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RiverBlades Unbeaten Streak at Eight

November 11, 2002 - ECHL (ECHL)
Arkansas RiverBlades News Release


The Arkansas RiverBlades continue to be the hottest team in the ECHL as a perfect 3-0 week gives Chris Cichocki¹s club an unbeaten streak of 8 games. Arkansas is 7-0-1 since October 26 and lead the Southern Conference with a record of 9-2-2 good for 20 points.

A look back...The Riverblades week began with a make up game against the Louisiana IceGators Thursday night in the CajunDome. The RiverBlades had not won in Louisiana since the 2000-01 season. Former IceGator Matt Pagnutti scored a goal and an assist and Terry Marchant had two goals and a helper as the RiverBlades ended their drought in Cajun Country. Jason Saal haunted his old teammates stopping 35 of 37 shots as the Blades rolled to a 5-2 win.

Saturday Night's return match in the Alltel Arena turned out to be one of the more memorable games in team history. Eric Long and Jason Bermingham scored goals for Arkansas while Daniel Goneau scored twice for the visitors as the game was tied 2-2 at the end of regulation play. Louisiana had the first power play in Overtime and fired 7 shots in OT only to have Saal make 4 brilliant saves to keep his team alive. With Arkansas on the power play and only 8 seconds to go in OT, Buddy Smith took a neutral zone face off forward into the IceGators zone. With the defense collapsing on him, Smith centered the puck to Eric Long who blasted a one-timer past Frederick Cloutier for the game winner. Only 2.1 seconds remained on the clock when Long's blast lit the lamp.

After a seven hour bus ride to Baton Rouge, the RiverBlades and Kingfish hooked up in one of the strangest games of the year. With 3:35 left in the first period the game was delayed on account of fog. After a 20 minute delay both teams returned to the ice only to be greeted by a power failure. The game was "Cancelled" at 6pm, fifteen seconds after the announcement, the electricity came on and both teams agreed to finish what they started. Arkansas got power play goals from Shawn Mamane, Dean Stork and two goals including a power play tally from Buddy Smith, to skate away with a 4-3 win. Rookie netminder Jimi St John got his second professional win stopping 42 of 45 Kingfish offerings.

Who's hot...The RiverBlades 8 game unbeaten streak is the longest in team history...the team's record of 9-2-2 is the best start to a season and 7 games over .500 is the best mark ever for a RiverBlades team in the first third of a season...Buddy Smith should make a strong run for player of the week, the 138 pound center tallied 2 goals and 5 assists for 7 points during Arkansas' three wins...Jason Saal is 5-0-1 in his last six appearances...Dean Stork has 4 goals in 13 games this season, doubling his goal total from last season...RiverBlades defensemen have scored 11 of the Blades 20 power play goals...Terry Marchant leads the team with 7 goals

A look ahead...The RiverBlades make a long trip up to play four games against Northern Conference teams this week. Wednesday morning Arkansas faces the Toledo Storm at 9:30AM CST. It is a match up of the two top teams in the ECHL. Toledo has the best record in the North, while the Blades top the Southern Conference. Friday night the Peoria Rivermen host the RiverBlades at 7pm While Saturday night should be a special night for Arkansas Coach Chris Cichocki, he returns to Cincinnati for the first time as coach. Cichocki spent seven years in Cincy as a player and assistant coach for the Cyclones of the IHL, game time is at 6:05pm. Sunday afternoon the four game in five night trek through the north ends with a visit to the Lexington Men O' War at 5pm CST. All games can be heard on the CSN radio network and on the internet at WWW.RiverBlades.Com.



ECHL Stories from November 11, 2002


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