Ticket prices back to Mallards structure

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By Craig DeVrieze | Wednesday, April 2, 2008 1:10 AM CDT | () comments

What seems like an increase really isn’t, Tim Taylor said.

The Flames have returned 2008-09 season-ticket prices to the levels they were for the Mallards final season in the United Hockey League.

In many cases, but not all, that amounts to an increase over what season-ticket holders paid for this first American Hockey League campaign.

General manager Tim Taylor said prices for tickets this year were set last spring, with an eye on a 36-game ECHL campaign.

Ultimately, of course, Taylor and the Quad-Cities Sports Ventures ownership group ushered the Quad-Cities into the Triple-A AHL in late May but chose to maintain the previously offered pricing structure through July 1 of 2007.

“We honored our word, and I applaud ownership for letting fans see 40 AHL games at $10 per ticket,’’ Taylor said.

That structure included one price for all lower-bowl seats, and one for all upper-bowl seats. Now the Flames have returned to different prices for sideline and end zone seating.

Lower sideline seats will cost $4 more per game than the original early-bird offer, and $1.50 more than season-ticket holders paid after July 1. Upper sideline seats will increase by $2.50, and $1.50 per game.

Youth ticket prices will increase by $2, from $5 to $7.

Sideline seat prices will decrease, said Taylor, who stressed the new prices merely are a return to prices fans paid for the 2006-2007 season.

They also remain on the lower end of AHL season-ticket prices.

“The reality is this community early on had, bar none, the lowest season-ticket prices in the AHL,’’ Taylor said. “Later was still lower than most as well. Now it falls more in line with pricing in the AHL, but still on the lower end of the scale.’’

Puustinen might join team

Flames coach Ryan McGill on Tuesday said the Calgary Flames are talking to the agent of junior right winger Juuso Puustinen about an     Amateur Tryout contract for the final two weeks of the season.

But, he stressed, “nothing has been finalized.’’

Why bring aboard the 20-year-old Finnish forward now?

“What it will accomplish is we will see where he is at because he     doesn’t have (an entry level) contract,’’ McGill said of Puustinen, who just completed his final junior season in the Western Hockey League. “We’ll see if he can play at this level.’’

Around the AHL

Former Mallards enforcer Steve McIntyre was suspended for one game by the league this week after collecting his third game misconduct of the year with the Providence Bruins. “Diesel” has racked up 190 penalty     minutes this year. ... The AHL will begin passing out year-end honors with the naming of an All-Rookie team today. All-Star teams will follow          Thursday, with an outstanding rookie to be named Friday. Six more awards will be announced next week, culminating with the MVP on Friday.

Flames this week

Record: 34-30-2-7 (77 points)

Streak: 0-3-0-0.

Last 10: 4-6-0-0.

Home: 13-17-2-4.

Away: 21-13-0-3.

Goals: 2.56.

Goals against: 2.69.

PP: No. 20 (61-393, 15.5).

PK: No. 3 (56-417, 86.6)

PIM: No. 12 (19.5 pg)

Scoring

(Statistics prior to Tuesday’s game)

Player Pos. GP Goals Assists Pts PIM +/-

Grant Stevenson RW 72 30 40 70 56 -8

Krys Kolanos C 57 27 32 59 70 -12

Carsen Germyn RW 69 16 27 43 129 -15

Brandon Prust LW 72 10 25 35 224 -3

D. VanderGulik RW 72 16 19 35 56 -2

Tim Hambly D 64 4 24 28 32 -8

Kris Chucko RW 72 11 14 25 38 -1

Warren Peters C 67 11 12 23 70 -2

Adam Pardy D 65 5 13 18 67 -13

Tim Ramholt D 69 4 14 18 63 -5

Derek Couture RW 68 9 8 17 101 2

Cam Cunning LW 60 9 4 13 78 -7

Tomi Maki RW 70 7 5 12 27 -3

Brett Sutter C 67 4 6 10 54 -13

*Dustin Boyd C 17 2 7 9 4 -6

Matt Pelech D 70 3 6 9 115 -7

Brett Palin D 59 0 8 8 63 16

*Eric Nystrom LW 18 4 3 7 15 -1

Gord Baldwin D 32 0 4 4 17 -7

Brad Cole D 20 1 2 3 8 -1

Gerry Burke D 40 0 3 3 30 3

Goaltending

Player Min GAA W L T Save Pct.

