Salmon Kings Blank Condors

Published on March 3, 2011 under ECHL (ECHL)
Victoria Salmon Kings News Release


Victoria, BC - In a Wednesday night regular season contest at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, the Victoria Salmon Kings took on the Bakersfield Condors in the first match of a three-game set. The Salmon Kings started David Shantz in net who was playing in his 150th ECHL game, while Bakersfield gave rookie netminder Brian Stewart the nod in goal.

Bakersfield had the first great chance of the night when Andrew Ianiero fed the puck to former Victoria Salsa Adam Naglich in the slot on a 2-on-1, but Milan Gajic got back just in time to intercept. David Shantz had to be sharp on the same shift as a Bakersfield centering attempt found the stick of Stephane Goulet behind the Victoria defense. Goulet tried to poke home the puck from in close, but was denied by the Salmon Kings' goaltender. Victoria got on the board at the 12:27 mark of the first period on a two man advantage when Rob Hennigar passed it to Ryan Turek who blasted his ninth goal of the season high glove side over Stewart. Shortly after, Milan Gajic walked in on a breakaway against Stewart, but was stopped on the five hole as he tried to double Victoria's lead. Victoria outshot Bakersfield 11-6 after 20 minutes with a 1-0 lead.

Bakersfield tried to get the equalizer early in the second period on another 2-on-1 as Naglich was left in front, but Turek got back into position and took away the passing lane. David Shantz continued to stand his ground minutes later as he slid post-to-post to stop Joel Broda on the wrap around and again on Ianiero on the rebound. Campbell River native Adam Taylor had a glorious chance to score his fourth goal of the season shortly after when he beat goaltender Stewart in a footrace to the puck well outside of the crease. Taylor deked around the sprawled netminder, but shot the puck over the open net. With 40 seconds remaining in the second period as a Bakersfield penalty expired Matt Stefanishion doubled Victoria's lead. Bryan Cameron fed a beautiful cross-ice pass to Stefanishion in the left circle who one-timed it past Stewart. Salmon Kings led 2-0 after two periods and outshot the Condors 26-10.

Adam Taylor tried to make up for missing the earlier open net when he blasted a slap shot on an odd man rush to start the third period. The puck sailed passed Stewart and rang off the far post. Milan Gajic made a great individual effort to get around two Condor defensemen and he looked to have beaten the goaltender Stewart on the far side but couldn't raise the puck over his left pad and was left scoreless on his second close range chance. Shantz made his best save of the night after Erick Lizon fed the puck to Naglich on a partial breakaway with less than five minutes remaining. Naglich went to the backhand which was stopped by Shantz to keep his team in control despite Bakersfield's late pressure. Gajic added an empty netter with 1:07 remaining. With the win, David Shantz passed Julian Ellis and Todd Ford for the all-time Salmon Kings shutout record with five. Salmon Kings 3 Bakersfield Condors 0.

Victoria went 1/333.3% on the power play, while Bakersfield was 0/400.0%. The Salmon Kings outshot the Condors 31-20.

The Salmon Kings will continue their home series against Bakersfield on Friday March 4th and Saturday March 5th with puck dropping at 7:05 in both those games. Saturday nights contest is the Salmon Kings "Hockey Night in Canada" game. Vancouver Canucks' national anthem singer Mark Donnelly will be in attendance performing the pre-game anthems, while various jersey giveaways will happen throughout the night. An autographed Vancouver Canucks Robert Luongo jersey is available for online auction at www.salmonkings.com, which will be presented on Saturday. For tickets, please call 250-220-7777 or visit www.selectyourtickets.com.

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