Chilly Ice Bats Seek Warm-up

Published on November 12, 2003 under Central Hockey League (CHL)
Austin Ice Bats News Release


Setting the Stage: The Austin Ice Bats of the Central Hockey League have begun defense of their Governors' Cup title, opening the 2003-04 CHL season with a 4-5-1 record. The Ice Bats, who have won just once in their last seven outings, try to right the ship against a tough opponent-- welcoming Southeast Division-leading Laredo for consecutive games Friday and Saturday, before making their first visit to the Rio Grande Valley Sunday.

Winning their first ten games last season, the best opening streak in League history, the 2002-03 Ice Bats went on to record a franchise-best 46-14-4 record. In the process, the Bats clinched their second straight Southeast Division title, and the Governors' Cup for the league's top overall regular season record.

Defeating New Mexico and Laredo in the 2003 President's Cup Playoffs, the Bats earned their second straight Southern Conference crown and a berth in the Cup Finals. There, however, for the second straight year, the Ice Bats fell one step short of the CHL's ultimate prize, falling to the Memphis RiverKings in five games.

A look back: The Bats continue to struggle offensively, and last Thursday night, were blanked for the second straight game, 3-0 in Corpus Christi.

The Rayz took the lead on a Ken Richardson power play rebound late in the first period. Then after Corpus goalie Brent Belecki stoned Kelly Smart's shorthanded breakaway attempt, the Rayz added a goal seconds after a penalty on Austin's Brett Seguin expired. Nick Udovicic rebounded the puck off the mask of Bats goalie David Haun and threw it in at 13:42 of the second period.

In the third, the Bats took it to the Rayz in an effort to score, and had several glorious chances, including a pair that Tab Lardner almost banked in off Belecki. But they could not put the biscuit in the basket, and Udovicic added an empty net goal on a blind backhander from center with five seconds left.

Belecki stopped all 28 shots faced to outduel Haun, who stopped 32 of 34 shots faced. Udovicic led scorers with two goals and an assist. The Bats were shut out on six power play attempts, and completed eight consecutive scoreless periods.

A look back, continued: Last Friday night, the Bats broke out of their offensive doldrums in an unexpected way. Rookie forward Brent Hughes led the way with a hat trick, and the Bats nipped Rio Grande Valley, 4-3.

The Bats roared out to a 12-1 shot advantage and scored on their first shot on goal, 1:15 into the game. Hughes' five-hole shot off a Gerald Tallaire pass ended 173 minutes, 29 seconds of scoring futility dating back to the first period of the October 30th game against San Angelo.

Midway through the first, Brett Seguin threw the puck up the right wall, and Hughes blew around the defense for a breakaway score. Then after Rio Grande's Jason Tessier scored a first period power play goal on a long slapper, Hughes completed the hat trick with a power play goal on an odd-man rush 1:55 into the second.

Kelly Smart's rebound goal midway through the second built the lead to 4-1, and chased Bees starting goalie Jeff Levy. But after that, the Bats had to hang on. The Killer Bees closed to within one in the second period, with Matic Kralj scoring on a puck that bounced into the slot, and Roger Holeczy scoring a power play goal.

In the third, Hughes almost put it away with his fourth goal, shooting high on a 2-on-1 rush. But the Bats played sound defensively to close it out anyway. Hughes, who scored his only prior pro goal in Game Five of last year's Finals, recorded his first hat trick. Tallaire added two assists.

On Saturday, the Ice Bats fell in a shootout, 3-2 to Amarillo. It was a terrific hockey game with a dramatic conclusion. Amarillo's Dave Rattray scored on a re-direct about 12 minutes in, but Austin goalie David Haun made two spectacular saves in the second period-- a sliding save to rob Amarillo's Sam Hill early, and a terrific glove save on a Ben Gustavson shot with three minutes left.

That allowed the Bats to tie the game on a Joey Bastien goal 1:38 into the third. The Gorillas again took the lead on a long shot by Mark DeSantis from across the blue line. But with an extra skater on in the closing seconds, the Bats tied the count again. Kelly Smart slid a pass for a Daniel Tetrault blast that knotted the score with 11.9 seconds remaining.

After a scoreless overtime, the shootout was itself a marathon. Bastien's goal in Round Five pushed it into sudden death, and the Gorillas finally won it on a Scott Wray goal in Round Nine, the fourth round of sudden death.

This past Tuesday, the Bats fell behind early-- and we mean early-- en route to a 4-1 loss at Odessa. The Veteran's Day "Kids Day" game faced off at 11:15am.

The Jackalopes posted two goals within three minutes late in the first period, and led 2-0 after one. Then just 13 seconds into the second, a shot off a face-off win deflected into the slot, and Odessa's Matt Cressman ripped it home for a 3-0 lead.

