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Salmon Kings milestone series ends in sweep

March 31, 2007 - ECHL (ECHL)
Victoria Salmon Kings News Release


West Valley City, Utah - The Victoria Salmon Kings, proud affiliate of the Manitoba Moose and the Vancouver Canucks, finished their final road game of the regular season quieting the Grizzlies growl at the E-Center with a 5-1 victory and sweeping the three-game series.

The Salmon Kings scored in their third powerplay of the game for the 1-0 lead with 9:05 remaining in the opening frame. From the right point, Kiel McLeod passed underneath to Mike Stutzel, and the rebound from his shot was lifted in by Wes Goldie from the left of the crease for his 40th goal of the season. Utah tied the game with 2:16 remaining in the first, as Danny Stewart finished off a give-and-go with Blake Robson down the left wing with a one-timer from the slot.

Victoria tallied three unanswered goals in the span of under two and a half minutes to grab the 4-1 advantage in the second period.

With 4:43 remaining in the stanza, Defenseman Paul Ballantyne capitalized on a Utah clearing attempt and his one-timer from the blueline sliced through traffic in front of Goaltender Ben Gray for the 2-1 lead. At the 3:38 mark, 12 seconds into a Victoria powerplay, McLeod backhanded a pass from the top of the left circle to Stutzel in the high slot, and Stutzel followed suit with a spin-around backhand and earned his 15th goal of the season. The scoring streak wrapped up with 2:22 left in the period when Robin Gomez posted his first goal of the season, finishing a feed from F.P. Guenette trapped between two Utah defenders.

Rob McVicar relieved Gray between the pipes for the remainder of the game.

In the third frame, Victoria added another goal and Guenette earned his third point of the game. From the left corner, Jordan Krestanovich spotted Guenette in the left circle and his wristshot bounced off the crossbar and trickled behind McVicar. Julien Ellis earned second star of the game in his return to the Salmon Kings from the AHL affiliate Manitoba Moose.

Final: 5-1 Salmon Kings

Ellis notched his 19th win of the season and Gray was credited with his 12th loss of the season. Victoria was 2 for 6 on the powerplay and Utah was 0 for 4 with the man advantage. The Grizzlies outshot the Salmon Kings 36-35. Victoria (33-32-1-3) returns home to host Phoenix (26-36-2-3) in the final home series of the regular season, starting Wednesday April 4th at 7:05 p.m. (PT) at the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre.



ECHL Stories from March 31, 2007


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