ECHL ECHL

Pair In North, Two From South Clinch Kelly Cup Berth

Published on March 6, 2006 under ECHL (ECHL) News Release


Four more teams have qualified for the Kelly Cup Playoffs as the Florida Everblades, the Gwinnett Gladiators, the Reading Royals and the Wheeling Nailers join the Alaska Aces, Fresno Falcons and the Las Vegas Wranglers in the postseason.

Gwinnett, which is making its third consecutive postseason appearance, is 39-11-7 and leads the South Division with 85 points, 10 points ahead of Florida at 36-18-3 and 12 points in front of Greenville at 35-19-3. The Gladiators lost in the conference semifinals last season after reaching the conference finals in their first season in Gwinnett in 2004. Florida has advanced to the Kelly Cup Playoffs in all eight of its seasons in the league and has reached the Kelly Cup Finals each of the past two years.

It is the third straight trip to the Kelly Cup Playoffs for Reading which continues to lead the North Division at 34-15-7 and 75 points, four points ahead of Wheeling at 33-17-5 and six points in front of Toledo at 32-18-5. The Royals reached the division finals last season after advancing to the conference finals in 2004. The Nailers return to the Kelly Cup Playoffs for the fourth time after missing the postseason a year ago. Toledo needs a single point to reach the Kelly Cup Playoffs in back-to-back years for the first time since 1998 and 1999. The Storm hosts Reading on Wednesday before playing at Reading on Friday and at Trenton on Saturday and Sunday.

Greenville, which won the Kelly Cup in 2002, can return to the postseason for the second straight season and the fifth time in its eight seasons with a win at Trenton on Tuesday.

Long Beach can advance to the Kelly Cup Playoffs for the second year in a row with a win at Bakersfield on Tuesday. In their first postseason appearance a year ago, the Ice Dogs advanced to the division finals.

The ECHL regular season ends on April 8 and the Kelly Cup Playoffs are scheduled to begin April 10 with the Kelly Cup Finals scheduled for May 22-June 3.

The playoff qualifiers in the American Conference are the top five teams in the North Division and the top six teams in the South Division.

The best-of-three division quarterfinals in the American Conference will be played April 10-13 with the best-of-five division semifinals scheduled for April 14-23. The best-of-five division finals will be played April 24-May 3 and the best-of-seven American Conference Finals are scheduled for May 5-20.

The playoff qualifiers in the National Conference will be the top four teams with the highest regular-season point total from the Pacific Division and the top four teams with the highest regular-season point total from the West Division.

The best-of-seven division semifinals in the National Conference will be played April 10-22 with the best-of-seven division finals scheduled for April 24-May 6. The best-of-seven National Conference Finals will be played May 8-20.

Thunder Has Memorable Weekend

It was a record-setting weekend in Stockton as the first-year Thunder posted back-to-back home wins against Dayton, winning 5-2 on Saturday and 4-2 on Sunday. It is the first time that Stockton has won consecutive games and consecutive home games as it improved to 10-33-11 overall and 4-16-8 at Stockton Arena.

The Thunder has had eight crowds over 8,000 including four sellout crowds, three capacity crowds of 10,117 and once crowd of 8,923 which was classified as a sellout because 1,194 seats were not available for sale. The Thunder will play the next eight games on the road beginning at Phoenix on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Jake Moreland had 51 saves on Sunday, marking the third time in the last 10 games that he has stopped more than 50 shots in a game, to raise his save percentage to .917 while lowering his goals-against average to 3.19. He is 8-14-7 in 30 games for the Thunder and tied for the league lead with four overtime losses.

Mike Lalonde scored two goals on Sunday and has six goals in his last 10 games to lead the team with 21 goals in 52 games. Lalonde, who is tied for the ECHL rookie lead with 12 power-play goals, scored 15 seconds into the game on Sunday, setting the team record for fastest goal from start of a game.

The league record for fastest goal from start of a game is held by Glenn Clark of Louisville, who scored six seconds into the game against Johnstown on Mar. 11, 1994. The ECHL record for fastest goal from the start of a period is five seconds and held by three players. The last player to score five seconds into a period was Kent Davyduke of Mississippi, who scored in overtime at Louisiana on Dec. 8, 2002 tying the record set by Brian Hannon of Carolina on Dec. 1, 1988 against Virginia and tied by Rick Kowalsky of Hampton Roads against Charlotte on Dec. 22, 1995.

