Tag Archives: Idaho Steelheads

Idaho clinches home-ice advantage.

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The Idaho Steelheads clinched their first-ever Brabham
Cup championship on Friday by virtue of Kalamazoo’s overtime loss against
Wheeling.

The Brabham Cup is the trophy awarded annually to the ECHL team that
finishes with the most points in the regular season. The recipient is
guaranteed home-ice advantage throughout its participation in the Kelly
Cup
Playoffs.

The Steelheads are 46-16-5 and lead the ECHL with 97 points. Idaho has
secured a first-round bye in the Kelly Cup Playoffs, and will meet the
winner of the fourth-place and fifth-place matchup in the National
Conference Semifinals.

Should the Reign hook up with the Steelheads in the playoffs, it’s worth noting that the Reign won two of three games in their only Boise road trip this season.

Idaho 6, Reign 5, shootout.

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Geoff Walker scored the game-tying goal with 2:18 left in regulation, and the Reign gained a point to match Utah with 68 points in the National Conference standings.

Mike Zacharias made his third consecutive start in net and made 30 saves in regulation and overtime, but couldn’t stop Marty Flichel’s forehand attempt in the fifth and final round of the shootout.
Continue reading “Idaho 6, Reign 5, shootout.” »

Reign 2, Idaho 1.

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Mike Zacharias made the most of his second start in as many nights, and the Reign beat the conference-leading Steelheads for the fourth straight time.

Michael Pelech and Geoff Walker scored the goals, Zacharias made 25 saves, and the Reign withstood a midgame uniform change – more details in tomorrow’s editions – to pull out the win.

The National Conference standings still look crazy, but contain some good news for the Reign (29-27-3-6, 67 points). They’re out of last place thanks to Stockton’s 4-3 win in Utah, through the Grizzlies (66 points) are still breathing down their necks. The Reign have one game in hand on Las Vegas (69) and can tie the Wranglers and Stockton (69) with a win over the Steelheads tomorrow.

Alaska beat Las Vegas 3-2 to move into a tie with Victoria for third place in the conference (70 points).

Jon Rheault collected an assist on Pelech’s goal to extend his point streak to four games. He has seven goals and 15 points in nine games since returning from the American Hockey League.

Reign 7, Idaho 4.

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The Reign jumped out to a rare 5-0 lead, enabling them to withstand a four-goal third period by Idaho in a game with plenty of implications in the standings.

Seventh-place Utah won, meaning a loss would have kept the Reign three points back of the National Conference’s final playoff berth.

Now seven teams are separated by one point each for the final six playoff positions: Bakersfield (71), Victoria (70), Las Vegas (69), Alaska (68), Stockton (67), Utah (66) and Ontario (65).
Continue reading “Reign 7, Idaho 4.” »

Reign 5, Idaho 4, OT.

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Who’d have thunk it?

After losing 7-0 in Bakersfield on Sunday, the Reign went out and won back-to-back games against the Idaho Steelheads, the best team in the conference. Greg Hogeboom’s power-play goal at 3:40 of overtime sealed the victory in a game that saw the Steelheads outshoot the Reign 47-25.

Sean O’Connor’s seventh goal of the season, with 4:19 left in the third period, tied the game at 4. Peter Lenes, Robert Pearce and Jon Francisco also scored for the Reign, who are now one point behind the Las Vegas Wranglers for the final National Conference playoff berth.

Nine different Reign players had one assist, and goaltender Curtis Darling stopped 40 of 45 shots. The Reign went 2-for-4 on the power play and held Idaho to one power play goal in four man-advantage shifts.

Idaho 5, Reign 2.

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The Reign played the mirror opposite of Saturday’s effort — taking a 2-0 lead in the first period, then allowing five unanswered, including two in the final two minutes.


Dan Knapp scored his first goal of the year, and Robert Pearce was credited with his fourth of the season when Idaho defenseman Brendan Milnamow scored into his own net, to give the Reign the early cushion.

