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| Around the WCHL: May 2002 |
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Edited
by Phillip Brents Teams
included in this report: Fresno
Falcons
Despite an overall fifth-place finish among the league’s eight teams, Fresno eliminated, in order, the second-seeded Long Beach Ice Dogs and top-seeded San Diego Gulls before toppling the Founders Cup champion Idaho Steelheads in the Taylor Cup Finals. The story behind
the Falcons’ championship season Goaltender Terry Friesen compiled a 2.32 GAA and .911 save percentage. It was Friesen’s scintillating goaltending that primarily befuddled regular season division champion San Diego in the Southern Division Finals Dale Junkin (29 goals, 39 assists) and Mathers (23 goals, 39 assists) finished as the team’s regular season scoring leaders. The Falcons’
All-WCHL Team award winners included defenseman Cory Murphy (WCHL Second
Team) and defenseman Alex Todd (WCHL All-Rookie Team). Off the ice, the
team received recognition for the second consecutive season as the WCHL’s
Organization of the Year. The club also set a new record for home attendance
average (5,957). Idaho
Steelheads
The Steelheads’ record-breaking season did not go without reward. Leading scorer Bobby Stewart earned selection to the WCHL First Team while defenseman Jeremy Mylymok earned Second Team All-WCHL honors. Forward Wes Dorey and goaltender Jason Cugnet were both recognized as members of the All-WCHL Rookie Team. But joyous celebrations were tempered by the bittersweet retirement of pint-size fan favorite Cal Ingraham, who finished his four years in Idaho as the franchise’s career leader in goals, assists, points and games played. He remains the only player in WCHL history to score 50 goals in three consecutive seasons, finishing with 175 goals and 381 points in 274 regular season games in a Steelheads uniform. The Steelheads honored Ingraham with a ceremony during their final regular season home game during which he received a three-minute standing ovation from the standing-room only crowd of 5,148 fans. “It has been a great four years,” Ingraham was quoted as saying in a team release. “I have really enjoyed playing and living in Boise. It’s a great place not only to play hockey, but also to raise a family. I have met a lot of great people and made a lot of great friends.” In seven professional
seasons, he scored 281 goals and totaled 637 points in 483 regular season
games. San
Diego Gulls
San Diego won its seventh consecutive division title by finishing atop the Southern Division at 47-22-3. Though the 22 losses were the most in Gulls history, head coach Steve Martinson still felt he had assembled a squad by season’s end capable of successfully defending its Taylor Cup title. However, untimely injuries to key late season pickups – most notably high-scoring defenseman Cory Laylin and IHL Comeback Player of the Year award-winner Rusty Fitzgerald – ran Martinson’s best-laid plans aground. The newcomers bolstered an already formidable lineup that included four WCHL First Team selections, including two-time Goaltender of the Year Trevor Koenig and regular season MVP Mark Woof. Koenig joined Blair Allison (Tacoma Sabercats) and Sergei Naumov (San Diego) as the WCHL’s only two-time winners of the Outstanding Goaltender award. Koenig finished the 2001-2002 season as the league-leader in wins (42), minutes played (3,693), saves (1,728), shootout wins (9), shutouts (5) and save percentage (.913). He ranked second in goals-against average (2.68) to Long Beach’s Mike Buzak (2.39). In earning the WCHL MVP award, Woolf led the league in goals (50), power play goals (18), shots (315), game-winning goals (7) and short-handed goals (7). A two-time 50-goal scorer in his three seasons with San Diego, he moved into second place on the Gulls career goal scoring list with 139 goals. Defenseman Trevor Sherban and forward John Spoltore rounded out the Gulls’ All-WCHL First Teamers. Spoltore led the league in both points (113) and assists (84). The assist mark established a new Gulls single-season record. Sherban third in scoring among league defensemen with 52 points (12 goals, 40 assists) in 66 games. San Diego eliminated Bakersfield for the fifth time in as many first-round playoff series’ matchups before Fresno dropped the Gulls all-time playoff record to 53-23 with a four-game series win in the division finals. With both Woolf
and Spoltore electing to play in Germany this season, the Gulls playoff
fortunes look to be remade. Long
Beach Ice Dogs
