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Peoria Is First ECHL Team To Go West

October 27, 2003 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


Peoria becomes the first former ECHL team to head west when it travels 3,717 miles to visit the Alaska Aces for three games in Anchorage. The Rivermen and Aces are scheduled to face off at 7 p.m. on Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Alaska hosted Trenton in a pair of preseason games, losing 2-1 on October 10 and winning 3-2 in a shootout on October 11.

The Aces hosted Fresno to open the season last weekend, losing 2-1 on Friday before winning 6-3 on Saturday and 3-2 on Sunday. Mark Smith, Mike Scott and Charles Linglet lead the Aces with two goals and four points each. Peoria is 1-0-0 on the road, opening the season with a 4-3 win at Cincinnati, and 2-1-1 overall. Trevor Baker leads the Rivermen with six assists and six points while Tyler Rennette leads the team with three goals, a hat trick against Wheeling on Friday, and two power-play goals.

Florida will be the next former ECHL team to travel west when it visits Las Vegas on November 4, Long Beach on November 5, San Diego on November 7 and 8, and Bakersfield on November 9. Fresno is the next former WCHL team to travel east when it plays at Columbus on November 4, at Pensacola on November 7 and 8, at Mississippi on November 9, and at Texas on November 11.

Long Beach opened its season on the road in the east going 1-3-1 with a win at Roanoke, a shootout loss at Trenton and losses at Johnstown, Wheeling and Atlantic City. The Ice Dogs begin a seven-game home stand hosting Bakersfield in their home opener on Saturday. Texas also opened on the road in the east going 1-5-1 with a win at Trenton, an overtime loss at Greensboro and losses at Atlantic City, Reading, Johnstown, Pensacola and Mississippi. The Wildcatters are off until November 8 when they host Louisiana in the first game at the new Arena at the Southeast Texas Entertainment Complex.

ECHL Attendance Remains Strong In Second Week

With sellouts in Florida (7,181) and Greenville (7,479) on Friday and strong crowds in Alaska (5,156 on Friday), Gwinnett (6,457 on Friday) and Las Vegas (7,208 on Tuesday), the ECHL saw its average opening night attendance grow from 5,424 to 5,661. The ECHL, which had four sellouts on opening weekend, has drawn 152,834 fans for the 27 home openers that have been played.

The 22 former ECHL teams have drawn 124,792 fans, an average of 5,672 fans, for their home openers compared to 112,742, an average of 5,125 for 2002-03, an increase of more than 10 percent. The 25 ECHL and WCHL teams that played in 2002-03 combined to draw 139,169 for an average of 5,567 fans for their home openers compared to 129,963 and an average of 5,199 for their home openers in 2002-03, an increase of seven percent.

San Diego, which had 12,920 on opening night in 2002-03, hosts rival Idaho in its home opener on Saturday while Long Beach, which had 6,340 for opening night last season, opens the same night against Bakersfield. Texas will open the new Arena at the Southeast Entertainment Complex on November 8 against Louisiana while Fresno is the last team to open at home, awaiting completion of the 13,800-seat Save Mart Center where the Falcons host Bakersfield on November 16.

In the first two weeks of 2002-03, the ECHL drew 236,100 fans for 62 games, an average of 3,808 fans, while the WCHL drew 55,876 fans for 10 games, an average of 5,588 fans. The two leagues combined drew 291,976 fans for the first two weeks in 2002-03, an average of 4,055 fans per game. Through the first two weeks of play in 2003-04, the ECHL has drawn 281,362 fans for 67 games, an average of 4,199 per game, up almost more than10 percent from the ECHL attendance of 2002-03 and up over three percent from the combined ECHL and WCHL attendance from 2002-03

Individual Highs Set In Generals' 6-5 OT Win

Greensboro's Eric Fortier and Texas' Bob Cunningham each had a hat trick, Texas' Cory Morgan had an ECHL season-high five points and rookie goaltender Davis Parley made 58 saves for Texas in Greensboro's 6-5 overtime win against Texas on Thursday. Fortier completed his hat trick with the game-winning goal in overtime and finished the night with four points. It was the second professional hat trick for Fortier, who scored three goals with Jackson in a 5-4 loss against Arkansas on November 24, 2002. Cunningham, who scored his final two goals in the final 73 seconds to force overtime, leads the ECHL with eight goals and is tied for the lead in power-play goals with three. Morgan's four assists in the game ties him for the ECHL season-high with Peoria's Trevor Baker, who had four assists on Friday against Wheeling. Selected by Florida in the fourth round (120th overall), the 21-year-old Parley leads the ECHL with 140 saves in four games. Parley is 1-1-1 with a 3.15 goals against average and a .927 save percentage.

Notermann, Fellow Rookies Making Mark Early

The first two weeks have seen some strong offensive numbers from rookies in the ECHL, including Jason Notermann, who leads Johnstown with seven points and is tied for the ECHL lead with two game-winning goals. Notermann has four goals and is tied for the rookie lead with Columbia's Jesse Schultz and Columbus' Tomas Micka. Atlantic City's Sam Paolini and Pensacola's Ryan Craig are tied for the rookie scoring lead with seven points and each has four assists which ties them for the rookie assist with Las Vegas' Justin Kelly, Florence's Nicols Cobeil, Columbus' Matt Shelby, Atlantic City's Jon Cullen and Toledo's Chris Page. Paolini and Schultz are tied with Pensacola's Greg Chambers for the rookie power-play goal lead with two each.

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