PRINCETON, N.J. � The ECHL on Tuesday released a revised playing schedule for 2004-05. The revision was necessitated following the termination of memberships in Greensboro and Roanoke by the ECHL Board of Governors.
The ECHL will have 28 teams in 16 states and one province in Canada playing 1,008 games in 2004-05. The league welcomes its first team in Canada in 2004-05 with the addition of Victoria, British Columbia. Beginning on October 22 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 Premier �AA� Hockey League, the ECHL had affiliation agreements with 21 of the 30 teams in the NHL and 21 of the 28 teams in the AHL in 2003-04.
The ECHL also revised the division alignment for 2004-05 with Augusta moving from the South Division to the East Division in the American Conference. The Kelly Cup Playoffs format will remain the same.
American Conference East
Augusta, Charlotte, Columbia, Greenville, Pee Dee and South Carolina
American Conference South
Florida, Gwinnett, Louisiana, Mississippi, Pensacola and Texas
National Conference North
Atlantic City, Dayton, Johnstown, Peoria, Reading, Toledo, Trenton and Wheeling
National Conference West
Alaska, Bakersfield, Fresno, Idaho, Las Vegas, Long Beach, San Diego and Victoria
Opening night on October 22 will feature 13 games including the Idaho Steelheads raising Pacific Division Champion, Western Conference Champion and Kelly Cup Champion banners to the rafters in the Bank of America Centre when they host the Alaska Aces in a rematch of the Pacific Division Finals.
Victoria will play its first ECHL game when it visits Bakersfield, and the Eastern Conference Champion Florida Everblades will raise their Southern Division Champion and Eastern Conference Champion banners in Germain Arena when they host Texas. Rivalries will be revisited when Mississippi hosts Louisiana and Trenton hosts Reading while in-state foes meet with Columbia hosting South Carolina, Gwinnett visiting Augusta (Georgia), and Long Beach hosting San Diego (California). The meeting between Columbia and South Carolina will be the first since South Carolina eliminated the defending Southern Conference Champions in the Southern Division Semifinals. In other opening night match-ups, Las Vegas visits Fresno, Pee Dee hosts Atlantic City, Charlotte plays at Greenville, Dayton travels to Peoria and Toledo hosts Wheeling.
There are 13 games on October 23 including original member Johnstown opening its 17th season in the ECHL when it hosts Wheeling. In other home openers on October 23, Trenton will play at Reading, Fresno visits San Diego and South Carolina hosts Charlotte. Reading will raise its Northern Division Champion banner and San Diego will hoist its Brabham Cup Champion banner.
Home openers on October 29 include in-state match-ups in New Jersey with Atlantic City hosting Trenton and in Georgia where Gwinnett will host Augusta. Other home openers on October 29 are Alaska hosting San Diego and Dayton hosting Wheeling. The meeting between Alaska and San Diego is the first since Alaska swept regular-season point champion San Diego in the Pacific Division Semifinals.
October 30 home openers have a Sunshine State match-up with Pensacola hosting Florida, a border battle with Texas hosting Louisiana and division rivalries with Wheeling hosting Toledo and Charlotte hosting Columbia.
Three more home openers will be on October 30 with Charlotte hosting Columbia, Texas hosting Louisiana and Pensacola hosting Florida. Las Vegas plays its home opener on November 2 when its hosts Long Beach. Louisiana will play its first home game on November 5 when it hosts Texas.
Las Vegas will host Long Beach in its home opener at the Orleans Arena on November 2. November 6 will be a special night as Louisiana plays its 10th home opener at the Cajundome hosting Pensacola and Dave Farrish, who coached Louisiana the past four seasons.
The first ECHL team outside of the United States, Victoria will play the last home opener of the season on December 5 when it hosts Bakersfield in a rematch of the season opener. Victoria will play at the new Save-On-Food Centre, a $30 million state-of-the-art multipurpose facility with a seating capacity of 7,000. Victoria will head southeast in March to visit Florida for three games on March 15, 25 and 26 while also playing at Texas on March 17, at Louisiana on March 19-20 and at Pensacola on March 22.
It will be a rematch of the Kelly Cup Finals when Florida travels to Idaho for three games on November 10, 12 and 13 as part of a nine-game road trip that also includes a game at San Diego on November 4 and games at Long Beach on November 5 and 6. South Carolina, which Florida eliminated on its way to winning the Eastern Conference title, returns to the Sunshine State on December 10 and 11.
Idaho will travel south for five games in March visiting Louisiana on March 16 and 18, Texas on March 19 and 20 and Mississippi on March 22. The Steelheads will visit Las Vegas on November 19 for the first meeting since the Steelheads, trailing two games to none, won three games in a row to eliminate Las Vegas in the Pacific Division Semifinals.
Reading will visit Johnstown on November 5, Wheeling on November 6 and Peoria on November 25. In their first-ever postseason appearance, the Royals won the Northern Division by beating Johnstown in the Wild Card Game, Wheeling in the Semifinals and Peoria in the Finals. Reading will make a six-game swing down south visiting Mississippi on December 28 and 31, Louisiana on December 29, Texas on January 1 and 2 and Pensacola on January 4.
