Two milestones were reached as part of another night filled with highs and lows Friday in the ECHL.
Friday was a bittersweet night for Idaho Steelheads defenseman Matt Register. He recorded an assist to earn his 500th career ECHL point. Problem was, Idaho lost the game, 4-3 in overtime at home in front of a sellout crowd of 5,170.
Register’s assist came early as the Steelheads took a 1-0 lead 2:31 into the game. He fed a pass to Lynden McCallum, who fired a wrist shot from the high slot. It was one of two goals on the night for McCallum, who has six for the season.
Register became one of only 34 players in ECHL history to record 500 points, extending his point streak to five games (1-4-5).
Register is in his 14th professional season and fourth with the Steelheads. He was named to the All-ECHL Second Team in 2023-24 for the third time in his career. He finished second among defensemen in scoring with 64 points (10-54-64) in 71 games.
Here are other top performers from Friday night’s action:
Alec Butcher: Tulsa Oilers
Speaking of milestones, Butcher recorded the 100th goal of his pro career. It not only helped the Oilers forward achieve a personal best, but it was a game-winner, as Tulsa defeated the Tahoe Knight Monsters 4-1 on the road in Stateline, Nevada.
Butcher got his big goal in the second period, over a minute after the Knight Monsters’ Bear Hughes had tied the game 1-1. Butcher roofed a backhander into the net past Tahoe netminder Talyn Boyko. It proved to be the deciding tally, and the Oilers added two more for the victory.
Butcher re-signed with Tulsa in September and is in his sixth season as a pro. The veteran center spent the majority of 2023-24 with the Oilers. He posted 34 points (18-16-34) in 56 games wearing the Maroon and Navy sweater.
Deni Goure: Rapid City Rush
We would be remiss if we skipped over Deni Goure’s two-goal night, one for the go-ahead and the other in overtime to edge Idaho.
Goure, the Rush’s youngest player at 21, gave Rapid City a 3-2 lead 1:08 into the third period after stealing the puck in the neutral zone and firing a wrister on the breakaway.
In overtime, Goure took the puck down the middle of the ice, waited for a Steelhead defenseman to get in front of his goaltender, then sent a wrist shot around his body and past the right arm of goalie Ben Kraws, giving the Rush its third straight win.
Goure, who signed an AHL contract with the Calgary Wranglers in August, has two goals and four points over his last two games.
Jeremy Brodeur: Adirondack Thunder
Brodeur picked up his fourth victory in four games Friday, stopping 18 of 19 shots to help Adirondack secure a 3-1 win over the visiting Reading Royals at Cool Insuring Arena.
Reading scored on its first shot of the game when Shane Sellar tipped in a shot from the point 13:13 into the first period for his first goal of the season.
That was all Brodeur would allow, however. The Thunder scored twice in the second frame to take a 2-1 lead on goals by Ryan Wheeler and Filip Engaras. Patrick Polino then notched an empty-netter to ice the game.
Brodeur, who was named the Warrior Hockey ECHL Goaltender of the Month for October, is under contract with Utica of the AHL. In the opening month of the season, he went 2-0-0 with one shutout, a 0.50 goals-against average and a .981 save percentage.
Matthew Sop: Iowa Heartlanders
Iowa ran its winning streak to three Friday with a 4-2 home win over the Wichita Thunder, and Matthew Sop was a major factor.
Sop assisted on a Gavin Hain goal with a minute left in the second period, then went cross-crease for his sixth goal of the season with eight minutes remaining in the third period to give the Heartlanders a 3-1 lead.
Sop inked a one-year, one-way AHL contract with the Iowa Wild in June before joining the Heartlanders. He recorded 90 points (43-47-90), 59 penalty minutes (PIM) and a plus-19 rating in 67 games with the Kitchener Rangers in the OHL during the 2023-24 season.