Sports stats

ECHL Toledo Walleye

Storm Tracks

December 30, 2002 - ECHL (ECHL)
Toledo Walleye News Release


The Storm's 22-6-2 record gives Toledo 46 points, which places the Storm behind three other teams in the ECHL's overall point standings: Mississippi Sea Wolves (47); Louisiana IceGators (47); and Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies (47). However, the Storm has played six games less than Mississippi, five games less than Atlantic City, and four games less than Louisiana.

Toledo and Mississippi are the only two teams in the league to reach 22 wins to this point in the season. This year, the Storm reached the 22 win mark in 30 games on December 28, 2002. Last season, Toledo did not reach 22 wins until February 19, 2002 in the team's 51st game of the season.

Toledo's .767 win percentage is the best in the league. Last season, the Storm's win percentage at the conclusion of the season was .458.

With Thursday's 6-3 win over the Cincinnati Cyclones at the US Bank Arena in Cincinnati, the Storm's road record is 7-5-1, a .577 win percentage. Last season, the Storm went 12-19-5 on the road, a .402 win percentage. Fourteen of the next nineteen games for the Storm will be played on the road.

The Storm ran the team's home record to 15-1-1 with the 3-0 win over the Johnstown Chiefs on Saturday. That is a .969 win percentage. Last season, the Storm went 16-15-5 at the Sports Arena (a .513 win percentage) and did not win the team's fifteenth game at home until March 16th, the thirtieth home of the season.

Toledo is currently riding a six game win streak. That ties the season high, as the Storm also won six in a row from November 1 through November 13 of this year. The longest win streak of the season last year for the Storm was five games-from December 21 through December 30, 2001.

The Storm has won four home games in a row since the team's 4-3 shootout loss to the Wheeling Nailers on December 6. The season high win streak at home for Toledo is the franchise record of 11, which this year's club set when the team won their first eleven games at the Sports Arena (10/11-11/24/02).

Toledo is currently riding a season high three game road win streak dating to the 7-4 win over the Wheeling Nailers at the Wheeling Civic Center on December 14.

Toledo has scored the game's first goal in the team's last six consecutive games, and the Storm won each of those games. The Storm is now 18-0-1 when scoring first.

The first goal in the 6-3 win over Cincinnati on Thursday night was scored by Mike Bayrack. That was Bayrack's second "first goal" of the season. Bayrack also assisted on Toledo's second goal (by Jeff Johnstone @ 11:35 of the first period). That was Bayrack's second consecutive multi-point game and his fourth in his last five. Although Bayrack was held off the scoreboard in Saturday's 3-0 win over Johnstown, Bayrack has fourteen points (5g-9a=14pts) in his last ten games.

Toledo's second goal on Thursday was scored by Jeff Johnstone, who also scored the Storm's fifth goal of the game (at the 16:40 mark of the second period.) That was Johnstone's first multi-goal game of the season, and his fourth multi-point performance of the season. Johnstone also picked up an assist in Toledo's 3-0 win over Johnstown on Saturday, and he is currently on a six game point streak (3g-7a=10pts). Johnstone has picked up at least one point in twelve of the sixteen games that he has played for the Storm.

Dale Junkin picked up two helpers on Thursday night, assisting on each of Toledo's the first two goals. That was Junkin's seventh multi-point performance of the season for the Storm.

Tim Verbeek's goal at 12:07 of the first period on Thursday night gave the Storm a 3-0 lead over Cincinnati. Verbeek also assisted on the Storm's sixth goal of that game (by Kris Waltze at 13:52 of the second period). That was Verbeek's third multi-point performance of the season.

The game-winning goal in Cincinnati on Thursday night (Toledo's fourth) was scored by Paul Ballantyne. That was Ballantyne's first goal as a professional-and also his first point as a professional. Ballantyne also assisted on two other goals by the Storm in this game-thus, registering his first multi-point game as a pro, too.

With the goal by Paul Ballantyne on Thursday night, eight different players have now scored their first goal as a pro with the 2002-03 Storm. Those players are: Nathan Lutz, Grady Moore, Matt Ellis, Darryl Bootland, Trevor Read, Miroslav Durak, Nathan Robinson, and Paul Ballantyne.

The sixth goal in the 6-3 win in Cincinnati on Thursday night was scored by Kris Waltze, who was playing in only his third game for the Storm. With that goal, Waltze became the 24th different player to score a goal for the Storm this season.

The winning goaltender for the Storm on Thursday night was Doug Teskey. That was Teskey's fourteenth win of the season, placing him fourth amongst goaltenders in the league in wins.

In Saturday's 3-0 win over Johnstown, the game's first goal-which turned out to be the game winner-was scored by Wes Mason. That was Mason's first goal in only his second game back with the Storm since being re-assigned by the Nashville Predators of the National Hockey League from the Milwaukee Admirals of the American Hockey League to the Storm. Mason played the first eight games of the season with the Storm, but was called up to Milwaukee and had been playing with Admirals until his re-assignment last Wednesday. Mason 's goal on Saturday night was his fifth as a member of the Storm-two of which have been game winners.

