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Victoria Will Make History Friday In Bakersfield

October 20, 2004 - ECHL (ECHL) News Release


PRINCETON, N.J. – History will be made on Friday when the Victoria Salmon Kings take the ice at Bakersfield Centennial Garden and become the first team outside the United States to play an ECHL regular season game. The Salmon Kings are the first ECHL team and the 11th professional hockey team in Canada.

The Salmon Kings and Bakersfield Condors are scheduled to drop the puck at 7 p.m. Pacific Time, one of 13 games scheduled on Friday as the ECHL opens its 17th season.

Because of the historic significance of the game, the Hockey Hall of Fame has submitted requests for several items from the game, including a Salmon Kings sweater and the stick of the player who scores the first goal for the newest ECHL team. The items will be sent to Toronto for display at the Hockey Hall of Fame.

The Premier "AA" Hockey League, the ECHL has affiliations with 23 of the 30 teams in the National Hockey League and 24 of the 28 teams in the American Hockey League in 2004-05. The past two years have seen the ECHL leave its footprint across the nation and there will be 28 teams in 16 states and one Canadian province taking the ice in 2004-05. Beginning Friday and concluding on April 9, 2005, each of the teams will play a 72-game schedule comprised of 36 home and 36 road games. The Idaho (Boise) Steelheads defeated the Florida (Estero) Everblades in the 2004 Kelly Cup Finals, the first-ever coast-to-coast "AA" national hockey championship that was played before five consecutive sellout crowds.

Playing three times on opening weekend, Victoria plays Bakersfield again on Saturday at 7 p.m. Pacific Time before traveling to Fresno for a game on Sunday at 5 p.m. Pacific Time.

Playing in the West Division of the National Conference, the Salmon Kings play their first 14 games on the road before hosting Bakersfield on December 5. Victoria will play a portion of its inaugural season at Bear Mountain Arena, a 2,800-seat facility that opened in February in Colwood, British Columbia. The Salmon Kings are awaiting completion of the Save-On-Foods Memorial Centre, a $30 million state-of-the-art multipurpose facility with a seating capacity of 7,000.

Former National Hockey League player and assistant coach Bryan Maxwell is head coach and general manager of the Salmon Kings, returning to the professional coaching ranks after 11 seasons in the Western Hockey League where he won Memorial Cup Championships with Medicine Hat in 1987 and with Spokane in 1991. Named WHL Coach of the Year in 1991-92, the 50-year-old Maxwell compiled a 348-321-54 record in 730 regular season games and a 40-36 mark in 76 postseason games in the WHL. He was an assistant coach in the National Hockey League with the Los Angeles Kings in 1987-88 and 1988-89.

Maxwell was selected in the first round (fourth overall) by the Minnesota North Stars in the 1975 NHL Entry Draft and in the first round (second overall) by the Indianapolis Racers in the 1975 WHA Amateur Draft. He played eight seasons in the NHL from 1977-85 with Minnesota, St. Louis, Winnipeg and Pittsburgh, finishing with 95 points (18g-77a) and 745 penalty minutes in 331 regular season games and two points (1g-1a) and 86 penalty minutes in 15 playoff games. He played three seasons in the WHA with Cleveland, Cincinnati and New England, finishing with 29 points (3g-26a) and 217 penalty minutes in 124 regular season games and one assist and 33 penalty minutes in six playoff games.

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