ECHL Toledo Walleye

Storm Tracks

December 23, 2002 - ECHL (ECHL)
Toledo Walleye News Release


The Storm's 20-6-2 record gives Toledo 42 points, placing the Storm tied for fourth in the overall point standings in the league. Toledo is behind Atlantic City (44), Mississippi (43), and Louisiana (43); and is tied with Greensboro (42); however, all of the teams ahead of (or tied with) the Storm have played more games than Toledo.

The Storm's (.750) win percentage is the highest in the league.

The Storm is currently riding a four game win streak. The longest win streak of the season for Toledo is six, which ran from November 1-13, 2002.

With the 4-2 win in Wheeling last Friday night, the Storm has won two consecutive games on the road. That ties the longest road win streak of the season. Toledo won back-to-back road games once before in early November. The Storm is currently one game over .500 on the road: 6-5-1.

The Storm scored the game's first goal in the team's last four games. Toledo has scored first in 17 games this year, and the team has a record of 16-0-1 in those games.

The Storm's first goal on Friday night-also the first of the game-was scored by Nathan Lutz. That was Lutz' first "first-goal" of the season, as well as his professional career. Kris Waltze, playing in his first game for the Storm, picked up an assist on that goal.

Toledo's second goal last Friday was scored by Jeff Johnstone while the Storm was short-handed. That was the first short-handed goal of the season for Johnstone, and the fourth short-handed goal of the season for the team.

Dale Junkin scored the game winning goal in Friday's 4-2 win over Wheeling. That was Junkin's second game winner of the season.

Mike Bayrack assisted on both Jeff Johnstone's short-handed goal and Junkin' s game winning goal on Friday night. Bayrack also had a two-assist game in Sunday's 3-2 shootout victory over Baton Rouge. Bayrack has had five multi-point performances this season-three of those have been in his four games. In his last eight games, Bayrack has picked up 11 points (3g-8a=11pts).

Toledo's fourth goal in the 4-2 win over Wheeling last Friday was scored by Matt Ellis. That goal snapped a 13 game goal-less streak for Ellis, whose 95 shots on goal places him fourth overall amongst first year players in shots on goal.

The winning goaltender for the Storm last Friday night was Tom Draper. That was Draper's first start for the Storm-and his first game in the East Coast Hockey League. Draper is a sixteen year veteran, who has played games in the NHL, AHL, IHL and the Finnish Elite League.

The Storm's first goal in Saturday night's 5-4 overtime victory over the Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies was scored by Tim Verbeek. That was Verbeek' s first "first-goal" of the season. That goal extended Verbeek's personal point streak to four games (2g-3a=5pts). That streak was snapped on Sunday against the Baton Rouge Kingfish.

The Storm's second goal on Saturday was scored by Darryl Bootland. That goal snapped an eight-game goal-less streak for Bootland, who also picked up an assist on Tim Verbeek's "first-goal". This two point performance marked the second multi-point game of the season for Bootland.

The third goal for Toledo on Saturday night was scored by Grady Moore, while the Storm was on the power play. For Moore that was his third power play goal of the season. Moore currently leads the Storm with 12 points (3g-9a=12pts) on the PP.

The Storm went one for seven on the power play on Saturday night. The Storm PP was blanked in four chances on Friday night (in the 4-2 win in Wheeling) and in eight chances on Sunday afternoon (in the 3-2 shootout win over Baton Rouge). The Storm power play has now been kept off the board a total of ten times this season-seven of those blanks have come in the last eleven games.

The Storm power play has scored just four power play goals in the team's last 61 chances, dating back to November 22. That is a 6.56% scoring ratio over the last eleven games.

Overall, the Storm has scored thirty power play goals in 177 chances, which is a 16.9% scoring ratio-18th in the ECHL.

Alexandre Jacques scored the Storm's fourth goal on Saturday night (to give the Storm a 4-2 lead heading into the third period). Jacques also scored the Storm's second goal on Sunday against the Baton Rouge Kingfish (to give the Storm a 2-0 lead at 3:05 of the second period). Jacques now has a team high seventeen goals on the season. He is currently playing at a team high (+20), which places him fifth in the ECHL in that category. Jacques is also on a four game point streak (3g-2a=5pts) and earned his second call-up of the season to the Saint John Flames of the American Hockey League after Sunday's game.

Prior to Saturday night's game, the Storm received two players on assignment from the Milwaukee Admirals: Erik Anderson and Konstantin Panov. Anderson started the season with the Storm and played the first six games with the team, racking up a total of ten points (5g-5a=10pts). This marked the first assignment for Panov to the ECHL.

