, 2001. The IceGators are 16-6-3 overall against Jackson, including a 9-2-1 mark on home ice.

Tuesday night – Terry Marchant and Jason Bermingham each scored two goals for Arkansas, which held off Louisiana 4-3 at ALLTEL Arena, ending Kyle Kettles' shutout streak in the process. Jason Saal made 33 saves for the third-place RiverBlades, who ran their unbeaten streak to six games (4-0-2) and have 49 points, just five less than the first-place IceGators. Daniel Goneau, Nathan Rempel and Shawn McNeil each scored for the IceGators, who dropped a game in regulation for just the second time in 13 games (8-2-3). Both of those regulation losses came at ALLTEL Arena versus Arkansas. Kyle Kettles turned aside 23 shots and had his scoreless streak snapped in the first period at 155:27, the fourth best in team history. Kettles had his 10-game unbeaten in regulation streak ended (6-0-4) and was handed his first regulation loss since a 4-3 defeat in Columbus on November 2.

Scouting the Bandits – With a win tonight, Jackson can climb within two points of third-place Arkansas, which is idle tonight, in the Southwest Division. That's quite impressive, considering the Bandits started the season 1-7-0. Jackson overtook Pensacola for fourth place back on January 2. Jackson, which kicks off a 20-game, two-month road trip tonight, is 4-2-0 in its last six despite dropping two of its last three contests. Saturday at home against Mississippi, Jackson fell behind 5-2 late in the second period and never fully recovered, falling 5-4 to the second-place Sea Wolves. The Bandits, who yielded two goals in the final 1:50 of the second to fall behind by three goals, got four points (1g, 3a) from Brent Gauvreau. He and Andrei Lupandin each scored in the third period, but Jackson couldn't get another shot across despite outshooting Mississippi 17-6 in the final stanza. Tyrone Garner, in his second start since being reassigned to the team from NHL Florida/AHL San Antonio, made 24 saves to fall to 9-9-2. Former IceGator John McNabb (20g, 23a) and Jeff Bes (12g, 22a) lead Jackson in scoring, but Gauvreau – a steal in a trade with Augusta – may be the biggest offensive reason for Jackson's turnaround. Gauvreau, obtained from the Lynx for Mike Oliveira, who has since been traded to Baton Rouge, has 22 points (8g, 14a) in just 18 games with the team. Jackson is an eye-popping 11-4-3 with Gauvreau in the lineup. Lupandin, obtained from Greensboro earlier in the season for Kevin Grimes, has 12 points (4g, 8a) in 17 games with the Bandits after notching just one assist in 14 games with the Generals. Garner and rookie Adam Hauser, who led Minnesota to the NCAA championship last season, have split time in net, except for when Garner was recalled. Hauser has better numbers, going 12-8-1 with a 2.65 goals against average en route to an appearance in the All-Star team. Garner, who backstopped Greenville to the Kelly Cup title last season, has a 3.23 goals against average.

Rodeo road-trippin' – Tonight, the Bandits kick off their fourth annual road trip away from the Mississippi Coliseum. Due to numerous events at the Coliseum, including the rodeo, the Bandits will have to spend 20 games on the road, taking them a whopping 9,411 miles this year. Even traveling at a smooth 70 mph all the way, it would still take over 134 hours to complete this journey. The longest leg of the trip comes February 7-9 as the Bandits travel to Estero, Fla., for two games, one of which is classified as a home game, then to Columbus, Ga. for one. The Bandits are on the road from Tuesday, January 14 until March 13, and will not have another home game until March 14 against the Baton Rouge Kingfish.

Quite the turnaround – Former IceGator John McNabb (20g, 23a) and Jeff Bes (12g, 22a) lead Jackson in scoring, but Gauvreau – a steal in a trade with Augusta – may be the biggest offensive reason for Jackson's turnaround. Gauvreau, obtained from the Lynx for Mike Oliveira, who has since been traded to Baton Rouge, has 22 points (8g, 14a) in just 18 games with the team. Jackson is an eye-popping 11-4-3 with Gauvreau in the lineup.

It's a well-balanced matchup – Louisiana and Jackson have gone into overtime or a shootout in each of the last four meetings, with each team emerging with a pair of victories. That's the longest shootout streak versus a team in franchise history. Louisiana had played three straight shootout/overtime games twice previously, including one stretch against Jackson.

