Metcalf, Shasby awarded all-ECHL status

April 5, 2007 - ECHL (ECHL)
Alaska Aces News Release


ANCHORAGE, Alaska - Peter Metcalf and Matt Shasby, paired together all season on the Alaska blue line, each have been named all-ECHL for the 2006-07 season.

Metcalf earned first team all-ECHL honors, while Shasby was awarded a spot on the second team. Shasby should supplant Metcalf as the league's plus/minus champion this year; heading into the regular season's final weekend, Shasby sits at +40, good enough for a +7 lead over Dayton's Ryan Reid.

Last year, Metcalf led the ECHL at +44 and is a solid +18 this season while leading all blue-liners with a career-high 60 points on 13 goals and 47 assists. Now in his fifth professional season, most of which has been spent in the ECHL, the 28-year-old Metcalf has been part of two Kelly Cup champions, Atlantic City as a rookie in 2003 and last year with Alaska, when he tied for the lead among ECHL defensemen in scoring with 15 points on three goals and 12 assists, including the game-winning goal in Game Three of the Kelly Cup Finals at Gwinnett. Metcalf scored 23 points (6g-17a) on the 1999 national champions as a freshman at the University of Maine, then led the Black Bears back to the national championship game as a senior in 2002, when he earned All-American honors with nine goals and 41 assists.

Like Metcalf, Shasby joined Alaska prior to last season after spending a year with one of its West rivals in 2004-05 (Shasby with Long Beach, Metcalf with Idaho). He finished +20 for the Aces last season with 40 points (7g-33a), and has established new career-highs this year with 10 goals, 43 assists, and 50 points. The 26-year-old Shasby currently ranks second among ECHL defensemen in assists and third in points, and enjoyed his first two-goal game of the season, including the game-winner midway through the third period, as Alaska rallied to beat Utah 4-3 Wednesday night.

Alaska (47-16-7, 101 points) opens defense of its 2006 ECHL title Monday and Tuesday at Sullivan Arena, with both games starting at 7:15 p.m., regardless of whether its opponent is Phoenix, Victoria, or Fresno. The Aces need to sweep the Grizzlies this weekend and hope for help from Stockton, who plays in Las Vegas against the front-running Wranglers (102 points), in order to claim first overall in the ECHL for the second year in a row, a feat never before accomplished in the 19-year history of the league.

All regular season and playoff games are broadcast live on the flagship home of Aces hockey, KFQD 750 AM. Tickets for tomorrow night's rematch against Utah and all 2007 Kelly Cup playoff games are now available at participating Fred Meyer locations or by logging onto www.alaskaaces.com.



ECHL Stories from April 5, 2007


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