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Mallards Game Day

October 14, 2017 - ECHL (ECHL)
Quad City Mallards News Release


A.J. Jenks broke a 2-2 tie late in the second period and the Toledo Walleye went on to claim a season-opening 3-2 victory over the host Mallards after the Mallards had battled back from an early 2-0 deficit with goals from Sam Warning and Tristan King.

Double Down

Tonight's game is the first of back-to-back meetings between the Mallards and Oilers. Tulsa visits the TaxSlayer Center again Wednesday evening.

Home Sweet Home

Tonight's contest is game two of the Mallards' season-opening three-game homestand. The Mallards will also play six of their first seven games at home.

Opening Night

Last night's loss left the Mallards 10-10-1 all-time in season openers. The Mallards have dropped back-to-back openers. They fell 6-2 to the Fort Wayne Komets at home on opening night last year. The Mallards last won a curtain-raiser when they began the 2015-16 season by defeating the Americans 2-1 in Allen.

Home Hazards

The Mallards have now suffered regulation defeats in each of their nine home openers since the team returned to the ice in 2009 following the two-year interregnum during which the Quad City Flames competed in the AHL. The Mallards are also winless (0-9-1) in their last ten home openers. The Flock last started its home slate with a win on October 21, 2005 while in the United Hockey League when it downed the Motor City Mechanics 4-3 in a shootout.

Slow Start

The Mallards found themselves in a two-goal hole last night after the Walleye scored twice in 29 seconds less than two and a half minutes into the game. Patrick McCarron scored the first goal of the night at 1:55 of the opening period. Connor Crisp doubled the Toledo advantage at 2:24.

Warning Sign

Warning, the only third year Mallard, scored his club's first goal of the season at 16:20 of the first period last night.

Crowning Achievement

King scored in his Mallard debut last night after being acquired in a September trade with the Orlando Solar Bears.

Top Trio

The Mallards' top three returning point scorers were back at it last night. Justin Kovacs (who tied for the team lead with 60 points last season) assisted on Warning's (54) goal while Josh MacDonald (52) set up King's goal.

Firsts

Jacob Graves and player/assistant coach Jamie Tardif picked up assists while making their Mallard debuts last night.

Between the Pipes

Mallards goaltender C.J. Motte recovered from a difficult start last night by surrendering just one goal in the 56 minutes and 54 seconds he spent between the pipes after Crisp scored Toledo's second. There would seem to be little reason for Motte, who made 30 saves in the opener, to be discouraged after yesterday evening's setback. In his first (ever) Mallard start last year Motte also suffered a 3-2 loss. After that October 15 defeat in Fort Wayne in the Mallards' second game of the campaign, Motte shined the rest of the way. He went on to finish the season tied for sixth in the ECHL in save percentage (.917) and tied for eighth in goals against average (2.68) while posting a 20-11-2 record in 36 games.

Triple A

The Mallards have named three assistant captains. Tardif, Garrett Klotz and Alexander Kuqali wear the "A"'s while no player dons the captain's "C".

Tight

The Mallards opened the campaign with a one-goal loss after they went 22-10-4 in one-goal games last season and led the ECHL in one-goal wins.

Special Teams

The Mallards and Walleye both went 0-for-3 on the power play last night. Combining the end of last season with yesterday evening's opener, the Mallards have now killed off their opponents' last 17 regular season advantages and 31 of their foes' last 32 power plays. The Mallards have gone better than seven full games- 446 minutes and 20 seconds- across parts of two campaigns since last allowing a regular season power play goal on March 26 to the Wichita Thunder's Jeremy Beaudry at 16:22 of the second period of what proved to be a 2-1 Mallard overtime win.

Head to Head

Tonight's game is the first of six between the Mallards and Oilers this season. The Mallards went 2-1-0 against Tulsa last season while playing all three of those games at home. In fact, the Mallards have been at home for their last four games against Tulsa- a sequence that began on April 1, 2016 when the Mallards overcame the Oilers 5-3 in Moline- and will eventually see that run stretch to seven straight home ice meetings with the Oilers. After tonight, the Mallards will go on to host Tulsa next Wednesday evening and again on November 17 before the trend comes to an emphatic end when the Mallards finally return to the BOK Center for three games in three nights beginning March 23. Those March match-ups will mark the Mallards' first appearance in Tulsa in better than two years since they defeated the Oilers 4-3 in overtime on February 13, 2016. All-time, the Mallards have gone 17-14-0 against Tulsa overall and 12-7-0 at home.

Can't Live With You...

Since entering the ECHL in 2014, the Mallards and Oilers have been on-again-off-again division rivals. Tulsa has moved to the Mountain Division this season after sharing the Central Division with the Mallards last year. The two clubs were reunited last season after enduring 2015-16 apart- the Mallards spent that campaign in the Midwest Division while Tulsa competed in the Central. The Mallards, Oilers and five other former Central Hockey League teams first joined the ECHL en masse to form the Central Division in 2014-15.

Brian Lavelle

Director of Communications and Broadcasting

Quad City Mallards

Proud ECHL affiliate of Vegas Golden Knights and Chicago Wolves

O: 309-277-1344

C: 309-721-0732

F: 309-277-1362

www.myqcmallards.net



ECHL Stories from October 14, 2017


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.

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