BAKER NAMED ECHL PLAYER OF THE WEEK
Former Trenton Sting forward Kevin Baker (photo credit - Steinhaus Fotographie/ECHL), now with the Evansville Icemen, was named the ECHL Player of the Week for his recent performance.
The Kingston, Ontario native would play one OJHL season as a 17-year old member of the Trenton Sting in 1996-97. The rookie would lead the Sting in scoring with 59 points in 45 games played before joining the nearby Belleville Bulls the following season and spending three years in the OHL, including a league championship and spot in the 1999 Memorial Cup that was played in Ottawa.
Below is the official press release from the ECHL website (www.echl.com):
Kevin Baker of the Evansville IceMen is the Sher-Wood Hockey ECHL Player of the Week for Feb. 11-17. It is the fourth time in Baker’s career that he was won the weekly award, tying him for the second-most weekly honors in ECHL history.
Baker scored four goals and added three assists for seven points in three games last week.
The 33-year-old tallied an assist in a 2-1 loss to Toledo on Wednesday, scored four points (2g-2a) in a 6-1 win against Fort Wayne on Friday and ended the week with two goals, including the game-winner, in a 4-2 victory at Fort Wayne on Saturday.
A native of Kingston, Ontario, Baker has 24 points (16g-8a) in 28 games with Evansville and for the season has 33 points (20g-13a) in 46 games with the IceMen and Orlando.
A seventh-round selection (193rd overall) by the Los Angeles Kings in the 1999 NHL Baker has tallied 386 points (188g-198a) in 363 career ECHL games with Johnstown, Texas, Florida, Stockton, Orlando and Evansville. He was named ECHL Most Valuable Player with Florida in 2008-09 when he scored 57 goals, the 11th highest single-season total in league history.
On behalf of Kevin Baker, a case of pucks will be donated to an Evansville youth hockey organization by Sher-Wood Hockey, the exclusive puck supplier of the ECHL. Since beginning its sponsorship of the award in 2000-01, Sher-Wood Hockey has donated more than 27,000 pucks to youth hockey organizations in ECHL cities.
