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San Diego, Wheeling Tied In Brabham Cup Race

Published on April 1, 2004 under ECHL (ECHL) News Release


PRINCETON, N.J. - Heading into the final two days of the regular season, San Diego and Wheeling are tied with 104 points in the race for the Brabham Cup, the trophy awarded each season to the regular season point champion in the ECHL.

Wheeling is 50-16-4 while San Diego is 47-13-10. The first tiebreaker used is wins, so in the event the two finish the season tied Wheeling would win the Brabham Cup.

Wheeling has clinched the Eastern Conference while San Diego has clinched the Western Conference. Wheeling will play at Trenton on Friday and at Atlantic City on Saturday while San Diego will play at Bakersfield on Friday before hosting Alaska on Saturday.

The Brabham Cup is named in recognition of Henry Brabham, who was a founding member of the ECHL and the first owner of the Erie Panthers. A former mayor and businessman who was a major force in professional hockey in Virginia for more than 15 years, Brabham worked tirelessly to establish the ECHL during its early years.

Wheeling and San Diego are the 12th and 13th teams, respectively, in ECHL history to reach 100 points. Atlantic City and Louisiana both must win their final two games to reach the century mark. Atlantic City hosts Toledo on Friday and Wheeling on Saturday while Louisiana hosts Pensacola on Thursday before traveling to Mississippi on Saturday.

Qualifying for the postseason for the first time since 1997-98 and winning its first division title since 1994-95, Wheeling is looking for its fourth Brabham Cup, having won the trophy as the Winston-Salem Thunderbirds in 1989-90 and as the Wheeling Thunderbirds in 1992-93 and 1994-95.

Wheeling is only the fifth team in ECHL history to win 50 games and the first since Louisiana won a league record 56 games in 2001-02. Wheeling has tied Trenton for the fourth-most wins in league history and needs one win to tie Pee Dee, which won 51 games in 1998-99, for third place. Florida has the second most wins in ECHL history with 53 in 1999-2000.

The Nailers have set team records for points (104), wins (50), home wins (28) and road wins (22). Wheeling had 59 points in 2002-03 and its 45-point increase is the third-highest point increase from one season to the next. The greatest single season point increase is 50 points by Knoxville (44 points in 1992-93 to 94 points in 1993-94) which broke Knoxville's record of 49 points (48 points in 1989-90 to 97 points in 1990-91).

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