The obligatory Mike Tamburro matchup – Former Jackson goaltender Mike Tamburro may have hung up his skates to be a financial planner, but he'll always get a mention at the Cajundome until someone else does what he accomplished – shut out the IceGators at the Frozen Swamp. Tamburro is the only player to ever shut out the IceGators at the Cajundome, and he did it three times – the last on October 17, 2001, a 1-0 shootout victory. Baton Rouge's Niklas Sundberg nearly matched Tamburro on December 31, but the IceGators scored twice in the final 52 seconds to avoid the shutout and send the game into overtime. Louisiana eventually won the game 3-2 in a shootout.

Won't face each other until March 8 – After tonight's game, Louisiana and Jackson won't play again for nearly two months, until March 8. However, the IceGators play five of their final 12 regular-season games against the Bandits.

Special teams update – There's a good chance that there won't be a lot of power play scoring in tonight's game. Just six of the 29 goals scored in the season series have been with the man advantage. Jackson has struggled the most, clicking on just 2-of-36 chances (5.6%) on the power play against Louisiana. Overall, the Bandits score on just 10.8% of their power play chances, ranking last in the ECHL. Louisiana has fared only slightly better versus Jackson. The IceGators are 4-for-31 (12.9%) against the Bandits on the power play.

IceGators hit 40-game mark – Louisiana has hit the 40-game mark with 54 points (23-9-8), the fifth most in its eight-year team history. Last season, the IceGators had 67 points after 40 games. The team's 23 wins are also fifth on the team's all-time list after 40 games. Last season, the IceGators had 32 wins in their first 40 gmes.

Kettles' shutout streak was fourth best – Kyle Kettles' shutout streak ended Tuesday at 155:07, the fourth best in team history and just 12:01 shy of Frederic Cloutier's club-record 167:08 mark. Cloutier has the top three shutout streaks in team history - 167:08 (Oct. 26-Nov. 10 of last season); 161:56 (March 2-March 12) and 157:38 (11/30-12/9). The longest shutout streak ever by an ECHL netminder is 236:03, by Hampton Roads' Darryl Paquette in the 1996-97 season.

Unbeaten streak snapped at 10 – Kyle Kettles saw his 10-game unbeaten in regulation streak (6-0-4) stopped Tuesday. It was Kettles' first loss in regulation in more than two months, since a 4-3 loss in Columbus on November 2. Kettles is currently second in the ECHL with a 2.41 goals against average and fifth with a .919 save percentage. Six of his last eight games have been decided by one goal – including five overtime/shootout games – and the other two were blowout shutout victories (5-0, 7-0).

Kettles second-fastest with two shutouts – IceGators rookie netminder Kyle Kettles recorded two shutouts in his first 13 starts with the team, becoming the third fastest goalie in team history with two shutouts. Frederic Cloutier had two in his first four starts in 2001-02, and a third in his fifth game, while Bujar Amidovski earned two shutouts in his first six starts in 1998-99. Amidovski, also a rookie that season, had his third shutout in his ninth game in 1998-99.

Getting better as the game progresses – The statistics don't lie, Kyle Kettles gets stronger as the game goes on. Kettles allows just .53 goals per third period he plays, better than the second period (.79), which is better than the first (1.00). In 15 third-periods this season (Kettles had a third period in relief of Frederic Cloutier on November 15), Kettles has yielded just eight goals.

Team shutout streak just missed record - The IceGators' team shutout streak was ended at 129:08, which is the third best in team history. Louisiana's longest shutout streak was from November 3-10 of last season by Marc Magliarditi and Frederic Cloutier (143:40). The duo also combined for a 142:15 streak from November 23-29. The previous third longest streak was 123:45, set over the final two-plus games of last season. Louisiana has never recorded three straight shutouts. The IceGators had their first two sets of back-to-back shutouts last season.

McNeil one goal behind Parsons – Shawn McNeil's 116 goals as an IceGator have him in fifth place on the team's all-time list, just one behind Don Parsons for fourth. Also, McNeil's 140 assists are 12 behind John DePourcq for fourth on the IceGators' ledgers. McNeil has passed Ron Handy (132) and Louis Dumont (137) on the assist list this season, while he got by Dumont (102) on the goal list.

McNeil has four career shootout clinchers – Shawn McNeil's shootout game-winner December 31 against Baton Rouge was his fourth career shootout game-winner. McNeil is tied for second with Ron Handy, Jay Murphy and teammate John DePourcq in that category, trailing only Louis Dumont's six.

