CHL Central Hockey League

2012-13 CHL Schedule Released; Season Starts October 19

August 30, 2012 - Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


GLENDALE, AZ (August 30, 2012) - The 2012-13 Central Hockey League (CHL) schedule has been officially released with the 330-game season beginning on Friday, October 19 in three locations and concluding on Sunday, March 24, also with three contests. The CHL also announced the conference alignment and playoff format for the league's upcoming 21st season.

"We are very excited to release the 2012-13 CHL schedule, renew some old rivalries, and create some new ones starting October 19th," said Duane Lewis, CHL Commissioner. "We also would like to welcome the Denver Cutthroats to the CHL family, in their tradition-rich hockey region."

Each of the CHL's 10 member clubs will play a 66-game schedule with 33 home games and 33 road games. Weekends comprise a large majority of the schedule as 77% of the games will be played on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays (255 of the 330 games will occur over the weekends) and 67% of the games are played on the prime nights of Fridays and Saturdays.

Opening weekend will see four teams open their home schedules with the Bloomington Blaze, Denver Cutthroats and Wichita Thunder starting things off on Friday, October 19 and the Allen Americans opening their home schedule on October 20. On October 26, the Arizona Sundogs, Rapid City Rush, Texas Brahmas and Tulsa Oilers will play their home openers with the Quad City Mallards opening on October 27 and the Missouri Mavericks being the last to see home ice with their opener slated for November 3.

The Denver Cutthroats, the CHL's newest franchise, will play their first ever game on October 19 when they host the Missouri Mavericks at the Denver Coliseum. The game will be the first hockey game in the Coliseum since 1989.

Some of the Holiday highlights on the schedule include all five teams in action on New Year's Eve with Quad City playing at Allen, Bloomington playing at Arizona, Tulsa playing at Missouri, Denver playing at Rapid City and Wichita playing at Texas. The Allen Americans will continue their tradition of an afternoon game on Martin Luther King Day hosting the Arizona Sundogs this season and the Cutthroats will play the lone CHL game on Presidents' Day hosting the Missouri Mavericks.

The Rapid City Rush are celebrating a milestone season in 2012-13 playing in their fifth season. The team has unveiled a new fifth anniversary logo for the season.

Additionally, the CHL announced several operational items today including that the league would compete as one 10-team conference and that eight teams will make up the playoffs beginning in late March. The items were recently voted on by the CHL Board of Governors.

Competing in the league's 21st season, all teams will play in the Berry Conference, named after N. Thomas Berry, the current Commissioner Emeritus of the CHL who has been involved in the sport of hockey for close to a half-century. The CHL's regular season points champion will claim the Bud Poile Governors' Cup.

The 10 teams that will be competing for the top prize, the Ray Miron Presidents' Cup, are the Allen Americans, Arizona Sundogs, Bloomington Blaze, Denver Cutthroats, Missouri Mavericks, Quad City Mallards, Rapid City Rush, Texas Brahmas, Tulsa Oilers and Wichita Thunder.



Central Hockey League Stories from August 30, 2012


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.


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