Three players make history

It was a memorable weekend for several players around the ECHL last week. Toledo’s Evan Rankin scored five goals in Saturday’s 7-3 win over Cincinnati. It was the second time in his ECHL career that Rankin scored five goals in a game after also doing so on Feb. 18, 2010 at Charlotte. The league record for goals in a game is six, set by Hampton Roads’ Tom Bissett on Nov. 22, 1989 against Greensboro and tied by Brad McCaughey of Toledo on Nov. 6, 1991 against Columbus. Rankin’s five-goal game on Saturday marks the 29th time in ECHL history a player has scored five goals in a game. Kalamazoo’s Joel Martin won his 156th career ECHL game on Saturday at Greenville, moving him into fifth place on the league’s all-time wins list. He also sits fifth all-time with 301 games played. Martin’s 34 wins this season are tied for the 13th most in a single-season in league history. He has appeared in 61 games this season, which is tied for the fourth most appearances in a season all-time, while he is fourth in a single season with 3,594 minutes played and 1,992 saves. Allen’s Chad Costello recorded an assist in both of games over the weekend extending his streak to consecutive games with an assist to 16, which is the third-longest streak in ECHL history. Costello has notched 26 assists since the streak began on Feb. 23. With just three games remaining in the season, Costello will be unable to match the league record assist streak of 20 games, set by Cincinnati’s David Desharnais in the 2007-08 season.