McNeil has scored Louisiana's first goal 11 times – There's no better scorer early in the game on the IceGators than Shawn McNeil. Eleven of McNeil's 21 goals have been his team's first goal, and 11 of his goals have also given Louisiana the lead. Six of his goals have tied the game, while he is also tied for the team-lead with three game-winning goals. McNeil's nine first-period goals are also a team best.

Rempel set to play in 100th game with IceGators – Tonight, Nathan Rempel will become the 19th player in team history to skate 100 games with Louisiana. Rempel, whose 99 games played are tied with Doug Bonner for 19th, will tie Jack Williams for 18th on the team's all-time list. Rob McCaig (17th with 114) and Gary Roach (16th with 116 are up next on the list). Teammate Dennis Shiryaev will soon join Rempel. Shiryaev has played 93 games while Kevin Mitchell, currently in AHL Bridgeport, has played in 92.

Richardson 21st on team's all-time goal list – Captain Bruce Richardson has 28 goals in 60 games with the IceGators. His 28 goals are two behind Mikhail Kravets for 20th on the team's all-time list. It took Kravets 81 games to get his 30 goals. Cory Cyrenne and Steve Aronson, both members of the 2001-02 Brabham Cup winning team, are tied for 18th with 33 goals. When he scores two more goals, Richardson will become the 13th player in team history record 200 penalty minutes and 30 goals in his time in an IceGators uniform. Richardson is 10 points shy of joining the 200 penalty minute/100 point club. He will become just the 11th player in team history to accomplish that feat.

Richardson has pair of five-point games - Bruce Richardson has two five-point games this season, both against Columbus.

Richardson, who picked up the 25th five or more point game in team history on January 9, is just the fourth player to have more than one such game in a season in team history. Richardson also joins John Spoltore (five), Chris Valicevic (four), Don Parsons (three), Jon DePourcq (two) and Jay Murphy (two) as IceGators with more than two career five-point games.

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 89 goals, five more than former teammate Jay Murphy, who is currently on 30-day IR with Greensboro. Below are the players with the most ECHL goals since the 2000-01 season.

1. McNeil 89 Louisiana 3t. Williamson 74 Augusta

2. Murphy 84 Greensboro 7. Schneider 71 CHL – Laredo

3t. Bousquet 74 NA 8t. Tiltgen 70 WCHL – San Diego

3t. Sirois 74 Pee Dee 8t. Seitz 70 South Carolina

3t. Demarski 74 Greenville 10t. Two tied 68

A combo that clicks – Daniel Goneau has 18 goals, and Bruce Richardson has an assist on 12 of them. Goneau has also helped out on eight of Richardson's 18 tallies.

Corupe at 99 points – IceGators center Kenny Corupe is one point away from 100 in his pro career. In 161 games, Corupe has 39 goals and 60 assists. Corupe showing up on the scoresheet has been ultra important to the IceGators this season. The team is 5-0-3 when Corupe has a goal and 12-0-4 when he has a point.

Boogaard living up to expectations, and more – IceGators winger Derek Boogaard, who scored his first pro goal Saturday, came to the team with the reputation as the top enforcer in Canada's western junior hockey ranks, and he hasn't disappointed. Boogaard has 95 penalty minutes in nine games, picking up at least one penalty in each game for the second longest current streak in the ECHL behind Atlantic City's Steve Munn (10). If Boogaard continues his current pace, he would finish the 2002-03 season with 432.7 penalty minutes in just 41 games, which would be the second-highest penalty-minute season in team history. Louisiana's Rob McCaig had 512 penalty minutes in 1995-96. If you project Boogaard's current pace out on a 72-game season, he would finish with 760 penalty minutes. Not afraid to go the extra mile – The IceGators have gone to overtime 14 games this season, most in the ECHL. The IceGators are 3-4 in overtime games and 3-4 in games decided in a shootout. Louisiana is 3-2 after regulation at home but just 3-6 on the road. The most times that the IceGators have gone into overtime or a shootout in one season is 18, in 1999-2000. That season, Louisiana was 9-9, including a 7-3 home mark. The ECHL record for most overtime/shootout games in a season is 25, by Toledo in the 1995-96 campaign. From December 27-January 1, the IceGators tied their franchise record of four overtime/shootout games in a row, going 3-0-1 in that span.

