Lynx on New Year's Eve: More on a record outburst

After the Augusta Lynx scored four short-handed goals in the second period of Sunday's 5-2 victory over the Charlotte Checkers, I began checking to see what kind of record the accomplishment might be.

The ECHL record book does not keep a category of most short-handed goals in one period, but the league keeps it by game.

Jack Carnefix of the ECHL sent me some updated information regarding the performance. He also said the accomplishment is likely an all-time ECHL record for short-handed goals in one period.

The following is from the league:

Augusta's four short-handed goals in one game tied the ECHL record for short-handed goals in a game since 1992-1993.

Richmond scored four goals on Feb. 22, 1997, and repeated the feat on Dec. 6, 1998, while Johnstown accomplished it on Jan. 7, 2001.

Trailing 2-0 in the second period, the Lynx scored their short-handed goals in succession and all while down one man.

Louis Goulet scored an unassisted short-handed goal at 5:01 of the second and added his second short-handed goal at 17:39, assisted by Ryan Lang and Nick Kuiper.

Dirk Southern scored the second short-handed goal at 13:43, assisted by Lang, and Mike Erickson scored the fourth and final short-handed goal unassisted at 18:30.

Goulet is the second player this season to score two short-handed goals in a game, with the other being Charlotte’s Mark Lee, who ironically accomplished the feat in a 6-3 win against Augusta on Dec. 2.

Goulet has three short-handed goals this season, tying him for fourth in the league with T.J. Trevelyan of Long Beach, Dustin Johner of Florida and Brandin Cote of Texas. Greg Hogeboom of Reading leads the ECHL with five short-handed goals while Wes Goldie of Victoria and Brent McDonald of Florida are tied for second with four short-handed goals each.

The short-handed outburst doubled the Lynx’s short-handed goal production for the season and allowed them to climb from tied for 15th in the league into a tie for third with Gwinnett, Reading and South Carolina. Fresno leads the league with 13 short-handed goals while Florida is second with nine.

The ECHL's updated record book looks like this:

Shorthand Goals
4 - Augusta Lynx vs. Charlotte, Dec. 31, 2006
Johnstown Chiefs vs. Roanoke, Jan. 7, 2001
Richmond Renegades vs. Wheeling, Dec. 6, 1998
Richmond Renegades vs. South Carolina, Feb. 22, 1997
3 - 16 times, most recent; Atlantic City Boardwalk Bullies, Dec. 14, 2003

Here is a portion of the article that ran in Tuesday's editions:

By Steve Sanders
Staff writer

They are often called "shorties" in the hockey world, a term that describes short-handed goals scored by an outmanned team while it's trying to kill a penalty.

They don't happen very often.

That makes the Augusta Lynx's accomplishment Sunday against the Charlotte Checkers at James Brown Arena especially impressive.
Augusta scored a record four "shorties" in the second period alone during a 5-2 victory on New Year's Eve. By comparison, the Lynx tallied only three short-handed goals during the entire 1999-2000 season, and no ECHL team this season had scored more than three in a game.

"Two in a game is very rare," Lynx coach Bob Ferguson said. "I've never seen anything like (what happened Sunday)."

Ferguson said he stressed to the team, playing with a short roster after a couple of call-ups before the weekend, that it needed to stay out of the penalty box. Penalties had cost the team in Saturday's 4-3 loss at Charlotte.

Then, the Lynx committed four consecutive penalties.

"I was starting to get frustrated," Ferguson said, "and then they countered by scoring on each one (penalty kill). It just happened."