The second goal and third goals scored by Toledo (by Paul Ballantyne at 9:19 of the second period; and Trevor Read at 15:09 of the second, respectively) were both scored while the Storm was on the power play. Ballantyne's goal broke a string of fourteen consecutive power play chances without a goal; and Read's goal marked the first time since November 22nd (a span of twelve games) that the Storm had scored more than one power play goal in a single game.

In Thursday night's 6-3 win over Cincinnati, the power play was kept off the board in five opportunities with the man advantage. That marked the eleventh time this season that the Storm power play has been blanked. In fact, the PP had been shut out in eight of the twelve games dating from November 22nd to Thursday night's game. During that time period, the Storm scored just 4 power play goals in 66 chances (a 6.06% scoring ratio).

Overall this season, the Storm power play has scored 32 goals in 191 chances, which is a 16.8% scoring ratio-20th in the league.

On Thursday night, the Storm gave up two power play goals in seven chances to the Cincinnati Cyclones. That was the first time in eleven games that the Storm gave up more than one power play goal in a single game. Toledo has never given up more than two power play goals in a single game; but has allowed two in seven games this season.

On Saturday night, the Storm blanked the Johnstown power play on the three chances that they had with the man advantage. That was the eighth time this season that the Storm PK shut out the opponent's PP.

Overall, the Storm has allowed 29 power play goals against in 185 chances, which translates into an 84.3% kill ratio-fifth in the league.

In both of the games this week, the Storm outshot the opponent (38-31 @ Cincinnati; and 43-22 v. Johnstown). The Storm is currently 15-3-2 when outshooting the opponent.

Saturday night's game marked the ninth time this season that Toledo has had 40 or more shots on goal in a single game. The Storm currently averages 35.40 shots on goal per game, which is the best in the ECHL in that category.

In Saturday night's game, Kris Waltze picked up two fighting majors. He now four majors in four games with Toledo. In the twenty games he played with the Reading Royals before coming to Toledo, Waltze picked up nine major penalties.

Tom Draper stopped all 22 shots that he faced in the 3-0 shutout of Johnstown on Saturday night. That was Draper's first shutout for the Storm in his third game for the team. That was also Draper's first ECHL shutout in his 16 year pro career.

The shutout on Saturday night was the first for the Storm this season at the Sports Arena. The last shutout for the organization at home was one-year ago-to the day (12/28/01)-when Joey MacDonald shutout the Peoria Rivermen 6-0, stopping all 44 shots he saw.

Storm goaltenders have shut out the opponent in two games this season. In addition to Draper's shutout on Saturday, Doug Teskey shut out the Lexington Men O'War at Rupp Arena on October 20.

The Storm's team goals against average is 2.67, which is second only to the Mississippi Sea Wolves in the East Coast Hockey League.

PLAYER OF THE WEEK NOMINATION:

Paul Ballantyne (2 goals - 2 assists = 4 points, +2, 1 gwg, 1 ppg)

Paul Ballantyne certainly turned up the offensive component to his game this week. A steady defensive force since his assignment by the Detroit Red Wings from the Grand Rapids Griffins to the Storm in early November, Paul scored his first goal as a professional-which was also his first point as a pro-against the Cincinnati Cyclones on Thursday night. That goal also turned out to be the game winner. Paul also assisted on two of the other goals scored by the Storm in that 6-3 victory. Thus, he also had his first multi-point performance of his professional career in the same game. On Saturday night, Paul broke a string of 14 consecutive power plays without a goal for the Storm when he scored at 9:19 of the second period-shortly after the Toledo had scored the game's first goal. Paul's goal gave the team important insurance in a game that Toeldo ultimately won 3-0.

GOALTENDER OF THE WEEK NOMINATION:

Tom Draper (1-0-0, 0.00, 1.000)

Tom Draper was literally perfect this week, stopping all twenty-two shots that he saw in his lone start for the Storm in a 3-0 win over Johnstown on Saturday night. Despite the relatively low number of shots, many of them were difficult in nature, making it a well-earned shutout for Tom. That was the first home shutout of the season for the Storm, and the first ECHL shutout for Tom in his 16 year pro career.

TRANSACTIONS

12/23/02 DELETE Alexandre Jacques, forward, called up to the Saint John Flames (AHL).

12/24/02 DELETE Konstantin Panov, forward, called up to Milwaukee Admirals (AHL).

12/24/02 DELETE Andrew Hutchinson, defenseman, called up to Milwaukee Admirals (AHL).

12/24/02 ADD Wes Mason, forward, re-assigned from Milwaukee Admirals (AHL).

12/27/02 DELETE Matt Eldred, defenseman, activated from injured reserve and placed on suspended list.

12/28/02 ADD Brad Fraser, defenseman, signed and added to roster.

12/29/02 DELETE Andre Payette, defenseman, activated from injured reserve and called up to Manitoba Moose (AHL).

Check out the Toledo Walleye Statistics



ECHL Stories from December 30, 2002


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 Toledo Walleye Stories



Sports Statistics from the Stats Crew
OurSports Central