The year started out with a bang as the Ice Dogs at one time won 10 straight games and had a nine game home winning streak. Bad penalties, injuries to key players and several suspensions for fighting all combined to contribute to the team’s spiral downward. In January, Williams was relieved of his duties and the position was taken over by Vice-President of Hockey Operations John Van Boxmeer, who felt the team’s level of performance did not measure up to expectations. Even with Van Boxmeer at the helm, the Ice Dogs were beaten by the Fresno Falcons in the first round of the Taylor Cup playoffs. Individual efforts for the remainder of the season were above and beyond the call of duty as Jamie Sokolsky was named All WCHL Defenseman of the Year and forwards Jeff Ewasko and Jeff Attard were named to the All WCHL Rookie Team. Forward Chris Kenady was named to the All WCHL Second Team and goaltender Mike Buzak was named WCHL Player of the Week twice while leading the league in goals-against average. Ice Dogs who
earned WCHL Player of the Week honors during the season included Buzak,
right wings John Lilley and Zdenek Vanc, left wing Kelly Askew, forward
Tomas Hradecky, Sokolsy and fellow blue liner Jonathon Shockey. Appearing
in their 100th games as an Ice Dog were captain Tomas Kapusta, Buzak and
Askew and Williams as head coach. Bakersfield
Condors But for the sixth consecutive year, Bakersfield failed to win a playoff series – falling to 4-17 in opening round matchups in the club’s history after being swept aside in four games (though not without some controversy) by San Diego. After erasing a 2-0 series deficit with an overtime victory in Game 3 at Centennial Garden, the Condors had two goals disallowed in Game 4 – a 3-2 Gulls win. After a review of game tapes (but not before first fining the Condors an undisclosed amount for sharp post-game words of protest), the WCHL later apologized by saying that one of the goals should have, in fact, counted A potential Game 4 victory would have sent the best-of-five series back to San Diego with a new lease on life on the part of the Condors. But that is all moot now. On the individual front, the Condors claimed eight weekly awards from the league this season, also a franchise high. Jason Firth led the Condors in regular season scoring with 75 points while Jeff Goldie, another newcomer to the team, led Bakersfield with 32 goals. Firth ranked third in the WCHL in assists while Goldie ranked second with 16 power play goals. On the goaltending
front, Scott Hay won four weekly league awards – more than any other
player in franchise history. Teammate Luciano Caravaggio ranked second in
the WCHL with six shootout wins while Hay tied for second with four shutouts. Anchorage
Aces
With a league worst 19-44-9 record last season, three consecutive losing seasons and first-round playoff exits and four years of declining home attendance figures all snowballing to produce a bad ending, there is much work that general manager Derek Donald and new coach Rod Davidson (ex- WPHL Alexandria Warthogs, ex-CHL Indianapolis Ice) have to accomplish in order to right the direction of the club on the ice as well as to win back the trust of fans. The 2001-2002 Aces, who some did not give much hope of surviving to see another season, raised a glimmer of hope in their first-round playoff matchup against the Founders Cup champion Idaho Steelheads by winning Game 1 in Idaho. However, the Steelheads won the next three games to end the Aces’ turmoil-ridden season that began with the highly touted hiring and then firing of former NHLer Butch Goring as head coach and an ongoing revolving door of arriving and departing playing talent. Dean Larson (October),
Kimbi Daniels (November), J.J. Wrobel (December), Chad Richard (January),
B. J Young (February) and Tobin Praznik (March) all received honors during
the season as the Anchorage Chrysler Dodger Player of the Month, as voted
by the Aces diehard fans – to whom the past season might as well be
dedicated for their support in thick or thin. Tacoma
Sabercats and Colorado Gold Kings Both the Tacoma Sabercats and Colorado Gold Kings franchises suspended operations for financial reasons. The Sabercats, who operated five years in the league and won three Northern Division titles, saw their attendance average drop from a high of 4,878 in the 1998-99 season to a league low 2,854 fans last season. The Gold Kings, who finished second in the Northern Division standings the past three seasons, closed their doors after incurring losses of more than $5 million since moving to Colorado Springs in 1998. The team, which played its initial two seasons in Fairbanks, Alaska, anticipated substantial losses for the upcoming season and, based on sales at the end of July, announced it would suspend operations. Ironically, the Gold Kings concluded their most successful run in their four years in Colorado Springs by averaging a franchise record 3,787 fans at World Arena. “Despite the excellent product, a wonderful and talented staff, and a core group of devoted fans, we couldn’t generate a sufficient general fan-base or enough community involvement to support the club and to make it a viable business operation,” the Gold Kings ownership group said in a statement to fans and sponsors on its Web site (www.coloradogoldkings.com). New leadership |
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was clearly not one based on individual heroics but on collective achievement.