Peoria will host Atlantic City on November 5 and 6 in the first games since the Rivermen eliminated the 2003 champion in the Northern Division Semifinals. Peoria will ring in the New Year at Kelly Cup Champion Idaho on December 31 and January 1 before traveling to Fresno on January 4, San Diego on January 5 and Las Vegas on January 7 and 8.
Las Vegas will again play a Midnight Madness game when it hosts Fresno on December 20. The Wranglers make a 10-game road swing that includes Louisiana on November 23, Texas on November 24, Mississippi on November 25, Florida on November 27 and 30 and Pensacola on November 28 before finishing at Alaska on December 3 and 4 and Idaho on December 10 and 11.
Mississippi will travel to Victoria for three games on December 10, 11 and 13 and then heads to Alaska for three games on December 17, 18 and 19.
Greenville will make a five-game trip west visiting Fresno on December 7 and 12, Long Beach on December 10, Bakersfield on December 11, and Las Vegas on December 14.
Alaska will host Wheeling for three games on February 11, 12 and 13 before traveling east for five games visiting Peoria on February 18, 19 and 24, Dayton on February 20 and Toledo on February 23. After its three games at Alaska, Wheeling will travel to San Diego on February 16 and Bakersfield on February 17.
Bakersfield will make its trip east in January visiting Trenton on January 5 and 9, Reading on January 7 and 11, Johnstown on January 8 and Atlantic City on January 12. Fresno travels to Peoria on December 28 and 29, Wheeling on December 31 and January 2 and Johnstown on January 1.
Long Beach plays at Trenton on November 23 and 28, at Atlantic City on November 24 and 26 and at Johnstown on November 27. San Diego has a seven-game road trip east visiting Peoria on January 28, Dayton on January 29, Toledo on January 30 and February 2, Wheeling on February 4 and 6, and Johnstown on February 5.
Toledo will make a trip to Nevada and California visiting Las Vegas for three games on November 5, 6 and 13, Fresno on November 9, and Bakersfield on November 11 and 12. Gwinnett travels to California for five games in March visiting Fresno on March 22, Long Beach on March 23, Bakersfield on March 25 and 26 and San Diego on March 27.
Hosted by the Reading Royals, the 2005 Coors Light ECHL All-Star Game will be played at the 7,215-seat Sovereign Center in Reading, Pa. The skills competition will be held on January 25 and the game will be played on January 26.
In 2003-04 there were 40 players that played in the NHL after playing in the ECHL, surpassing the high of 27 players in 1999-2000 and 2000-01. Eleven players, including eight goaltenders, appeared in both the ECHL and the NHL in 2003-04, breaking the high of five players in 2001-02, and a total of 116 ECHL players played in the NHL in 2003-04. There have been 255 players that have played in the NHL after playing in the ECHL. For the fifth consecutive year the ECHL is represented on the Stanley Cup Champion with Ruslan Fedotenko, Nolan Pratt and Andre Roy as well as radio play-by-play announcer Dave Mishkin and assistant equipment manager Dana Heinze.
Former ECHL coaches were behind the benches for 14 teams in the American Hockey League and all 28 teams had an ECHL player take the ice in 2003-04. The ECHL had affiliation agreements with 21 of the 28 teams in the AHL and there were over 90 players on AHL contracts in the ECHL in 2003-04. In 2003-04, there were more than 220 players that played in both the ECHL and the AHL and the ECHL had 425 call-ups, involving 234 players, to the AHL.
2004-05 ECHL Home Openers
Team, Home Opener
Alaska Aces
October 29 vs. San Diego
Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies
October 29 vs. Trenton
Augusta Lynx
October 22 vs. Gwinnett
Bakersfield Condors
October 22 vs. Victoria
Charlotte Checkers
October 30 vs. Columbia
Columbia Inferno
October 22 vs. South Carolina
Dayton Bombers
October 29 vs. Wheeling
Florida Everblades
October 22 vs. Texas
Fresno Falcons
October 22 vs. Las Vegas
Greenville Grrrowl
October 22 vs. Charlotte
Gwinnett Gladiators
October 29 vs. Augusta
Idaho Steelheads
October 22 vs. Alaska
Johnstown Chiefs
October 23 vs. Wheeling
Las Vegas Wranglers
November 2 vs. Long Beach
Long Beach Ice Dogs
October 22 vs. San Diego
Louisiana IceGators
November 6 vs. Pensacola
Mississippi Sea Wolves
October 22 vs. Louisiana
Pee Dee Pride
October 22 vs. Atlantic City
Pensacola Ice Pilots
October 30 vs. Florida
Peoria Rivermen
October 22 vs. Dayton
Reading Royals
October 23 vs. Trenton
San Diego Gulls
October 23 vs. Fresno
South Carolina Stingrays
October 23 vs. Charlotte
Texas Wildcatters
October 30 vs. Louisiana
Toledo Storm
October 22 vs. Wheeling
Trenton Titans
October 22 vs. Reading
Victoria Salmon Kings
December 5 vs. Bakersfield
Wheeling Nailers
October 30 vs. Toledo
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