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This week in WHA2

February 27, 2004 - SPHL (SPHL) News Release


CELEBRATION, Fla. – The World Hockey Association 2 (WHA2) today announced the WHA2 Player of the Week is Jacksonville Barracudas forward Rob Bonneau. In games last week, Bonneau had three goals, including two game-winners, and four assists. The WHA2 Goaltender of the Week is Macon Trax Geoff Faulkner. In games last week Faulkner had two wins and made 66 saves on 70 shots. Faulkner has a 3.61 goals against average and leads the league with a .896 save percentage.

The next WHA2 appearance at the ESPN Club for "SportsTalk Live!" will be Tuesday, March 2 at 7pm. Ryan Anderson of the Orlando Seals will be the featured guest. The ESPN Club is located on Disney's BoardWalk.

The WHA2 announced some schedule changes for the second half of the season. All Sunday home games at the Lakeland Center will have a start time of 4:05pm. The Macon Trax have made some time changes to upcoming home games. The Sunday, February 29 game versus Alabama originally scheduled for 4:05pm has been moved up to 3:05pm. The Saturday, March 27 game versus Orlando originally scheduled for 7:35pm has been moved up to 6:05pm. The Jacksonville Barracudas have changed the start time for Saturday, February 28 game versus the Lakeland Loggerheads from 7:05pm to 2:05pm. The March 6 game versus the Alabama Slammers has been changed to March 31 at 7:05pm.

The Alabama Slammers hosted WHA2 rival Macon Trax last Saturday night in front of a capacity crowd at the Pelham Civic Complex. Despite a three-goal second period, the Slammers fell to the Trax by a score of 4-3. While the Slammers (22-16-3) struggled offensively in the opening period, the Trax (17-17-5) built a 2-0 lead on goals from Benoit Cotnoir and John Gurskis. However, the Slammers discovered their offensive playbook in the second period with 22 shots on goal to just seven for Macon. Justin Schabes scored the Slammers' first goal at 7:44 in the second period. Following a Macon goal from Luke Murphy, the Slammers pulled even with goals from Jaroslav Kresac and Bob Quinnell, the latter coming with just 2.5 seconds left in the period. Geoff Faulkner, in goal for the Trax, shut out the Slammers in the final period, but there was plenty of excitement for the Pelham Civic Complex crowd. Macon's Andrew Katzberg entered the contest leading the league in penalty minutes followed by the Slammers' Tom Wilson and Jason Renard. Katzberg and Wilson each added to their league-leading totals, Katzberg for fighting twice; Wilson for fighting and misconduct. Alabama then traveled to Jacksonville for a Tuesday night game against the first place Barracudas. The Jacksonville Barracudas jumped out to an early 4-1 lead and held off a late surge by Alabama to beat the Slammers 4-3 at the Veteran's Memorial Arena. The Slammers began this weekend with a 5-2 victory over the Lakeland Loggerheads Thursday night at the Pelham Civic Complex. Alabama's Bobby Quinnell scored two goals including the game winner to lift the Slammers to victory. Alabama travels to Miami on Saturday night to take on the Miami Manatees before finishing off the weekend with a crucial game in Macon on Sunday afternoon against the Trax.

The Jacksonville Barracudas prepare to wrap up their season high, six-game home stand this week. The ‘Cudas are currently 4-1 on the home stand with wins over Orlando, Alabama, and Macon twice. Their only loss came to rival Miami. Jacksonville got the home stand underway with a big 5-4 win on Friday, February 20th over the Macon Trax. Recently signed Rob Bonneau picked up two goals and two assists while Lyle Steenbergen and Mark Phenow added a goal and an assist each. The line of Bonneau, Steenbergen and Kory Baker were nearly unstoppable accounting for seven points on the night. Rookie goaltender Randy Hevey made 40 saves for the win. On Saturday night, February 21st, the Barracudas dropped the Orlando Seals 4-2 behind another three points from Bonneau. Again the line of Bonneau, Steenbergen, and Baker were strong with six points on the night. Hevey made 42 saves for the win. On Sunday, the Barracudas looked tired on the back end of three games in three days as they lost to Miami 7-3. Steenbergen continued his goal scoring streak with a goal and an assist. Miami dominated the ‘Cudas in a game that featured 70 minutes in penalties and six fighting majors. On Tuesday, the ‘Cudas got back to their winning ways beating the Alabama Slammers 4-3. Steenbergen picked up two more goals while Phenow and Klage Kaebel scored as well. Baker had a big game as he assisted on each of the four Barracudas goals. On Thursday, Jacksonville blanked Macon 3-0 as Hevey recorded his first career shutout. Steenbergen scored the game winner on the power play to increase his goal scoring streak to five games. Hevey also stopped Matt Brown on a penalty shot late in the first period to preserve the shutout. Hevey continues solidify his position as potential league MVP. He's played in 29 of the last 31 games including 22 games in a row. He leads the league in wins (18), leads the league in goals against average (2.96), is second in minutes played (1621), and tied for second in save percentage (.913). The Barracudas wrap up their six-game home stand on Saturday afternoon against the Lakeland Loggerheads. Face-off time is 2:05pm and you can catch all the play-by-play action on IRN.fm.

