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Steelheads Overpower Falcons

March 25, 2005 - ECHL (ECHL)
Fresno Falcons News Release


BOISE, Idaho - The Idaho Steelheads used three power play goals and a short-handed goal to extend their lead in the race for the fourth and final playoff spot out of the West Division to three points by defeating the Fresno Falcons 5-2 at the Bank of America Centre.

Idaho opened the scoring with a pair of power play goals to jump out to 2-0 lead. Andrei Vasilyev finished on a wide-open net following a rebound at 4:30 of the first before Lance Galbraith snuck one past Fresno netminder Brett Jaeger from a poor angle at 15:15. The Falcons got back in the hockey game less than two minutes later, though, as David Brisson completed a three-on-two rush with his 16th of the year to send the teams to the first intermission with Fresno trailing 2-1.

Vasilyev found the back of the net again early in the second at 4:43 just as a Steelhead power play expired to give Idaho their second two-goal advantage. The Falcons would respond while skating on a five-on-three at 11:21. Corey Hessler's low slapshot from the blue line was deflected in by Shaun Sutter, who now leads the ECHL with 15 power play goals this season, and Fresno was back within 3-2 after 40 minutes.

The Falcons successfully killed off an Idaho man advantage to start the third by drawing a penalty on the Steelheads. On the ensuing Fresno power play, though, the team gave the puck away in the neutral zone, which sprung Scott Burt on a break-away from the Falcons blueline. Burt beat Jaeger to the blocker side at 3:52 which essentially ended the Falcons' comeback hopes. The Steelheads would add another goal on the power play from Frank Lukes at 13:32 for the final 5-2 margin.

The loss drops Fresno three points behind Idaho in the race for the fourth and final playoff spot out of the West Division, giving them a record of 35-22-7 with 77 points.

The Falcons and Steelheads play the second game of a three-game series tomorrow at 6 p.m. Pacific time. All of the live play-by-play action may be heard and/or seen live courtesy of B2 Networks by logging onto the Falcons home page at www.fresnofalcons.com. The audio-only webcast is free while the video webcast costs $6 and requires a high-speed internet connection.

Fresno returns home following this five-game road trip that also includes stops in Las Vegas and Bakersfield to host the Alaska Aces on Saturday, Apr. 2, at Save Mart Center at 7 p.m. Tickets are on sale for as low as $8 per seat and may be purchased directly at the Save Mart Center box office and all Ticketmaster outlets, by phone at 485-TIXS (8497) or online at www.ticketmaster.com.



ECHL Stories from March 25, 2005


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