Salmon Flop in Long Beach

January 23, 2006 The Victoria Salmon Kings were shutout for the second time in as many nights as they lost 2-0 to the Long Beach Ice Dogs Sunday night. The team has now failed to score in 121 consecutive minutes. Long Beach scored it's two goals in the second period, and Victoria couldn't beat Montreal Canadians draft pick Jaroslav Halak in 25 shots on net. The Dogs managed 30 shots on Victoria goalie David Currie (pictured, credit to G. Woodburn), who made his first start since December. In Saturday's game, Victoria was beaten 3-0 by the Bakersfield Condors, but all 4 goals came on the power play. In Long Beach both goals were even strength. Only 1775 fans showed up to watch the game in Long Beach. The Salmon Kings have a mandatory rest period for the ECHL All-Star festivities being held in Fresno California, where Salmon Kings Steve Lingren and Adam Taylor will be playing. The team gets back to the rink Friday when they face the Phoenix Roadrunners in Victoria. In other news, Victoria forward has been suspended indefinitely for a sucker punch he laid out in Friday night's 6-2 victoria over Bakersfield. Jade Galbraith has also been added to the 30-day IR for a knee injury he sustained in the same game. Mike Josephson is also out with a concussion. To help out the severly depleted forward crew, Steve Roberts returned to action Sunday afternoon after missing all but two games this season.

Kings Clip Condors for Third in a Row

January 20, 2006 The Victoria Salmon Kings chalked up their third straight road win with a 6-2 clipping of the Bakersfield Condors. Salmon Kings Head Coach Troy Ward walked away with his first victory with the club, which has now tied the amount of wins they earned last season (15). It is also the first time the Salmon Kings have savoured three straight victories. Victoria and Bakersfield battled the boards and finished the first period with a scoreless tie—both teams determined to hold up defensively. The second frame, however, witnessed a club record setting five goals in just over 17 minutes of play. Lanny Gare popped in his first of two goals of the night just 45 seconds into the second period. Mike Josephson scored his second and third goal of the season, in the span of three minutes, to give the Salmon Kings the 3-0 lead. Gare picked up his second goal of the evening on the rebound off of a Jade Galbraith shot at the bottom of the near circles to give Victoria a four goal lead with 12:23 remaining in the second period. And with 2:24 left until intermission, Ryan Wade set himself into the slot and buried a one-timer from Mike Wirll, giving the Salmon Kings a 5-0 lead heading into the third period. The Condors drew closer with two quick goals early in the third period but the Salmon Kings regained a four point lead when with a minute left in the game, Simon Mangos connected on a wrist shot under the crossbar from the bottom of the far circle on the power play. Rob McVicar earned his third straight victory, and his seventh win of the season, stopping 25 of 27 Bakersfield shots. Ryan Munce made 26 saves on 32 Salmon King chances. The Salmon Kings finished one for four on the powerplay while the Condors converted none of their three opportunities with the man advantage. Rob McVicar earned his third straight victory, and his seventh win of the season, stopping 25 of 27 Bakersfield shots. Ryan Munce made 26 saves on 32 Salmon King chances. All getting 2 points a piece were: Mike Josephson (2g); Lanny Gare (2g); Ryan Wade (1g, 1a); Mike Wirll (2a); Jade Galbraith (2a); and Seth Leonard (2a). Picking up one point were Ryan Wade, Simon Mangos, and Nate Forster.

New Coach for Fish

January 19, 2006 The Salmon Kings have announced they have relieved Bryan Maxwell of his coaching and GM duties and an American product by the name of Troy Ward will be heading up the bench for the rest of the season. Ward is tried and tested in the ECHL, winning Coach of the Year in 2001 and helping to run the league as VP of Hockey Operations in 2001-2002. He left that post to be assistant coach at the nationally top-ranked University of Wisconsin Badgers. Ward is a Wisconsin native and the only First Nations coach to be named Coach of the year in the ECHL. The new bench-boss also brings a few years experience from being assistant coach for the NHL's Pittsburgh Penguins, where he is credited for teaching Jarimar Jagh how to play both ways. Troy Ward is a defensive specialist and should have his work cut out for him as he takes on the ECHl's worst defence in the Salmon Kings. That being said, if he is able to improve that element of the team, they might have a chance of a late season run at the playoffs. Victoria starts that run under their new coach Friday night in Bakersfield.