Joel Irwin, who had an assist on Sunday to extend his scoring streak to six games (2g-6a), leads Stockton with 32 assists and 50 points in 52 games while ranking third on the team with 18 goals. Nathan Martz is second on the team with 31 assists and 42 points in 51 games while Maris Ziedins, who played for Latvia in the Olympics, leads the team with three game-winning goals and has 27 points (13g-14a) in 39 games.

League Attendance Increases For Eighth Straight Week

A team record crowd of 7,315 on Saturday in Reading and more than 10,000 in San Diego for the third consecutive Saturday helped the ECHL increase its average attendance for the eighth week in a row and surpass the three million mark in total attendance for the 13th consecutive season.

It is the 10th time since joining the league in 2003-04 that San Diego has had a crowd in excess of 10,000, including 12,358 on Feb. 25, 12,240 on Feb. 18 and a team record crowd of 13,001 for its home opener on Nov. 5. In the last three weeks, San Diego has increased its average attendance by almost 12 percent to rank fourth in the league with 5,727 per game. Reading broke the record of 7,248 set on Oct. 22, 2004 and increased its average attendance to 5,497 which is sixth in the league.

The league has drawn 3,009,571 for its first 702 games for an average of 4,287 per game which is an increase of more than nine percent from a year ago and continuing to be on pace for the highest average attendance since 2000-01 when the ECHL averaged 4,319 per game. The league reached three million fans in 701 games, the fastest it has reached three million since 1999-2000 when it accomplished it in 639 games.

The ECHL has had 26 sellout crowds and 11 crowds of more than 10,000 led by San Diego which has had four crowds over 10,000 and Stockton which has had three capacity crowds of 10,117. Gwinnett has had two crowds over 10,000, including a sellout of 11,355 on Nov. 11, and Charlotte had 10,894 on Nov. 25 and 10,945 on Feb. 18.

Gwinnett drew almost 11,000 on Saturday and Sunday to raise its average attendance to seventh in the league with 5,488 per game. Florida, which has led the ECHL in attendance each of the past six seasons, remains atop the league with 6,055 per game followed by first-year member Stockton, which averaged over 7,300 for its games on Saturday and Sunday, at 6,043 per game.

Charlotte is third in the league with 5,839 per game, an increase of 15.7 percent from last season. The Checkers will play their first home games since Feb. 19 when they host Gwinnett on Friday and Greenville on Sunday. Charlotte has sold out its last five home games played on Saturday, including a team record crowd of 10,945 on Feb. 18, and leads the league with eight sellouts. The listed capacity for the new Bobcats Arena is 6,800, but additional sections can be opened to accommodate larger crowds.

Did You Know ... Mike Lalonde set a Stockton record when he scored 15 seconds into the Thunder's 4-2 win against Dayton on Sunday. The ECHL record for fastest goal from start of a game is six seconds by Glenn Clark of Louisville on Mar. 11, 1994 vs. Johnstown.

Feature Games Of The Week

North Division

Reading at Toledo - Wednesday at 7:05 p.m. ET
- Drew MacIntyre is 4-0-0 against Reading with goals against of 2.64 and a save percentage of .904.
- Dany Roussin leads the Royals with eight points (3g-5a) in six games against Storm.

South Division

Greenville at Charlotte - Sunday at 4:00 p.m. ET
- Greenville is 6-1-0 with a 2.50 goals-against average against Charlotte.
- Rory Rawlyk has Charlotte's only game-winning goal against the Grrrowl.

West Division

Idaho at Alaska - Friday at 7:15 p.m. AT
- Defenseman Peter Metcalf leads Alaska with four goals against Idaho.
- Idaho is 3-0-0 and has outscored its opponent 10-3 in the last three games.

Pacific Division

Long Beach at Bakersfield - Tuesday at 7:00 p.m. PT
- Ice Dogs' Christian Larrivee has four points (2g-2a) in the last two games.
- Ryan Munce is 2-0-1 against Bakersfield with a 1.54 goals-against average and a .962 save percentage.

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ECHL Stories from March 6, 2006


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