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Six Teams Qualify, Six Berths Remain In Kelly Cup Playoffs

March 13, 2006 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


Six more teams have qualified for the Kelly Cup Playoffs as Greenville, Idaho, Johnstown, Long Beach, Toledo, and Utah join Alaska, Florida, Fresno, Gwinnett, Las Vegas, Reading and Wheeling, leaving six berths remaining for the postseason which begins Apr. 10.

In the National Conference, Idaho and Utah secured the final two playoff berths in the West Division, joining Alaska and Las Vegas, while Long Beach joins Fresno in the Pacific Division. Idaho advances to the postseason for the third time in three seasons, having captured the Kelly Cup as an expansion team in 2003-04, while Utah reaches the playoffs in its first season. Alaska is 47-9-4 and leads the league with 98 points while Las Vegas is 44-10-6 and in second place with 94 points. The Aces have eclipsed the team record of 45 wins set a year ago while tying the team record for points also set last season. Las Vegas has broken its team record of 43 wins and 93 points, both set in the Wranglers inaugural season in 2003-04. It is the second consecutive trip to the postseason for Long Beach which reached the division finals a year ago. Bakersfield and San Diego could clinch the final two berths in the Pacific on Tuesday and Wednesday, respectively. Bakersfield is looking to reach the postseason for the second season in a row while San Diego looks to return to the Kelly Cup Playoffs after not qualifying in 2004-05.

In the American Conference, Toledo and Johnstown join Reading and Wheeling in the North Division while Greenville joins Gwinnett and Florida in the South Division. Toledo is making its first back-to-back postseason appearance since 1998 and 1999 while Johnstown returns to the postseason for the first time since 2003-04 and the 11th time in its 18-year history.

The ECHL regular season ends on Apr. 8 and the Kelly Cup Playoffs are scheduled to begin Apr. 10 with the Kelly Cup Finals scheduled for May 22-June 3.

The playoff qualifiers in the American Conference are the top five teams in the North Division and the top six teams in the South Division.

The best-of-three division quarterfinals in the American Conference will be played April 10-13 with the best-of-five division semifinals scheduled for Apr. 14-23. The best-of-five division finals will be played Apr. 24-May 3 and the best-of-seven American Conference Finals are scheduled for May 5-20.

The playoff qualifiers in the National Conference will be the top four teams with the highest regular-season point total from the Pacific Division and the top four teams with the highest regular-season point total from the West Division.

The best-of-seven division semifinals in the National Conference will be played Apr. 10-22 with the best-of-seven division finals scheduled for Apr. 24-May 6. The best-of-seven National Conference Finals will be played May 8-20.

Gwinnett Pulls Away In South Division, American Conference

Posting back-to-back wins against Charlotte and a come-from-behind overtime win against South Carolina, Gwinnett extended its winning streak to eight games, one shy of the team record set earlier this season from Jan. 21-Feb. 11.

Gwinnett will play at Greenville on Friday and will host Charlotte on Saturday. The Gladiators are 3-4-1 against Greenville and 6-0-1 against Charlotte.

The Gladiators have registered a point in 27 of their last 32 games (24-5-3) to improve to 42-11-7 and lead the South Division and the American Conference with 91 points. The team record for points in a season is 92 set in 2003-04 while the team record for wins is 42 in 2003-04.

Gwinnett leads the league with 259 goals and 4.32 goals-per game while also sitting atop the ECHL with 2,276 shots and 37.93 shots-per game. The 259 goals is the most since the Gladiators played in Mobile in 1999-2000.

Jeff Campbell has a team-leading 29 goals and a team-high and career-high 75 points, surpassing the Gladiators record of 73 points set by Kevin Doell in 2003-04. The team record for points is 88 by Jason Elders in 1999-2000. Sean Fields picked up a pair of wins over the weekend to improve to 27-8-4 and surpass the team record of 25 wins set by Chad Alban in 1999-2000.

League Attendance Climbs For Ninth Straight Week

Back-to-back sellouts in Florida combined with five crowds over 6,000 and eight other crowds in excess of 5,000 helped the ECHL increase its average attendance for the ninth consecutive week to 4,292 per game, an increase of more than nine percent from a year ago.

