IDAHO STEELHEADS WEEKLY – WEEK 6 – 11/25/24

BOISE, ID – The Idaho Steelheads (@Steelheads), proud ECHL (@ECHL) affiliate of the Dallas Stars (@DallasStars), picked up a two game series sweep in Rapid City last weekend and now return to the Idaho Central Arena for nine of their next 12 games beginning this Wednesday vs. Tahoe. 

THIS WEEK’S GAMES  
Wednesday, Nov. 27 vs. Tahoe | 7:10 p.m. (MT)                              
Friday, Nov. 29 vs. Tahoe | 7:10 p.m. (MT)
Saturday, Nov. 30 vs. Tahoe | 7:10 p.m. (MT)

HEAD-TO-HEAD VS. TAHOE
Idaho and Tahoe will meet for the fourth of 12 total meetings this season on Wednesday, the first of five in Boise. The Knight Monsters picked up two wins in a three-game set back in Stateline, NV earlier this season defeating the Steelheads 3-1 on Oct. 31 and 4-2 on Nov. 2. Idaho was victorious in the middle game of the three-in-three weekend with a 6-1 victory on Nov. 1. Ty Pelton-Byce scored two goals in the series as he was one of six skaters to record three points in the series for Idaho. For the Knight Monsters, Bear Hughes (2G, 2A), Sloan Stanick (2G, 1A), and Simon Pinard (3A) who led the way are all up in the AHL with the Henderson Silver Knights while goaltender Jesper Vikman who made 54 saves on 57 shots across his pair of wins is also up with Henderson.  

LAST WEEK’S GAMES
Friday, Nov. 22                        
Idaho (6) at Rapid City (5)      
Highlights       
Full Recap       
Box Score
Patrick Kudla scored the game winning goal with 4:21 left in regulation coming on the power-play. Idaho took a 4-0 lead after 20 minutes of play with a pair of goals from Ty Pelton-Byce and Jade Miller and Thomas Caron also finding the back of the net. Rapid City scored three unanswered in the second period making it 4-3 before Brendan Hoffmann increased the lead to 5-3 with 6:36 to play in the middle frame. The Rush made it a one-goal game with 3:15 left in the second period and then tied the contest at 5-5 with 12:43 to play in regulation. Ben Kraws made 23 saves in net. 

Saturday, Nov. 23 
Idaho (4) at Rapid City (1)
Highlights
Full Recap 
Box Score
Nick Canade and C.J. Walker scored first period goals as Idaho led 2-1 after the first period. Ty Pelton-Byce recorded his second consecutive two-goal game scoring in the second period then adding a power-play goal in the third as Bryan Thomson made 31 saves in net.

MOUNTAIN DIVISION STANDINGS
1. Tulsa Oilers (10-4-1-0, 21pts, 0.700)
2. Kansas City Mavericks (9-4-1-1, 20pts, 0.667)
3. Wichita Thunder (9-7-1-0, 19pts, 0.559)
4. Idaho Steelheads (8-6-1-0, 17pts, 0.567)
5. Tahoe Knight Monsters (7-4-1-1, 16pts, 0.615)
6. Allen Americans (5-5-3-0, 13pts, 0.500)
7. Utah Grizzlies (5-8-1-0, 11pts, 0.393)
8. Rapid City Rush (4-8-1-2, 11pts, 0.367)

