Published: February 03, 2009 11:21 pm      

Chiefs goalie garners ECHL weekly honor

The Black and Gold earned another honor this week.

This one had nothing to do with the Super Bowl Steelers, nor did it involve a parade attracting hundreds of thousands of fans. But the Johnstown Chiefs still will take it.

Pittsburgh native Kris Mayotte earned ECHL Goaltender of the Week honors for the second time this season as he backstopped the Chiefs to three consecutive victories that moved Johnstown into a tie for first place in the North Division.

“We have a good team and that helps,” said Mayotte, who went 3-0-0 with a 2.00 goals against average and .935 save percentage.

The 24-year-old beat Southern Division Mississippi twice, making 23 saves in a 3-1 win on Jan. 28 and stopping 28 shots in a 5-3 win on Friday.

Mayotte had a 36-save night in a 5-3 win over Reading on Saturday.

The American Conference All-Star Game starter tied his career high with 18 wins this season (18-9-2).

“Last week was pretty big,” Mayotte said. “We needed wins, not just a win, a loss, a win. We needed to put wins back to back. Hopefully this gets our team back on a streak. At the beginning of the year we were able to put a streak together and run with it.”

Mayotte wasn’t a one-man act. Forward Petr Pohl was a runner-up for ECHL Player of the Week after collecting seven points, including five goals, in the three wins. Cincinnati’s Jimmy Kilpatrick won the weekly honor.

“It was just a complete team game,” Mayotte said. “We got offensive production. Pohl had a hat trick one night and (Jarrett) Konkle had two goals.

“We had points from all over.

“Even when they weren’t scoring (Jason) Spence and (Sean) Berkstresser’s line was amazing. The defense did a great job of letting me see shots and clearing the rebounds.”