The league reached three million fans in the shortest number of games since 1999-2000 and is on pace for the highest average attendance since 2000-01 when it averaged 4,319 per game.

The Everblades had 7,333 on Friday and 7,166 on Saturday, marking the second and third sellouts and the third and fourth crowd of more than 7,000 in the last six games. Florida, which has led the ECHL in attendance each of the past six seasons, continues to lead the league with 6,127 per game followed by first-year member Stockton at 6,043 per game.

The ECHL has had 28 sellout crowds and 11 crowds of more than 10,000 led by San Diego which has had four crowds over 10,000 and Stockton which has had three capacity crowds of 10,117. Gwinnett has had two crowds over 10,000, including a sellout of 11,355 on Nov. 11, and Charlotte had 10,894 on Nov. 25 and 10,945 on Feb. 18.

Charlotte had more than 12,000 for its two games on Friday and Sunday and increased its attendance to 5,862 per game which ranks third in the league and is up more than 16 percent from a year ago. San Diego ranks fourth at 5,663 followed by Bakersfield at 5,591, which is up more than three percent from 2004-05.

Nine teams increased their average attendance this past week, including Alaska, which averaged more than 5,100 for its three-game series with Idaho, and Johnstown, which drew more than 8,000 for its three games on the weekend.

Kompon's Streak Ends At 25 Games

Mike Kompon did not score in Reading's 3-1 win against Toledo on Friday, ending his scoring streak at 25 games which is the fourth-longest in ECHL history.

The 5-foot-10 and 185-pound Kompon scored 40 points (8g-32a) during the streak which began Nov. 26 with two assists in a 5-1 win at Trenton and included 10 games with two assists and 12 multiple-point games. He had a 10-game assist streak (14a) from Jan. 13-Mar. 8, tying the longest assist streak in the league this season set by Alex Leavitt of Alaska from Dec. 16-Jan. 10 (16a) and tied by Daniel Sisca of Florida from Dec. 9-30 (15a).

In his second season, the 24-year-old leads Reading with 41 assists, 56 points, 18 power-play assists and 25 power-play points in 41 games. He has also played in the American Hockey League where he has three assists in 11 games with Binghamton, one goal in three games with Hershey and one assist in two games with Manchester.

Longest Consecutive Point-Scoring Streak
38 - Trevor Jobe, Nashville, Dec. 19, 1992-Mar. 14, 1993 (112 points)
35 - Brian Martin, Hampton Roads, Oct. 30, 1990-Jan. 18, 1991 (not available)
32 - Jamey Hicks, Birmingham, Dec. 30, 1997-Mar. 7, 1998 (65 points)
25 - Mike Kompon, Reading, Nov. 26, 2005-present (40 points)

Did You Know ... Alaska is 40-0-0 when leading after two periods and could become the sixth team to finish without a loss when leading after the second period, joining Idaho (29-0-0) and Trenton (34-0-0) in 2003-04, Arkansas (11-0-0) and Mobile (31-0-0) in 1999-2000, and Richmond (25-0-0) in 1996-97.

Feature Games Of The Week

North Division

Reading at Wheeling - Saturday at 7:30 p.m. ET
- Reading and Wheeling have identical 4-3-1 record against each another.
- Sean Collins averages two points per game against Reading (6g-6a).

South Division

Gwinnett at Greenville - Friday at 7:05 p.m. ET
- In its last 11 home games, Greenville is 9-1-1 and has outscored its opponents 48-22.
- In its last eight games, Gwinnett is 8-0-0 and has outscored its opponents 36-18.

West Division

Alaska at Las Vegas - Friday at 7:05 p.m. PT
- Alaska's Matt Underhill is 7-2-1 with goals against of 1.87 in his last 10 games.
- In its last four games, Las Vegas is 4-0-0 and has outscored its opponents 17-8.

Pacific Division

Fresno at Long Beach - Wednesday at 7:00 p.m. PT
- Brett Jaeger is 2-0-0 against Long Beach with a 1.44 goals-against average and a .952 save percentage.
- Long Beach won last meeting, 4-3 in overtime on Jan. 27, to improve to 1-1-1 against Falcons.

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