INDIVIDUAL NOTES

• #2 Trevor Zins has two assists in his last five games.
• #3 Nick Canade has two goals and an assist in his last six games… He picked up his second fighting major of the season on Saturday, his 12^th career fighting major with Idaho.
• #8 Justin Ertel has a goal and an assist in his last five games.
• #9 Brendan Hoffmann has four goals and two assists in his last nine games… He is 11 games shy from 150 career professional games.
• #11 Thomas Caron is tied for seventh in the ECHL with 16 points while his 10 assists are tied for fifth… He has a point in three of his last five games (1-3-4)… seven of his last 10 (3-8-11) and a point in nine of 15 contests… He has (6-10-16) this season after posting (6-13-19) in 45 games last year with Norfolk.
• #15 C.J. Walker has a two-game point-streak (1-1-2) and a point in five of his last nine games (3-2-5).
• #17 Ty Pelton-Byce is tied for fourth in the ECHL with 19 points and tied for third with 10 goals… His five power-play goals are tied for first… He has back-to-back two-goal games and a point in three of his last four (4-1-5)… He has a point in seven of his last 10 (6-7-13) and a point in 12 of 15 contests… He is one goal shy of 50 career ECHL goals.
• #18 A.J. White has an assist in back-to-back games and eight assists in his last 11 games… His 208^th career assist as a Steelhead last Friday moved him into second place all-time in franchise history… His 11 assists on the season are tied for fourth amongst ECHL skaters… He is six games shy of becoming Idaho’s all-time games played leader… He has a point in 10 of 15 games.
• #19 Lynden McCallum has nine points in his last 10 games on six goals and three assists… He has a goal in three of his last six games (4G)… He is eight games shy of 100 career ECHL games.
• #24 Reece Harsch recorded his first point of the season with an assist last Friday… He has played four straight games after missing nine straight with an upper body injury.  
• #26 Jade Miller scored his first goal of the season last Friday.
• #30 Bryan Thomson is (2-5-0) this season having made 30 or more saves in five of seven games.
• #33 Ben Kraws is tied for third amongst ECHL goaltenders with five wins holding a (5-1-1) record… He has faced 242 shots this season, 12^th most by any league goaltender, while his 48 saves on Nov. 10 are tied for the most by any ECHL netminder in a single game this year.
• #29 Connor MacEachern is tied for third amongst ECHL rookies with 14 points and tied for fourth with nine assists… He has a point in three of his last six games (1-4-5) and eight points in his last 10 games on two goals and six assists… He has a point in nine of 15 games.
• #43 Matt Register tallied two assists last Friday moving into fourth place all-time in league history with 491 career ECHL assists… He has back-to-back two assist games… He is tied for second amongst ECHL skaters with 13 assists while his 14 assists are tied for third amongst ECHL defensemen… He has a point in seven of his eight games (1-8-9) and a point in 11 of 15 games.
• #47 Patrick Kudla scored his first goal of the season last Friday and notched an assist on Saturday… He is tied for sixth amongst ECHL defensemen with 11 points.
• #67 Hank Crone has points in back-to-back games with three assists… His 20 points are third amongst ECHL skaters while his eight goals are tied for fifth and his 12 assists are tied for third… He has a point in 13 of 15 games… a goal in six and an assist in 10.  

 TEAM NOTES

• Idaho’s 55 goals are tied for second most in the ECHL while their goals for average of 3.67 fourth… They have scored four or more goals in eight of 15 games… Saturday’s 4-1 win was the third time scoring four goals in a game this season.  
• Idaho is 16^th with a goals against average of 3.00… Saturday’s 4-1 win was the third time this season they have surrendered just one goal in a game.  
• Idaho is outscoring their opponents 55-45… They’re outscoring their opposition 25-12 in the first period… The +13 goal differential is the best in the ECHL… They’ve failed to score in the first period this season just four times in 15 games while keeping their opponent off the board in six games… The four goals scored in the first period on Friday was the second time they’ve done so this season as they have eight multi-goal first periods.    
• Idaho’s power-play ranks 11^th in the league (12-for-61, 19.7%)… They have scored a power-play goal in nine of 14 games including three multi-power-play goal games… They went 1-for-3 in each game this past weekend in Rapid City ending an (0-for-20) drought which stretched four games.  
• Idaho’s 70 minor penalties are sixth most in the ECHL, but they only were assessed five penalties last weekend in Rapid City including none on Friday… Their penalty kill is 9^th in the league (50-for-59, 84.7%)…. In fact, over their last seven games, they have killed off 28 of 30 short-handed deficits dating back to Nov. 8. 
• Idaho is 7-1-1 when scoring first… After scoring in back-to-back games to begin the season they had alternated going up 1-0 vs. going down 1-0 in their 12 games before potting the game’s first score in both games last weekend. 
• Idaho is 11^th averaging 31.40 shots for per game while they’re 24^th with a shots against average of 33.40… They have outshot their opponent in four of their last five games. 
• Idaho is 6-0 when leading after the first period and 7-0 when leading after two periods. 

ACTIVE STATISTICAL LEADERS
Goals: Ty Pelton-Byce (10)
Assists: Matt Register (13)
Points: Hank Crone (20)
Plus/Minus: Hank Crone (+10)   
PIMs: Connor Punnett (35) 
PPGs: Ty Pelton-Byce (5) 
GWGs: Connor MacEachern (2)   
Shots: Lynden McCallum (45)   
Wins: Ben Kraws (5) 
GAA: Tomas Sholl (1.00)
SV%: Tomas Sholl (.963)