Sports stats



Salmon Kings move past unlucky fourteen

April 10, 2005 - ECHL (ECHL)
Victoria Salmon Kings News Release


San Diego, CA – The storyline in the first period went much the way one would imagine in a game featuring two teams that will be cleaning out their lockers and golfing on Sunday.

The season finale between the San Diego Gulls and the Victoria Salmon Kings got off to a sleepy start on Saturday in a penalty filled first period. Both teams took offense to the fact that this was the last sixty minutes of the 2004-05 season, and maybe started a rivalry that could roll over into the next one.

With the score knotted at nothings at the beginning of the second period former Fresno Falcon and now Salmon King Jan Sochor decided we would take the game into his own hands. Sochor had showed flashes of a scoring touch in his first three games as a Salmon King but cemented his name in the minds of Victoria fans as the man of the moment.

Sochor opened the scoring at 2:43 of the middle stanza from Alexei Glukhov and Seth Leonard. San Diego promptly tied the score at one just over a minute later when Chet Ferreira and Grady Moore assisted on Chris Lynch's 11th of the season.

Sochor took offense to the game tying goal at 6:08, when Chris Corrinet set up his 8th of the season, a powerplay marker, and second in less than four minutes of play.

The Salmon Kings leading point getter Ryan Wade then stretched Victoria's lead to two goals when he recorded his 18th of the campaign on the powerplay from Brandon Elliott and Glukhov.

Then Sochor standing alone on Gulls goalie Eddy Fehri's doorstep whacked the puck past the netminder for the Salmon Kings third hat-trick in franchise history sending Victoria led the game by a score of 4-1.

Then with the Salmon Kings on the powerplay once more the undermanned Fish scored again. Wade making a late push to be the first to the 20 goal plateau took the feed from Mark Smith and Corrinet and buried it to reach nineteen.

After what was a rather boring defensive first period of play the Gulls and the Salmon Kings opened the floodgates. At 16:18 of the middle twenty Darren Clarke finished the scoring with his 12th of the season from Lynch, and the teams went to the dressing room for the final time this season with Victoria leading 5-2.

The Gulls starting goalie Ferhi began the final period of the season at the end of the bench as he was replaced by Simon Lajeneusse, who played a fine game between the pipes on Friday.

As Head Coach Bryan Maxwell said in between periods when asked about the final twenty minutes of play "it is all about the little things, face-offs, getting the puck out of our zone and into theirs and not quitting."

With just 6:07 left in the period the Gulls scored the first of two seventeen seconds apart to start rapping very loudly on the Salmon Kings door. The first came off the stick of Lynch from Moore and Brett Draney, the second came from Lynch as well who capped his first hatty of the season and third of his career to bring the Gulls within a single goal of sending the game to extra time.

Well the Salmon Kings didn't quit they just may have been victim of only having 12 skaters and playing a Gulls team that took offense to being beat by the Salmon Kings twice already under similar circumstances and not wanting to make it a hat-trick of another sort.

At 18:17 Guillaume Fournier made all the work the Salmon Kings did in the second period, simply disappear. Fournier's 16th of the season from Aaron Forsythe and Max Birbraer brought the Gulls faithful to their feet and put the Salmon Kings fans on the web chat in their seats, for having predicted the win so early in the third period.

The valuable lesson of counting Gull chicks before they hatch was learned on Saturday as the Salmon Kings squandered a three goal third period lead and the teams went to the extra period tied at five.

Salmon Kings goalie Rob Muntain cannot be blamed for the onslaught in the final period as he saw a barrage of rubber from the Gulls who did all they could to close out the season with two points.

With just 1:14 left in the overtime defenseman Brad Dexter and Kurtis Dulle took the rush to the Gulls back line. Dexter took the first whack at the puck in Lajeunesse's first real test of the night before Dulle's backhand swipe rippled the twine.

The Salmon Kings finish their inaugural season with a win and a little sweetness in the mouths of those who have followed the hard working, hard luck bunch over the last seven months. Wade just missed the 20 goal mark in his rookie season but ends the year with 19 goals, 31 assists for 50 points to lead the Salmon Kings in all scoring categories.

The Victoria Salmon Kings Hockey Club would like to wish all the ECHL clubs well and the best of luck in their respective runs to the Kelly Cup Championships and thank all the cities they have visited this season for their warm welcome and fine hospitality.

• Discuss this story on the ECHL message board...

ECHL Stories from April 10, 2005


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

Other Recent Victoria Salmon Kings Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central