Fresno received game-winning goals from seven players in its 10 postseason
wins, finishing with four of the top seven playoff scorers. Kris Porter,
who scored the Taylor Cup championship series clinching goal in double overtime
in Game 6 against Idaho, earned the Playoff MVP award after leading WCHL
scorers with 18 points (6 goals, 12 assists). Joining Porter at the top
of the Falcons’ postseason scoresheet were Derek Cormier (5 goals,
10 assists), Joe Frederick (7 goals, 7 assists) and Jason Weaver (6 goals,
8 assists).Porter, Cormier and Mathers each had two game-winning playoff
goals while Scott Borders, Weaver, Frederick and Darren Wetherill also contributed
game-winners.
Guided
by four-time WCHL Coach of the Year John Olver, the Steelheads were the
only team in the league to top 100 points in the standings during the 2001-2002
season, finishing with an imposing 47-17-8 record and the five-year-old
franchise’s first Founders Cup, emblematic of the team with the best
regular season record. Idaho set club records for home wins (29), tying
a league record, points (102), and longest home winning streak (18 games),
tying the second longest streak in league history. Yet for a second consecutive
year, the high powered Steelheads watched another team celebrate a Taylor
Cup championship as Fresno defeated Idaho in double overtime in Game 6 of
this year’s Taylor Cup Finals to capture the best-of-seven series.
The
Gulls can take solace in that in the WCHL’s seven-year history they
have either won the Taylor Cup (four times) or suffered playoff elimination
against the team that won it (three times).
The
2001-2002 season started off with high hopes but somewhere along the way
fate stepped in and dashed the Ice Dogs dreams of winning the Taylor Cup.
The year looked promising as the Ice Dogs had a good core of returning players,
a large contention of gifted Czech Republic hockey players and returning
coach Darryl Williams.
Paul
Kelly was brought in to give an underachieving team a face-lift and appeared
to do so by guiding the 2001-2002 Condors to a 32-35-5 regular season record
and 69 standings points. The two marks improved on 2000-2001 standards of
26 wins and 62 points, respectively. The Condors set team records for both
goals against average and lowest goals allowed -- 36 goals less than the
franchise’s previous record – while finishing with the second
highest home wins (19) in franchise history. Moreover, the Condors finished
the regular season with a 10-1-1 mark in their final 12 games, winning their
last seven regular season matches on home ice to tie a franchise record.
The
once proud Anchorage Aces franchise (1997 Taylor Cup Finalists) ended their
seventh season in humbling fashion – in bankruptcy court and on the
Internet auction block. Aces owner Mike Cusak – whether by genius
or by accident – gave the Aces’ plight a touch of celebrity
status by listing the club on eBay. Earmarked for quick sale, the Aces (with
an estimated debt of $2 million and an asking price of $3.5 million), initially
drew five bids in excess of $1.5 million, including one hefty offer of $2.3
million that later turned out to be a mistake. Seven local businessmen subsequently
rescued the Aces from bankruptcy court and have pledged to steer the franchise
into a self-proclaimed “new era.”