Sports stats

ECHL Idaho Steelheads

Steelheads open title defense with 5-1 victory over Aces

October 22, 2004 - ECHL (ECHL)
Idaho Steelheads News Release


BOISE, Idaho - The Idaho Steelheads raised the 2003-04 ECHL Kelly Cup National Championship banner and collected their rings, then opened defense of the Cup with a convincing 5-1 win over the Alaska Aces before a sellout crowd of 5,044 at the Bank of America Centre Friday night.

Goaltender Frank Doyle stopped 26 of 27 shots to record his first professional win as a Steelhead, while Peter Aubry stopped 30 of 35 shots for Alaska.

The Aces, who lost in last year's Pacific Division Finals to the Steelheads in four games, got on the scoreboard first. The Aces capitalized on pressure on Idaho's net and tallied the first goal of the game at 15:56. Chris Minard scored stick side on Steelheads' netminder Doyle.

Idaho evened the scored early in the second period on the power play with a rush around goaltender Aubry. The team's persistence paid off as David Morisset scored at 3:08. Idaho took the lead when Morisset skated the puck down the boards and fired a wrist shot. Aubry stopped the shot with his right pad, but Bobby Russell outmuscled a defender to pick up the rebound and knocked it in while the goaltender was still down. Idaho scored its third of the period just 2:40 later, and again, Morisset was in the middle of the action. He fanned on a shot, but recovered to pass the puck in front of the net to Lance Galbraith who chipped it in for the power play goal. Idaho's fourth goal came on a beautiful play that began when Justin Cox' cross-ice pass found Brett Draney just inside the blue line. Draney delivered a feed to Landon Bathe who was skating toward the goal line. Bathe caught Aubry out of position and slipped the puck by him, short side at 16:56. After two, Idaho led 4-1.

The Steelheads scored their fifth and final goal at 13:16 of the third period as the Aces tried to clear their zone. Peter Metcalf intercepted the clearing attempt and beat Aubry.

The two teams play again Saturday night at 7:10 pm, MT.

Check out the Idaho Steelheads Statistics



ECHL Stories from October 22, 2004


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 Idaho Steelheads Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central