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Three Berths Still Remain In Kelly Cup Playoffs

March 20, 2006 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


The Bakersfield Condors and San Diego Gulls secured the final two berths in the Pacific Division and the South Carolina Stingrays qualified in the South Division, bringing the number of teams who have qualified for the 2006 Kelly Cup Playoffs to 16.

It is a league record 13th appearance and league record 13th consecutive appearance for South Carolina which has not missed the postseason since joining the ECHL in 1993-94. The Stingrays are the only team to win the Kelly Cup twice (1997 and 2001) and are also the only team in history to win both the regular season points title and the postseason (1997).

Toledo is making its first back-to-back playoff appearances since 1998 and 1999 and the 12th postseason appearance in its 15 seasons, tying it with Pensacola for second most postseason appearances. Johnstown is returning to the postseason for the first time in two seasons and the 11th time in its 18-year history, tying it for the fourth most playoff appearances.

Two of the three remaining berths in the postseason are in the South Division where Charlotte is 29-29-5 with 63 points followed by Augusta at 26-30-6 and 58 points, Columbia at 22-34-8 and 52 points and Pensacola at 20-38-7 and 47 points. Charlotte will host Augusta on Monday, division leader Gwinnett on Wednesday, Greenville on Friday and Florida on Saturday. Augusta hosts Greenville on Tuesday and Columbia on Saturday while visiting Charlotte on Monday and Columbia on Friday. Columbia will host Florida on Tuesday and Augusta on Friday before traveling to Augusta on Saturday while Pensacola plays at Gwinnett on Friday and hosts Gwinnett on Saturday.

Bakersfield reaches the postseason for the second season in a row while San Diego returns to the Kelly Cup Playoffs for the first time since 2003-04. The Condors and Gulls join Fresno, which is making its first-ever Kelly Cup Playoffs appearance, and Long Beach, which is making its second straight postseason appearance having reached the division finals a year ago.

Brabham Race Heats Up As Aces, Wranglers Reach 100 Points

Alaska and Las Vegas became the 16th and 17th teams in league history to reach 100 points and the two sit atop the West Division and the ECHL heading into the final three weeks of the season.

The Aces, who are 49-9-5 with 103 points, and the Wranglers, who are 47-11-6 with 100 points, will meet for the final time in the regular season on Tuesday at Las Vegas. Alaska is 3-0-0 at home and 4-1-1 overall against the Wranglers.

The Aces, who have set team records for wins and points, need one win to become only the seventh team in ECHL history with 50 wins. Louisiana was 56-12-4 in 2001-02 and set the league records for wins (56), points (116) and winning percentage (.806).

The Wranglers won 12 games in a row from Dec. 3-30, tying five teams for the third-longest winning streak in ECHL, while the Aces have the second-longest winning streak this season with 11 wins from Nov. 15-Dec. 16.

Alaska is 29-4-1 at home, tying it with Toledo (2002-03) and Pee Dee (1998-99) for the third most home wins in ECHL history. The Aces need one win to tie the league record of 30 home wins set in 2001-02 by Louisiana and tied in 2003-04 by San Diego. Alaska will host Victoria in its final two home games of the season on Mar. 31 and Apr. 1. The Aces will play seven of their last nine games on the road visiting Utah on Mar. 22 and 24, Fresno on Apr. 4 and 7, Stockton on Apr. 5 and Bakersfield on Apr. 8.

The Wranglers, who have set team records for wins and points, will play seven of their last eight games at home where they are 23-3-3. Las Vegas hosts Alaska on Tuesday, Bakersfield on Friday, Utah on Saturday, Stockton on Mar. 28, San Diego on Mar. 31, Long Beach on Apr. 7 and Phoenix on Apr. 8.

Gwinnett, which has set team records with 43 wins and 93 points, leads the South Division and the American Conference while being third overall at 43-12-7. The Gladiators play five of their remaining 10 games at home where they are 26-2-3, hosting Pensacola on Friday, South Carolina on Sunday and Apr. 7, Florida on Apr. 4, and Augusta on Apr. 8.

Fresno, which leads the Pacific Division and is fourth in the league at 37-11-13, has set a team record with 87 points and needs two wins to tie their team record set last season. The Falcons will play seven of their last 11 games at home where they are 19-5-5, hosting Victoria on Mar. 27, Bakersfield on Mar. 28, Phoenix on Mar. 31, Utah on Apr. 1, Alaska on Apr. 4 and 7 and Long Beach on Apr. 8.