Two In A Row!

January 13, 2006 Believe it or not. Victoria has their second 2-game winning streak in 6 games. Qwest Arena prooved beneficial again as the Salmon Kings were able to beat the Idaho Steelheads 3-2 in overtime Friday night. Goaltender B.J. Boxma made his first start in months for the Kings and played excellent until the end of the second period when he was forced to leave with an injury to his blocker hand. During the game he allowed just one goal on 24 shots. That goal came from the stick of Garrett Bembridge, leading scorer for the ECHL, 14 minutes into the first period. Rob McVicar came in to relieve the injured Boxma and played just as well. The teams went to the dressing room after two periods with the Steelheads leading 1-0 and Victoria outshooting Idaho 32-26. Those shots started to pay off as an overworked Steve Silverthorn allowed his first goal in 6 minutes into the third courtesy of Victoria's Jade Galbraith. The Kings followed up another 6 minutes down the road with team-leading scorer Mike Wirll capitalizing on the power play. That put Victoria up 2-1 with their first lead of the game. But Idaho played hard persistent hockey and took it to the Kings, eventually tying the game back up with just three minutes left again through the efforts of Bembridge as he marked his 31st goal of the campaign. That sent the game into overtime, where we witnessed a repeat of a game held in Victoria against the Steelheads back in November. Steve Lingren received a pass from Mike Wirll and was all alone against Silverthorn to deak around and slide in the winning goal for his 15th of the year just 37 seconds into the frame. It was also Lingren who scored on a break-away against Silverthorn back in November just 17 seconds into overtime (pictured, credit to G. Woodburn). Ryan Wade started the overtime play to get an assist and keep his point-streak alive at 7 games. He did have the second largest goal-scoring streak of the season going until tonight. He had tallied 8 goals in 6 games. Only Bembridge has bettered that this year scoring 9 in 6 games. The total shots for the game finished at 42-39 in favour of Victoria, a distinct change from normal. The Steelheads were able to hold Victoria to their lowest mark of the season at 13 shots in the entire game back in November. McVicar picks up a win and moves his season record to 6-6-0. With the end of the season series against Idaho, the Kings can claim their first series win against a divisional opponent. In Qwest Arena the Kings finished 4-1. With the two wins Idaho managed here it moves the mark for the overall series to 5-3 in favour of Victoria. Congrats boys! The Salmon Kings now travel to Bakersfield where they will begin a tough few days against opposing teams. They play the Condors Friday and Saturday night, and then travel further down South to face the Long Beach Ice Dogs just 19 hours after finishing up with Bakersfield. Should proove to be a tough trip before they head back home to face the last placed Pheonix Roadrunners starting January 27.

Salmon Kings Love Boise

January 12, 2006 The Victoria Salmon Kings keep it coming against the Idaho Steelheads. They won a barn-burner 7-5 Thursday night, coming back from 4 straight unanswered Idaho goals. Although the Kings were outshot 10-4 in the opening frame, they came away with the only goal, leading 1-0 after the first. The second period started really well with the Kings jumping to a quick 3-0 lead. That's where the fish turned sour. Matt Yeats was pulled for Steve Silverthorn, and the Steelheads responded immediately, scoring just 16 seconds later. But Idaho didn't stop there, four minutes later they were back at it, scoring two more goals in one minute to tie the game at three goals a piece. They went to the second intermission knotted at three, but the Steelheads continued with their unanswered goals jumping out to their first lead of the game at 4-3. At this point, it seemed as if McVicar had been completely solved, but Victoria coach Bryan Maxwell elected to leave him in. Just a minute later, the Kings finally stirred back awake as Lanny Gare snuck one between the pads of Silverthorn to tie the game back up. Minutes later, Victoria found itself on a 5-3 powerplay and did not make any mistakes. The league's leading scorer among defencemen, Steve Lingren, let go of a howitzer from the blue line and the Salmon Kings took back the lead. But with the remaining Steelhead in the penalty box, Victoria was able to capitalize again as Gare got his second of the night and the eventual game winner. K.C. Timmons made it 7-4 with Victoria bouncing back with four unanswered goals of their own. A late scrum by Idaho pulled them within two goals with under two minutes to play. Just seconds later, another Steeheads goal was waived off as the referee felt the Idaho player pushed the puck through as he was knocking into McVicar. That would have left 95 seconds on the clock and the score 7-6. But with the goal being disallowed, the Kings were able to skate off to a 7-5 victory, their third in Qwest Arena this year. Also scoring for the Salmon Kings were Simon Mangos, Mike Wirll, and Ryan Wade, who scored his eighth goal in just 6 games. With 2 goals and an assist, Lanny Gare (pictured, credit G. Woodburn) was named the game's first star. Mike Wirll and Jad Galbraith also picked up 3 points on the night. The Salmon Kings are now 3-1 in Qwest Arena and 4-3 in the season series against Idaho. They play again tonight. Note: In it's last 5 games, Victoria is 3-2 and averaging 4.44 goals per game.