Four straight decided in regulation – Louisiana has played four straight games that have ended in regulation for the first time since a six-game stretch November 10-23.

Strong at home – The IceGators, who have won four straight home games since a 3-2 loss to Mississippi on December 13, are 14-2-2 at home this season for a winning percentage of .778. Only Toledo (15-1-2) and Peoria (11-2-1) have fewer home non-wins than the IceGators. Through 18 games at home last season, Louisiana was 15-1-2. In fact, the IceGators' first regulation loss at the Cajundome was in their 18th game, a 5-4 loss to Mississippi on December 29. Louisiana finished last season 30-2-4 at home. The IceGators would have to gain 34 points in their final 18 home games to equal last season's mark. Louisiana is on pace for 28 home wins, which would tie the 1998-99 and 1999-00 squads for the second most in team history. The IceGators played 35 home games in those seasons and will play 36 in 2002-03.

Road not so bad either – Louisiana's loss Tuesday dropped the team to 9-7-6 on the road. The IceGators are 3-2-3 in their last eight road games (including 3-2-1 in the last six) since a 6-5 loss in Baton Rouge on December 11. The IceGators cannot reach their franchise record of 26 road wins, set last season, but could reach a tie for second place on the team's ledgers with 12 wins in their final 14 games. Louisiana went 21-10-4 away from the Cajundome in 1997-98.

Staying on the board – In Tuesday's 4-3 loss in Arkansas, the IceGators scored at least one goal for their 108th straight game dating back to a 1-0 shootout loss to Jackson at the Cajundome on October 17, 2001. That's the second-longest streak in team history. Louisiana went 135 games without being shut out from the franchise's first game, on October 13, 1995, to a 1-0 loss at Baton Rouge on March 22, 1997. In the team's current streak, they have been held to one goal on 10 occasions.

Benazic saves best for last – Cal Benazic has scored seven of his 11 goals this season in the third period. Five of his goals have given the IceGators the lead, and three more have tied the game.

Benazic tied for second among ECHL blueliners in goals – Cal Benazic's 11 goals are tied for second among ECHL defenseman, one behind Columbia's Corey Hessler. Benazic's career high in goals is 18, set with Hassfurt in Germany in 1999-2000. The Kelowna, B.C., native has five goals in his last eight games and is closing on one of the top five goal-scoring seasons by an IceGator defenseman. Chris Valicevic has the top five seasons; his fifth-place total was 18, in the 1996-97 campaign. Benazic is one goal shy of last season's best by a Louisiana defenseman. Corey Neilson had 12 goals and Valicevic added 11 in the 2001-02 season.

Tough to come back on – The IceGators are 17-0-3 this season when leading after two periods. In the three-year Dave Farrish era, Louisiana has dropped just four games in regulation when leading after 40 minutes. The IceGators are 88-4-4 when taking a lead into the third period under Farrish. Louisiana has dropped three overtime/shootout games this season when leading after two periods, tying the most non-wins under Farrish in that situation.

Shiryaev tied with Maxwell – Dennis Shiryaev's 34 major penalties are tied with Roger Maxwell for sixth on the team's all-time list. Maxwell played in 98 games, while Shiryaev has seen action in 93. Eric Cloutier is fifth on the ledger with 44. Teammates Jeff Worlton and Shawn Skiehar, each with 18, are quickly advancing into the top 10. Ryan Pisiak and Mike Kucsulain are tied for ninth with 22 majors.

Game-winning assists – Bobby Brown and Kevin Mitchell are tied for the team lead with six game-winning assists apiece. Bruce Richardson is third on the list with four. Overall, 13 different IceGators have notched a game-winning assist this season.

Quick hits

· Linemates Bruce Richardson and Daniel Goneau have combined for 14 points (4g, 10a) in six games against Jackson this season.

· Bobby Brown and Cal Benazic each have two of Louisiana's four power-play tallies versus the Bandits. Brown leads the IceGators with five overall goals against Jackson.

· John McNabb (2g, 2a) and Sean Gillam (1g, 2a) are the only Bandits with more than two points against the IceGators this season.

· The IceGators are 17-1-4 when yielding one or less power play goals this season, but they are 6-8-4 when allowing two or more.

· Jackson is 12-6-3 in one-goal games this season, tied for the most one-goal wins in the ECHL.

· Louisiana has outscored its opponents 94-60 in even strength situations this season.

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ECHL Stories from January 17, 2003


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