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Record Starts Have Gladiators, Wildcatters In First Place

November 12, 2007 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


Record-setting starts have Gwinnett and Texas leading the ECHL and the South Division with identical 8-1-1 records and 17 points after the first four weeks of the season.

The Gladiators were 7-2-1 after 10 games in their inaugural season in 2003-04 and again in 2005-06. The Wildcatters, who were 6-2-2 after 10 games a year ago, have set team records with seven consecutive wins and six road wins.

In the first of seven regular season meetings between the two, Texas won 5-4 in a shootout on Saturday. Khudobin had 51 saves in regulation, including 23 in the second period, and eight in overtime before stopping four of five in the shootout. Texas eliminated Gwinnett from the 2007 Kelly Cup Playoffs in four games, including back-to-back overtime wins at home to end the series.

The Wildcatters will host Elmira on Friday, Saturday and Sunday while Gwinnett will host South Carolina on Friday.

Texas is third in the league in scoring with 4.10 goals per game and fourth in goals allowed with 2.40 per game while Gwinnett is third in goals against with 2.30 per game and fourth in goals scored with 4.00 per game.

The Gladiators lead the ECHL with 19 power-play goals and are fourth on the power play at 23.2 percent while the two are tied on the penalty kill at 87.3 percent. Gwinnett has led the ECHL on the power play each of the last two seasons, scoring a league record 120 power-play goals last season after having 114 in 2005-06, which ranks third all time.

Texas rookie Anton Khudobin, who is under contract to the Minnesota Wild of the National Hockey League, is 4-0-1 with a shutout and leads the ECHL with a goals-against average of 1.51 and a save percentage of .952. Gwinnett's Craig Kowalski is 6-1-1 with a goals-against average of 1.98 and a save percentage of .928. Peter Aubry of the Wildcatters is 4-1-0 with a shutout, a goals-against average of 2.79 and a save percentage of .898 while Gwinnett's Dan Turple is 2-0-0 with a goals-against average of 3.00 and a save percentage of .900.

Dirk Southern of Gwinnett has the longest point streak in the ECHL this season at nine games (4g-6a) while teammate Lou Dickenson has a seven-game point streak (4g-6a).

John McNabb of the Wildcatters is tied for the ECHL lead with nine goals, six power-play and 15 points in 10 games while Jonathan Paiement, who was called up to the American Hockey League by Rockford on Nov. 8, leads the league in plus-minus rating with +9. Jim Jackson of Gwinnett is tied for second in plus-minus rating with +8.

Gwinnett has had 22 different players score in the first 10 games, including Kowalski, while there have been 20 players on Texas who have a point.


Gwinnett Has Second Crowd Of 10,000, Cyclones Welcome 6,430

The fourth week of the ECHL season brought the largest crowd since 2003 in Cincinnati, back-to-back sellouts in Elmira and more than 10,000 for the second time this year in Gwinnett.

The ECHL will surpass 67 million fans this week, including more than 63 million who have watched 14,263 regular season games. The third-longest tenured professional league behind only the National Hockey League and the American Hockey League, the ECHL is averaging 4,064 per game as it looks to average more than 4,000 fans for the fourth season in a row and the 16th time in 20 years.

Cincinnati had 6,430 for its game against Augusta on Nov. 10, which is the fifth largest crowd in team history and the largest attendance since Jan. 24, 2003. The Cyclones average attendance is up 23.6 percent from last season when they returned to the league after a two-year hiatus.

Elmira has had a league-leading four sellouts in its first eight games, including Nov. 9 against Dayton and Nov. 10 against Bakersfield. The Jackals are averaging 3,575 per game, which is 94.5 percent of capacity for the 3784-seat First Arena and up more than four percent from last season.

Gwinnett had a season-high 10,353 for its game against Texas on Nov. 10, the second time this season and the seventh time in the last three years that the Gladiators have had a crowd over 10,000.

Florida had over 13,000 for two games against Columbia and is second in the league with 6,890 per game, which is 97.3 percent of capacity for Germain Arena and up 9.3 percent from last season. The Everblades have had 12 consecutive crowds over 6,000, including six in excess 7,000, for an average of 6,878 per game. Celebrating its 10th season in the ECHL, Florida has never averaged less than 6,200 and led the league in attendance for a record five seasons in a row from 2000-05.

Charlotte had its second sellout of the year with 6,897 on Nov. 10 to raise its average to 5,619 per game. Since moving into Charlotte Bobcats Arena, the Checkers have led the ECHL in sellouts each of the last two years with 11 in 2006-07 and 10 in 2005-06. The downtown arena has a listed capacity of 6,800 for hockey, but can accommodate larger crowds including a team record 11,237 on Feb. 10 against Texas.

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