In both Saturday night's game against Atlantic City and Sunday afternoon's game against Baton Rouge, Toledo held a one goal lead as they approached the final minute of the game. On Saturday, the Boardwalk Bullies scored with 16 seconds remaining to tie things at four; and on Sunday, the Kingfish scored with 1:04 remaining to tie things at two. Toledo won both games-in overtime (5-4) over Atlantic City; and in the shootout (3-2) over Baton Rouge.

Konstantin Panov scored the game winning overtime goal against Atlantic City on Saturday night with 1:32 remaining in the OT. That was Panov's first goal (in his first game) with the Storm. That marked the first overtime victory of the season for the Storm. Toledo has lost one game in OT this year-to the Johnstown Chiefs in the second game of the season.

With his game winning goal on Saturday, Konstantin Panov became the eleventh player to score a game winning goal for the Storm this season.

Doug Teskey was the winning goaltender for the Storm on Saturday night. That marked Teskey's thirteenth win of the season, which ties him for fourth amongst the goaltenders in the ECHL. Teskey's 2.94 goals against average places him fifteenth in the league in that category.

The Storm team goals against is currently 2.75, which places the team second in the league (to Mississippi-which has a 2.52 team goals against) in that category.

On Saturday night, the Storm fired 48 shots on Atlantic City's goaltender, Scott Stirling. Toledo followed that up by firing 43 at Baton Rouge's Jeff Blair on Sunday afternoon. The Storm has now had forty or more shots on the opponent's net in eight games this season-and in three of the last four. Toledo averages 35.04 shots on goal per game, which is the highest in the ECHL.

On Sunday, the Storm's first goal-the first goal of the game-was scored by Brandon Fleenor. That was Fleenor's first goal as a member of the Storm.

With the goal scored by Konstantin Panov on Saturday night and the goal scored by Brandon Fleenor on Sunday, twenty-two players have now scored at least one goal for the Storm this season.

On Sunday, the Storm blanked the Baton Rouge Kingfish on their six chances they had with the man advantage. That is the first time since November 9-fifteen games ago-that the Storm PK has blanked the opposition.

Overall, the Storm has allowed 27 power play goals against in 175 chances, which is a 84.6% kill ratio-fifth in the ECHL.

On Sunday afternoon, Storm goaltender, Tom Draper, picked up the first win of his career at the Toledo Sports Arena in his first game at the venerable home of the Storm. Draper stopped 18 of the 20 shots he saw in regulation, the one shot he faced in the overtime, and all five shootout attempts taken by the Baton Rouge Kingfish.

In the shootout on Sunday afternoon, the Storm shooters were Alexandre Jacques, Konstantin Panov, Erik Anderson, and Nick Parillo. Anderson was the only shooter to score out of the nine total players to shoot in Sunday's shootout.

Sunday's shootout victory for the Storm was the first such win at the Sports Arena this season. Overall, the Storm is 2-1 in the shootout.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK NOMINATION:

Mike Bayrack (0 goals - 4 assists = 4 points, +2) Mike Bayrack continued his strong play since coming back to the team from the injured reserve seven games ago. In Friday's 4-2 win in Wheeling, Mike picked up two critical assists-and to say that he just assisted on the goals is really understating the issue. On both goals, Bayrack made speedy breaks into the offensive end and power moves to the net that resulted in tap in rebounds for other Storm players. The first goal was scored while the Storm was short-handed and came immediately after the Storm had given up a 5-on-3 power play goal against to fall behind 2-1 in the second period. The second turned out to be the game winner in the early stages of the third period. On Sunday, the Mike made a brilliant pass to set up the Storm's first goal, and he kept the puck alive in an offensive zone sequence that resulted in the Storm's second goal.

GOALTENDER OF THE WEEK NOMINATION:

Tom Draper (2-0-0, 1.92, .923) Tom Draper made a rather auspicious debut for the Storm this week. The sixteen year veteran got his first start as a member of the Storm-and his first start in the ECHL-on Friday night against the Wheeling Nailers. Tom stopped 29 of the 31 shots he faced and was particularly strong down the stretch in leading the Storm to a 4-2 win. On Sunday afternoon, Tom was tough again, stopping 18 of the 20 he faced in regulation, as well as the only shot he saw during the overtime. His only mistake, perhaps, was when he got caught out of the net playing a puck late in the game that resulted in the game-tying goal for the Kingfish. But Tom more than made up for that by pitching a shutout in the shootout and picking up his second win for the Storm in as many tries.

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ECHL Stories from December 23, 2002


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