But Idaho fought back with a hard-luck goal with 1.8 seconds left in the middle period, when Evan Barlow fired a slapshot past a stickless Mike Howe to give the Steelheads their first goal.

Idaho added goals in the third period by Mark McCutcheon, Barlow, Mark Derlago and an empty-netter by McCutcheon, when the Reign were outshot 15-3.

More details in tomorrow’s editions of the Sun and Bulletin.

Penalties and teddy bears in Idaho.

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A captivating topic, right?


If you’ve got a couple minutes, read this description from a Boise TV station’s Web site about the Reign’s win over the Idaho Steelheads last night. It gives further insight into what created the 5-on-3 power plays, and the penalties that followed to give the Reign six man-advantage shifts (they scored four power-play goals and won 5-3). As for the Teddy Bears, check out the photo.

The Reign finished 2-1-0 on the three-game Idaho trip, not bad against a team that’s won more games (19) than any other in the ECHL. They also gained some separation on Stockton and Las Vegas in the Pacific Division standings.

Reign 5, Idaho 3.

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A night after being shut out on seven power-play opportunities, the Reign didn’t take any prime scoring chances to chance.


Peter Lenes, Tim Kraus, Mike Howe, Greg Hogeboom and Jon Francisco scored goals — the latter four on the power play — as the Reign skated away with a resounding win at Qwest Arena in Boise. 

The Reign finished 4-for-6 with the man advantage. In so doing they ruined the goals-against average of Steelheads goalie Rejean Beauchemin, who entered the game with the second-lowest GAA in the ECHL. They also solved the league’s second-best penalty kill; Idaho entered the game having killed 85.6 percent of opponents’ power plays.

Curtis Darling stopped 21 of 24 shots for the victory, and Lenes, Hogeboom and Rob Pearce each collected two assists.

More details in tomorrow’s editions.

Idaho 2, Reign 1.

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The Reign went 0 for 7 on the power play and were unable to take advantage of a two-man advantage early in the third period, losing 2-1 in Boise.

His team trailing 2-0 at 4:03 of the third period, defenseman Jon Landry scored for the Reign. The Reign (10-12-2-1) looked poised to tie the score two minutes later after three Idaho players were sent to the penalty box in a span of 61 seconds, but could not convert.

Idaho (19-4-0-2), the top team in the ECHL’s West Division, got goals by Marty Flichel in the first period and John Swanson in the second. Curtis Darling stopped 22 of 24 shots, and Idaho’s Rejean Beauchemin had 21 saves.

A couple notes for the weekend.

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1. Defenseman Andrew Martens was playing forward last night for the Reign in Idaho, skating on a line with Mike Howe, Michael Pelech and sometimes James McEwan. This isn’t a new development; Martens did the same last year for the Reign when injuries hit particularly hard, and Karl Taylor recently joked that Martens did so well at forward it was hard to move him back to the blue line. He took the place of winger Chris Curran, who was placed on 3-day injured reserve prior to the game, a move that will keep Curran out of Friday’s rematch in Boise. We’re not sure if Curran has been set back at all in his recovery from a broken leg, or if it’s something else, but will try to update when the team returns Monday.


2. Greg Hogeboom and Peter Lenes continue to be the main men responsible for picking up the scoring slack with Tony Voce injured, and Jon Rheault and Dwight King in Manchester. Hogeboom has at least one goal in every game this month, including a hat trick on Dec. 2, for a total of six goals and two assists in four games. The rookie Lenes is clearly adjusting to the ECHL level, with four goals and two assists in December, as well as the only goal in Wednesday’s shootout. His shootout technique was predictably fast and furious, finished not by anything fancy but a simple forehand that Rejean Beauchemin didn’t see coming. Beauchemin, who is second in the ECHL with a 2.43 goals-against average, had not lost in a shootout this season.

3. The Reign will wear specially-designed L.A. Kings affiliate jerseys Friday and Saturday in Idaho. It might seem weird to debut it on the road, but it might equally seem unfair that the Steelheads wore specially-designed Dallas Stars affiliate jerseys on Wednesday.