The only other teams that can mathematically achieve 100 points are Florida, which is 40-19-3 with 83 points, and Wheeling, which is 37-18-5 with 79 points. The Everblades are in second place in the South Division behind Gwinnett while Wheeling is in third place in the North Division behind Toledo at 38-20-5 with 81 points and Reading at 37-19-7 with 81 points.

Falcons Draw 10, 814 To Increase League Attendance

The third consecutive sellout by the Florida Everblades and a season-high crowd of 10,814 in Fresno on Saturday helped the ECHL raise its average attendance for the 10th week in a row to 4,299 per game, an increase of 8.7 percent from last season.

Saturday night also had Gwinnett drawing 7,478 while Bakersfield and Las Vegas each had crowds over 6,000 and Idaho had its sixth sellout of the season with 5,203. The Gladiators moved up to sixth in average attendance with 5,546 per game while Bakersfield remains fifth at 5,562 per game.

The ECHL surpassed three millions fans in the shortest number of games since 1999-2000 and the league continues to move towards having its highest average attendance since 2000-01 when it averaged 4,319 per game.

Florida, which has had four sellout crowds and five crowds in excess of 7,000 in its last seven games, sits atop the league with 6,164 per game and is looking to lead the ECHL in attendance for the seventh consecutive season. The Everblades, who have two home games remaining, will be challenged by first-year member Stockton which is second in the league with 6,043 per game. The Thunder, which has had three capacity crowds of 10,117, has eight home games remaining.

The ECHL has had 30 sellout crowds and 12 crowds of more than 10,000 led by San Diego which has four crowds over 10,000. Gwinnett has had two crowds in excess of 10,000, including a sellout of 11,355 on Nov. 11, while Charlotte drew 10,894 on Nov. 25 and 10,945 on Feb. 18.

Johnstown had its third crowd of more than 3,000 with 3,189 on Saturday and the Chiefs are averaging 2,873 for their last seven home games, raising their average attendance to 2,391 per game.

Las Vegas drew almost 13,500 for its West Division showdown with first-place Alaska, making the Wranglers one of 11 teams who saw average attendance increase for the week.

Penalty Shot Record Broken

There were three penalty shots attempted in the Columbia at South Carolina game on Sunday, breaking the ECHL record for most penalty shots attempted in one game. Anders Strome converted his penalty shot for South Carolina while Mike Stathopoulos and Travis Lisabeth both missed for Columbia.

The record for most penalty shots attempted in a game was two set in the Louisiana at Mobile game on Jan. 29, 1997 and tied earlier this season in the Utah at Fresno game on Jan. 31. Mobile failed to convert both of its penalty shot attempts while Kris Kasper of Utah and John Wroblewski of Fresno both missed on Jan. 31.

The two penalty shots attempted by Columbia against South Carolina ties the ECHL record for most penalty shots attempted by a team in a game set by Mobile against Louisiana on Jan. 29, 1997.

Did You Know ... There has only been one season where more than two teams reached 100 points - 2003-04 (San Diego, 43-13-10, 108 pts; Wheeling, 51-17-4, 106 pts and Atlantic City, 47-19-6, 100 pts).

Feature Games Of The Week

North Division

Johnstown Chiefs at Wheeling Nailers - Sunday at 5:05 p.m. ET
- Randy Rowe has two game-winning goals and seven points (4g-3a) in seven games against Wheeling.
- Wheeling is 2-1-1 at home and 6-2-1 overall against Johnstown.

South Division

South Carolina Stingrays at Greenville Grrrowl - Saturday at 7:05 p.m. ET
- Stingrays' Maxime Daigneault is 4-0-2 with goals against of 1.37 in six games against Greenville.
- Greenville won the last meeting, 3-1 at home on Feb. 18.

West Division

Alaska Aces at Las Vegas Wranglers - Tuesday at 7:05 p.m. PT
- Alaska is 4-1-1 against Las Vegas and has allowed only one goal in each of its win.
- Las Vegas is 8-2-0 and has outscored its opponents 36-23 in the last 10 games.

Pacific Division

Bakersfield Condors at Long Beach Ice Dogs - Saturday at 7:00 p.m. PT
- Ryan Munce is 4-1-1 with goals against of 1.58 and save percentage of .960 against Long Beach.
- Cory Urquhart leads Ice Dogs with four goals and four points against Bakersfield.

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