Tacoma Beats Gulls, 6-3

March 31, 2002 - ECHL (ECHL)
San Diego Gulls News Release


San Diego Fails on Chance To Clinch Division

TACOMA, Wash. -- Marty Flichel's hat trick and K.J. Voorhees' two goals in the third period lifted the Tacoma Sabercats to a 6-3 victory over the San Diego Gulls on Easter Sunday, before 2,624 at The Tacoma Dome. San Diego still needs two more points to clinch its seventh straight division title.

After a scoreless first period, teams combined for six goals in the second. The Sabercats (30-32-6) opened the scoring just 29 seconds into the period on Flichel's first goal of the night. A red-hot John Spoltore tied the game with his 29th at 3:05, lifting a back-hander over Tacoma netminder Mike Brusseau. Spoltore's tally extended his point streak to 13 games. He has 32 points during that span.

The Cats, however, scored two quick goals midway through the period to grab a two-goal lead. Flichel netted his second of the game at the 7:58 mark. Some 40 seconds later, Etienne Drapeau notched his 18th goal on a shot that eluded Gulls backstop Trevor Koenig. Brian Morrison got the Gulls (44-21-3) back to within one on his ninth tally at 9:08. These three goals all came within a span of 1:10.

San Diego tallied once more in the second period, while skating with a two-man advantage. Tony Iob registered his third goal in as many games since joining the Gulls, blasting a one-timer off a nice feed from Spoltore at 18:22. The wild period finally came to a close with the game deadlocked, 3-3.

Tacoma regained the lead for good early in the third period on an errant clearing attempt by Koenig. Voorhees snatched the puck and put home his first goal in a Sabercats uniform at 2:36. Voorhees sealed the Sabercat win with his second goal at 10:57. Both of his markers were unassisted. Flichel put the icing on the cake, completing his trick with an empty net goal at 19:18. It was Flichel's 34th goal of the season and ninth in seven games against San Diego.

Notes: Spoltore's 13-game point-scoring streak is a league high this season. He now leads the league with 109 points and 80 assists. His 80 helpers is a franchise record for one season. The league record is 90. The Gulls will fail to reach the 100-point mark for only the second time in franchise history. Mark Woolf served the third of his five-game suspension tonight. Dennis Purdie was placed on the 14-day injured list earlier this week with a separated shoulder. The Gulls again played without the services of Samy Nasreddine, who was a healthy scratch for the second consecutive game.

San Diego's road trip concludes Wednesday in Long Beach, with game time set for 7 p.m. San Diego returns home Friday to face the Ice Dogs for the final time in the regular season. The Blue and Orange are 3-8-1 against its division nemesis. All games can be heard live on 1130AM-KSDO and at www.ksdo.com with Chris Ello calling the play-by-play.



ECHL Stories from March 31, 2002


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