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Salmon Kings' Defencemen Lead Way In Shootout Thriller

January 19, 2008 - ECHL (ECHL)
Victoria Salmon Kings News Release


The Victoria Salmon Kings and the Fresno Falcons squared off tonight in Victoria for the first game of a three game set. The West Division leading Kings are familiar with the Falcons as tonight's game marks the fifth matchup of the season between the two clubs. The teams have split the season series winning two games a piece.

Midway through the opening frame, Fresno goaltender Jake Moreland was forced to fend off a Victoria five-on-three power play making a number of big saves in close to keep the game scoreless. The saves seemed to ignite the Fresno offence as Brady Leisenring opened the scoring at the 17:11 mark of the period to give his Falcons a 1-0 lead.

The Falcons would strike again just over a minute later as Oren Eizenman notched his 20th goal of the season on the power play to give Fresno a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes.

The Salmon Kings wasted no time in the second period as Jordan Krestanovich scored a power play marker just over a minute into the frame. The puck squirted out of a scrum in front of the crease and Krestanovich pounced on the puck firing a slap shot behind Moreland to cut the Fresno lead to 2-1.

The Kings would tie up the game midway through the second period as Paul Ballantyne jammed home his third goal of the season on the power play. Gary Gladue and Nathan Barrett drew the assists on the play.

Both teams had some quality scoring opportunities late in the period, but both Julien Ellis and Jake Moreland remained solid in net to keep the 2-2 tie after two periods of play.

The Falcons must have taken notes on the fast start Victoria had in the second period as they would re-take the lead just 40 seconds into the final frame. John Morlang found the puck high in the slot and made no mistake ripping a shot over the shoulder of Ellis for his 9th goal of the season.

The Kings proved to be resilient as Darryl Lloyd made a great individual effort for his fourth goal of the season to tie the game 3-3. That joy was short lived however as Brady Leisenring replied just 33 seconds later with his second goal of the night and 11th of the season to give the Falcons the 4-3 lead.

Ballantyne took matters into his own hands at the 12:03 mark of the final frame firing an unassisted marker behind Moreland, but again it was Fresno with the reply as Matt Stefanishion put the Falcon's fifth goal of the night behind Ellis restoring his team's one goal lead.

The Kings would respond once more in regulation time as Ballantyne was sent in on a breakaway and made no mistake notching his third goal of the night behind Moreland for his first ECHL hat trick, sending the game into overtime. The overtime period solved nothing sending the game the distance and into to shootout.

The shootout came down to the final shooters for both teams. Dylan Yeo scored on the Kings attempt to put the pressure on Jarrett Konkle who had to score to keep the shootout going. Konkle came at Ellis with speed, but bobbled the puck at the last minute making it an easy stop for Ellis and giving the Kings the 6-5 shootout victory.

The Salmon Kings finished the game with 34 shots on net and went 2/6 (33%) on the power play while Fresno fired 34 shots on Ellis and went 1/5 (20%) with the man advantage. Game two of the three game series goes Saturday night at 7:05 pm. Call 220-7889.

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