Salmon Kings Lose Two

January 8, 2006 The Victoria Salmon Kings were on the longest winning streak of the year. It was two games. Sadly, in just 24 hours, they matched that in a losing streak. The Kings lost to the Pacific Division leading Fresno Falcons 4-3 on Friday night and were blown out 6-2 on Saturday. Victoria now holds a record of 12-23-1. On a bright note, our 2-game losing streak is better by many around the league. Pheonix has gone 8 in a row and Columbia has lost 9. The Salmon Kings next meet Idaho in Boise on Thursday and Friday night. On another note, Victorian Georgia Murray (pictured, credit to G. Woodburn), who sang the national anthems in Victoria Saturday night, will be doing the same at Madison Square Gardens for the Knicks and Rangers in February. She also recently filmed a show for Boston Legal in which she performs 3 songs on camera. She was recently discovered while performing at her father's luxury resort in Nimmo Bay.

Kings Take it to Falcons!

January 5, 2006 The Salmon Kings finished 2005 off in style, taking down league-best Alaska to end their monster unbeaten (in regulation) streak at 16 games. 2006 started off just as nice as 2005 ended. Victoria hosted the Fresno Falcons who were unbeaten since December 4th, and took the victory away with a score of 5-3. That gives the home team a winnings streak of 2-games, their first of the season. Our recently named ECHL All-Star Steve Lingren got the scoring off to an early start as he netted his 12th goal of the year at 6:42 of the first period. Just two minutes later, Lingren got his second of the night and put the home side up 2-0. Lanny Gare and Mike Wirll assisted on both Lingren goals. Later in the first period the Falcons got one back and the first intermission started with the score at 2-1. After outshooting Fresno 14-6 in the first period, the Kings came out a little cold in the second and only managed 4 shots. But Rob McVicar (pictured, credit to G. Woodburn) kept the home team in it kicking out all 10 Fresno shots in the second on route to his fourth win of the season. The third period started bad for Victoria as Fresno tied the score just two minutes into the frame. But they would not be held down and came back four minutes later as lanny Gare picked up his first goal and third point of the night off a rebound from Jade Galbraith's shot. The home team struck again 40 seconds later but the goal was disallowed for an apparent kicking motion by scorer Gare. The crowd had been awakened though with two quick scores and with the chance to boo the ref (always a fan favourite). This spurred the Kings to score just seconds later off the stick of Ryan Wade. The captain now has 5 goals in his last 3 games. But Victoria was not finished there. K.C. Timmons, who has not scored since December 12, picked up the fifth Kings goal. Fresno added one more on the power play with just four minutes left but it was not enough as Victoria played hard till the final whistle. The points totals for the game are a little out of the ordinary as only 8 players recorded a point in the 5 goal game: Lanny Gare: 3 points (1g, 2a) Steve Lingren: 2 points (2g) Ryan Wade: 2 points (1g, 1a) KC Timmons: 2 points (1g, 1a) Mike Wirll: 2 points (2a) Adam Taylor: 2 points (2a) Jade Galbraith: 1 point (1a) Simon Mangos: 1 point (1a) The two teams are back at it tonight at 7:00 PM and again on Saturday night.