Salmon Kings Season Wrap-up

Published on April 12, 2005 under ECHL (ECHL)
Victoria Salmon Kings News Release


Victoria, BC – The Victoria Salmon Kings inaugural season came to an end on Saturday with a 6-5 overtime victory against the San Diego Gulls. Victoria's record against the Gulls remained one game below .500 over the course of the 2004-05 campaign. In game of the final weekend series the Gulls beat the Salmon Kings 3-2.

Before Saturday's win the Salmon Kings were stuck on 14 wins. In a season of record breaking proportions including an ECHL high 20 game winless streak, the 15th win moved the Salmon Kings out of contention for tying two records, the fewest wins (14) and the most losses (52) in a single season.

Ryan Wade highlights the Salmon Kings bright future. Wade was not only the Salmon Kings leader in goals (19) assists (31) and points (50), Head Coach and General Manager Bryan Maxwell said of Wade, "He had a great rookie season, and was a leader on this team. We can expect nothing more than bigger and better things from him next year."

Maxwell was also able to secure the playing rights of Tampa Bay Lightning prospect Alexei Glukhov. Glukhov became the first European born player to dress in a Salmon Kings jersey and adapted to the North American style of play very quickly. Victoria was Glukhov's first stop on the continent.

‘Gluk' knew very little English upon his arrival in Victoria but went to work learning the language and his communication ability dramatically changed during his stay. He immediately became a fan favorite at Bear Mountain and after only a few games of frustration on the smaller ice surface began to produce finishing with 5 goals and 12 assists in 32 games.

The Victoria Salmon Kings move from the Bear Mountain Arena into the new 7000 seat Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre next season. Although the team was playing in an alternate building in a suburb of Victoria, the Salmon Kings fan base grew all season long.

The Salmon Kings were not able to secure many wins but they competed night in and night out and left to standing ovations on several occasions. Fans in Victoria appreciated the teams hard work often times incredibly shorthanded, twice this season Victoria started hockey games with only 12 available skaters and won, both against the Gulls and both featured hat-tricks. The first included the Salmon Kings first franchise three goal game from Jason Hegberg, and the second was the season ending victory highlighted by Jan Sochor's trick.

The 2004-05 season was a difficult one for the Salmon Kings. The team found themselves on the road for the first 14 games, at home for a couple months and then back out on the road for 12 games to end the year.

Team Captain Brad Dexter received the InGlasco ECHL Player of the Week honors for the week of December 6-12, 2004. NY Rangers goaltending prospect Dan Blackburn became one of the eight starting goalies of the Salmon Kings early in 2005 and played outstanding despite having a permanent disability to his trapper arm.

Blackburn's ability to move in his crease and superior positioning allowed him to flourish between the pipes for Victoria, recording three wins including two in the shootout. Blackburn had ice in his veins facing shooter after shooter one on one and was only beaten once to the glove hand.

Equipment Manager Grant ‘Granny" Ferguson was the master of the name bar. The eight starting goaltenders only complimented the 53 skaters that at one point were signed as a Salmon King. Victoria officially lost a ‘billion' man games due to injury. The injuries were not just bumps and bruises, completely separated shoulders, broken ankles, hands, knees and concussions. It was one of those seasons that just as something looked like it was going to go the way of the Salmon King, something went bad, just when players returned to the line-up others would go down.

All in all the fans in Victoria were given a taste of intense, quick, hard hitting hockey. The Salmon Kings whet the palate of those who love the fastest game on earth and provided high quality family entertainment even through the adversity the hockey club faced from the first drop of the first puck back in November.

Maxwell said of his team to end the season "we competed hard every night and our fans would be proud of our team's play right to the final buzzer on this last road trip. We need to continue building a relationship with our growing fan base and there are a tonne of positives going into next season for our club to build from."

2005-06 Victoria Salmon Kings season tickets are now on sale. To set up and appointment with the Salmon Kings sales staff please call 250-220-7789.

2004-05 Record:
GMS -72
Wins - 15
Losses - 52
Ties - 5
Points - 35
PCT - .243
Goals For - 178
Goals Against - 298
Penalty Minutes - 1923
Home Record - 8-26- 2
Road Record - 7-26- 3
Last 10 - 3- 7- 0
Current Streak - 1- 0- 0

Individual Leaders:

Skaters

Goals – 19 – Ryan Wade
Assists – 31 – Ryan Wade
Points – 50 – Ryan Wade
PIM – 165 - Ryan Finnerty
Powerplay Goals – 8 – Ryan Wade, Seth Leonard
Powerplay Assists – 17 – Brad Dexter
Shorthanded Goals – 2 – Chris Corrinet
Shots on Goal – 200 – Ryan Wade
Shooting PCT – 22.2 – Ryan Watson

Goaltenders

Games – 38 – Jason Stone
Wins – 5 – Jason Stone
Losses – 22 – Jason Stone
Saves – 898 – Jason Stone
Shots Against - 1023 – Jason Stone
Save PCT – .892 – Dan Blackburn
GAA – 3.54 – Dan Blackburn

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