The Lakeland Loggerheads announced some schedule changes. The home game originally scheduled for Fri., Feb. 13th vs. Macon has been changed to Sun., Mar. 7th at 4:05pm. For the remainder of the season, all Sunday home games will now start at 4:05pm. This will affect the games on Feb. 29th, March 7th, March 21st, March 28th and April 4th. The changes were necessary due to scheduling conflicts with previously planned events at The Lakeland Center. At the home game on February 29, Lakeland Fans will have the chance to win tickets to all Loggerheads games in Orlando during the 2004-05 season. Orlando fans at the Feb. 29 game in Lakeland will have the chance to win tickets to all Seals games in Lakeland during the 2004-05 season. When the team wins the period...the fans of that team win the tickets! The Loggerheads will be honoring the members of the Headquarters Company of the 2nd Battalion, 116th Field Artillery and the 495th Transportation Company on Monday, March 1st with a special "Patriot's Night" promotion. The members of the Lakeland based National Guard Post recently returned from service in Iraq in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. The first 500 fans will be given American flags and there will be a special on-ice presentation to the troops.

On Saturday, the Macon Trax travel to Orlando and hope to put out the fire on the Seals' Guns ‘n' Hoses Night. Orlando expects a big contingent of fire and police officials at the game and the Trax hope to be the ones who put on the show. The Seals are thinking revenge after Sunday's big Trax win. The Trax return home on Sunday and have announced several promotions for the February 29 game. It will be "WILLIE NIGHT" with free parking and discounted tickets for all Willie Nelson Ticket Holders and for anyone whose name is Willie, William, Bill, Williams, Wilma, etc. will receive a FREE TICKET! It will also be "NASCAR NIGHT". All NASCAR fans will have a chance to win tickets for the RICHARD PETTY DRIVING EXPERIENCE and other great Atlanta Motor Speedway Gift Packs. Also, the Atlanta Motor Speedway Pace Car will be on hand. Calling all leap year babies, the February 29 game will also be "LEAP BABY BASH". If you have a birthday on Feb. 29, just show your ID for a free ticket. Remember, the Sunday, Feb. 29 game has been changed to a 3:05 pm start time against Alabama. Note that the Saturday Mar. 27 has been changed to a 6:05 pm start time against Orlando. On Monday, the Trax head back to the road for another tough five game road trip starting in Lakeland. Macon enters the final month of the regular season looking to edge their way into the playoffs. The Loggerheads are out of the playoff picture but have played better as of late. Last weekend they beat Miami two nights in a row on home ice. The Trax will have to bring their "A" game to shell the turtles.

For the Miami Manatees this week, it was a case of fighting through some adversity and coming out with strong momentum. The Manatees played four games in six nights, starting earlier in the week with a three game in three night road trip. The Manatees dropped the first game to Lakeland 6-4 as the Loggerheads came out strong in the third period to score three unanswered goals. Scoring goals in the loss was Tom Kotsopoulos, Greg LeColst, and two members of the "Rat-Line", Josh Liebenow and Darren Cain. Goaltender Sean Weaver took the loss in the first of four games he would play this weekend. The second night in Lakeland ended with the same disappointment as well. The Manatees dropped the decision in the overtime session when Bobby Clouston picked up the puck in his end, carried it the length of the ice and scored the game-winning goal as time expired, giving the Loggerheads a 6-5 victory. Almost half of the Loggerhead's victories have come against the Miami Manatees. So with the two disappointing losses behind them, the Manatees finished with a statement for the remaining two road games. The Jacksonville Barracudas became the hunted Sunday night when the Manatees finished them off with a resounding 7-3 victory. The Manatees jumped out to a three-goal lead courtesy of Kotsopoulos, LeColst, and the recently signed veteran Chad Cabana. Jacksonville answered back with two goals and had momentum going their way until Oak Hewer scored to swing it back towards the Manatees. The "Rat-Line" of Dan Donnette, Liebenow, and Cain finished the scoring in the game by getting goals from Liebenow and Cain to put the Barracudas away for good. The Manatees finished the week with a resounding statement when they easily dispatched the Orlando Seals to take sole possession of 2nd place on Thursday night in a physically dominant performance. The Manatees scored three goals, chasing goaltender Sean Varriale out of the nets and replaced him with Shad Higgingbotham. Hewer and LeColst each scored, and Kotsopoulos added two in the opening period to begin the rout. As the Manatees pulled ahead, the game began to get chippy with several fights and ejections. In the end, the Manatees scored five more goals to end up knocking off the Seals 9-4. Cain, Hewer, Donnette, LeColst, and Kevin Swider scored the remaining goals.

The Orlando Seals play two games this weekend hosting the Macon Trax, Saturday at 7:35 p.m. (preceded by the 6th Guns and Hoses charity game for the benefit of the Special Olympics at 1 p.m.); and then Sunday the Seals visit the Lakeland Loggerheads at 4:05 p.m. Sunday's game at Lakeland has been moved to 4:05 p.m. from its original 7:05 p.m. start time. Sunday's game will also be broadcast on AM 740 The Team. The game will be joined in progress, early in the first period on AM 740. All Seals games are available on the internet at www.IRN.FM. The Seals dropped a wild 7-6 overtime decision to Alabama last Thursday, lost 4-2 at Jacksonville on Saturday and lost 2-1 to Macon at home on Saturday. On Saturday the first 1,500 fans for the Seals game (not including the Guns and Hose game at 1 p.m.) will receive a Kraft Insurance Seals 14 month (March 2004-April 2005) Calendar. Seals tickets are available at all Ticketmaster outlets and online at www.ticketmaster.com. Ticket information is available by calling the Seals at (407) 447-PUCK (7825).

The WHA2 has six member teams for the 2003 – 2004 season: the Alabama Slammers, Jacksonville Barracudas, Lakeland Loggerheads, Macon Trax, Miami Manatees, and Orlando Seals. Every game will be broadcast on www.irn.fm with video broadcast of select games available throughout the season.

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