Salmon Kings Finish Off RoadRunners 6-1
April 7, 2007 - ECHL (ECHL)
Phoenix RoadRunners News Release
VICTORIA, British Columbia - Six different skaters potted goals and goaltender Julien Ellis stopped 27 shots to propel the Victoria Salmon Kings to a 6-1 win and a three-game sweep of the Phoenix RoadRunners before a crowd of 7,006 at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre in ECHL action Saturday. The RoadRunners will meet the Las Vegas Wranglers in a best-of-seven National Conference Quarterfinal that will begin at 7:11 p.m. Tuesday at US Airways Center.
Victoria (36-32-4) blitzed the RoadRunners with a four-goal first period. Ryan Wade opened the barrage at 3:45 when he received the puck from Wes Goldie in the slot and tucked it past goaltender Cody Rudkowsky for a 1-0 lead. Derek Krestanovich made it 2-0 at 12:59 re-directing Phil Cole's shot from the right point underneath Rudkowsky's pad. Marc-Andre Bernier scored late on the Salmon Kings' second power play from just inside the right-wing circle at 18:43 to extend Victoria's lead to a commanding three goals. Goldie then tallied his 42nd goal of the year, but just his first goal in six games against Phoenix when he beat Rudkowsky with a slap shot off his own rebound at 19:02 to make it 4-0 Salmon Kings after 20 minutes.
Former RoadRunners' defenseman Paul Ballantyne tallied his fifth goal of the year 5:37 into the second period to give the Salmon Kings a 5-0 cushion. The RoadRunners (27-40-5) would finally crack the scoreboard at 12:24 of the second when Justin Aikins potted his team-leading 27th goal of the season over the left shoulder of Victoria goalie Julien Ellis.
Darryl Lloyd finished off the scoring with his 11th goal at 11:06 of the third period.
Victoria out-shot Phoenix 49-28. Rudkowsky stopped 30 shots in two periods of work and took the loss to fall to 10-22-2 on the season. The RoadRunners went 0-4 on the power play but held Victoria to 1-7 on the man-advantage.
Notes: Las Vegas clinched the #1 overall seed in the National Conference with a 2-1 win over Stockton...The RoadRunners surrendered four goals in a period for the fourth time this season...Phoenix enjoyed a 14-point improvement from their inaugural 2005-06 season...Center Tyler Redenbach was placed on the seven-day injured reserve, while defenseman Matt Smyth was activated off the IR.
Individual game tickets for the opening round of the 2007 ECHL Kelly Cup Playoffs start as low as $7 and are now on sale at the US Airways Center box office and at all Ticketmaster outlets including Ticketmaster.com.
Information on season tickets, half-season packages, and flex plans for the 2007-08 season of Phoenix RoadRunners Hockey are available by calling (602) 462-GOAL.
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