Steelheads corral Wranglers 2-0 in must win game 3
Published on April 10, 2004 under ECHL (ECHL)
Idaho Steelheads News Release
BOISE, Idaho - The Idaho Steelheads dominated play as they skated to a 2-0 victory over the Las Vegas Wranglers Saturday night at the Bank of America Centre. Idaho was in a must-win situation after losing Games 1 and 2 of the Syringa Bank Kelly Cup Seminfinals in Las Vegas, and didn't disappoint the 3,780 fans in attendance.
Idaho's netminder Dan Ellis, who was reassigned to Idaho by its AHL affiliate Utah Grizzlies today, stopped 21 Wrangler shots for his first professional playoff shutout. Ellis had last played with the Steelheads on January 11th in Long Beach (W3-2) and had a regular season record of 13-8-1 in 23 games played. He recorded two regular season shutouts, blanking Cincinnati 3-0 on November 7th and Fresno 4-0 on January 4th.
Just as they had in the first two games in Las Vegas, the Steelheads came out of the gates fast and seized the momentum from the opening faceoff. After killing off a Wranglers 5-on-3, Idaho scored the first goal just minutes later. Zenon Konopka notched his first of the playoffs at 13:13 with a shot that bounced off Wranglers goalie Dany Sabourin into the net. Darrell Hay gave Idaho a two-goal lead at 16:47 with a backhander from the goal line that kicked off the heel of Sabourin's stick and went in through the five hole. The Steelheads ended the first 20-minutes with a two-goal lead, the first Idaho two-goal lead this series.
The teams skated to a scoreless second period, though both had good scoring chances. Sabourin stopped all 9 of Idaho's attempts, including a nine-second 5-on-3 opportunity. Ellis denied all 8 Wranglers shots in the period.
Ellis was stellar early in the third period as he stoned Eric Schneider on a breakaway less than four-minutes in. Las Vegas pulled its goalie for the extra attacker several times in the final 3 minutes, but couldn't capitalize with the man-advantage. Idaho outshot the Wranglers for the third straight contest, putting 36 on net tonight to Vegas' 21.
Game 4 will be played on Tuesday, April 13th at 7:05 pm at the Bank of America Centre. Tickets are currently on sale and prices range from $12.00 to $29.00 for adults and $9.00 to $19.25 for youth and seniors. Tickets are available at the Bank of America Centre box office, by visiting any Select-A-Seat outlet, by calling 331-TIXS (8497), or by logging on to www.idahotickets.com or www.idahosteelheads.com.
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