Curtis McElhinney 2,017 2.23 17 16 2 .912

Brent Krahn 795 2.49 6 6 2 .905

Matt Keetley 1,211 2.38 8 7 3 .910

*— in NHL

Rockford IceHogs

When: 7 p.m. Friday.

Where: i wireless Center, Moline

Record: 40-24-4-6 (90 points).

Streak: 1-0-0-0.

Last 10: 6-4-0-0.

Vs. Flames: 2-4-0-1 Away: 20-11-3-4.

Goals: 3.06.

Goals against: 2.86

PP: No. 10. (80-435, 18.4).

PK: No. 11 (75-459, 83.5).

PIM: No. 2 (25.9)

IceHogs leaders

Player Pos. GP Goals Assists Pts PIM +/-

Martin St. Pierre C 63 29 63 83 72 10

Petri Kontiola LW 60 16 43 59 30 16

Troy Brouwer LW 69 31 18 49 146 -1

Kris Versteeg RW 50 16 27 43 152 3

Goaltending Min GAA W L T Save Pct.

Wade Flaherty 1,486 2.54 13 8 1 .917

Corey Crawford 2,711 2.41 25 17 5 .907

Plus/minus leader: Colin Fraser, C, plus-13. PIM leader: Danny Richmond, D, 156.

Iowa Stars

When: 7 p.m. Saturday

Where: iwC.

Record: 33-34-4-2 (72 points).

Streak: 0-1-0-0.

Last 10: 5-4-1-0.

Vs. Flames: 3-4-0-2.

Away: 18-15-2-1.

Goals: 2.69.

Goals against: 3.15.

PP: No. 28 (52-380, 13.7).

PK: No. 24 (65-334, 80.5).

PIM: No. 28 (14.6)

Player Pos. GP Goals Assists Pts PIM +/-

Marty Sertich C 72 21 24 45 40 -7

Janos Vas LW 73 17 22 39 51 -13

K. Pushkarev RW 43 13 24 37 41 7

Chris Conner RW 48 12 25 37 17 -3

Goaltending Min GAA W L T Save Pct.

Tobias Stephan 3,209 2.65 26 24 2 .909

Steve Silverthorn 411 3.36 2 5 0 .886

Phillip Sauve 550 4.25 5 5 0 .855

Plus/minus leader: Pushkarev. PIM leader: Richard Clune, LW, 102.

Chicago Wolves

When: 3 p.m., Sunday.

Where: All-State Arena, Rosemont, Ill.

Record: 48-19-2-1 (101 points).

Streak: 1-0-0-0.

Last 10: 4-5-0-1.

Vs. Flames: 6-1-0-0.

Home: 26-9-1-0.

Goals: 3.72.

Goals against: 2.76

PP: No. 3 (97-463, 21.0).

PK: No. 6 (70-460, 84.8).

PIM: No. 5 (22.6)

Player Pos. GP Goals Assists Pts PIM +/-

Jason Krog C 72 35 65 100 30 14

Jesse Schultz RW 72 23 38 61 39 15

Brett Sterling LW 62 34 26 60 102 `3

Steve Martins C 68 17 36 74 6

Player Min GAA W L T Save Pct.

Ondrej Pavelec 2,698 2.67 30 13 3 .914

Rob Gherson 754 2.63 6 6 0 .916

Plus/minus: Three with 16. PIM: Andre Deveaux, C, 188.