That provided a necessary wake-up call, and the Bats played solidly in the second period. Josh St. Louis even scored a power play goal, deflecting a Kelly Smart shot past Odessa goalie Jeff Blair. But the Jacks wrapped it up 52 seconds into the third on Sebastien Thinel's power play goal-- a de facto 5-on-3 goal coming at the very second one of two penalized Ice Bats came out of the box.

The Bats didn't bag it, outshooting Odessa 16-7 in the third. But scoring chances are another matter, and seemingly every time the Bats had the puck low in the zone, the Jackalopes were in position to block the shot or the pass. Thinel, Cressman, Matt Price and Scott Hillman had two points each for Odessa.

Miscellany: Laredo and Austin enter the weekend as the top two teams in the league in average penalty minutes. Laredo averages 40.1 minutes per game, while the Bats now average 30.1 minutes.

The Bats continue to perform on the penalty kill, ranking 6th in the league at 86.2%. But their power play continues to struggle, ranking last with just three goals on 49 power play attempts (6.1%). Scoring twice on 12 attempts over the last three games (including their first road power play goal Tuesday at Odessa), the Bats are showing signs of warming up on the man-advantage.

Overall, however, the Bats continue to lack punch, with just 19 goals in 10 games, an average of less than two per game.

Roster Flights:

Additions: Bats forwards Mike Olynyk and Shawn Legault are both back off suspensions resulting from the Halloween game at Laredo. Olynyk returned last Saturday after serving a two-game suspension. Legault is back for this Friday's rematch against the Bucks, having completed a four-game time out.

Wounded Wings: Bats goalie Peter Brady was injured in the game October 25th against Oklahoma City, and underwent subsequent knee surgery. His return is indefinite.

Potential Bite Victims: Laredo has sprinted to an 8-1-1 start and a six-point lead in the division. And the Bucks are so balanced, it's scary. The top league team in both offense and defense, Laredo has 47 goals in ten games, while allowing only 21. And they rank second in both specialty teams categories, at 20.8% on the power play, 88.4% on the penalty kill. Forward Patrick Nilson, assigned by San Antonio of the American League, has scored in every game and ranks third in the CHL with 10 goals and 6 assists. Jeff Bes has added a league-most 14 assists, and Brent Cullaton and Chris Grenville 14 and 11 points, respectively. Even defenseman Steve Weidlich's gotten into the scoring parade, with 11 points and a league-leading +17 rating. Mike Amodeo leads the league with 96 penalty minutes, but is currently unavailable while on suspension. Goaltender Marco Emond has yet to lose in regulation-- he's 5-0-1 with a 1.64 GAA, while backup David Guerrera sports a 3-1 mark, and 2.50 GAA. Laredo is 3-1 as a road team coming to Austin this weekend.

At 3-4-2, Rio Grande Valley has slipped behind Austin in the division, with one fewer game played. The Killer Bees have dropped three straight, despite the league's top power play (22.9%). When even strength, the Bees haven't been able to score consistently, netting 21 goals in nine games. Winger Matic Kralj leads the team with 4 goals and 3 assists. Former Ice Bat Mike Rees has contributed 6 points from the blue line. Veteran goalie Jeff Levy is 3-3-1, with a 2.90 GAA. 1-2-1 so far at their new arena, the Killer Bees play consecutive games at San Angelo before returning to the Valley for Sunday's game against Austin.

The Series: The Ice Bats are 7-5 lifetime against Laredo, having suffered 5-1 and 3-0 losses at Laredo this year.

The Bats are 1-0 against Rio Grande Valley, by virtue of their home win over the Killer Bees last Friday.

Comments from the Coach:

On last week: "I thought we played well Friday against Rio Grande Valley-- for about half the game. The other half, we struggled. Maintaining a level of consistency is really difficult for us right now. Saturday, we had a great comeback against Amarillo and showed a lot of character. I thought it might be a momentum builder for us, but Tuesday in Odessa, we were awful. It's clear that changes need to be made. The leaders in our locker room, our veterans aren't playing up to their capabilities. Obviously, it goes deeper than that, it's the whole team. But our veterans have to lead the charge.

On this week: "There haven't been any easy games on our schedule, so we shouldn't expect any different. We're not scoring goals, and more so than with the new guys, I'm disappointed with the players we brought back who we know have the ability to put the puck in the net, but haven't. Even our d-men, guys like Tetrault and McArthur haven't played or scored to their ability. Yeah, we lost Peter Brady, but our guys are professionals and should be able to play through that kind of adversity. By no means is David Haun solely to blame for our performance-- we all share the blame.

Cave, Sweet Cave: This weekend, the Ice Bats will have two separate ticket promotions to help community organizations.

Friday night, the Bats will be helping to raise money for the "Christmas with Santa" program at Children's Hospital of Austin. With a significant portion of proceeds from tickets sold, hospital volunteers will purchase presents to be delivered to young patients on Christmas morning. To help this worthy cause, or for more details, fans may call the Children's Hospital Pediatric ICU at 324-8911. At Friday's game, 4-year-old Kylie Taylor, a former hospital patient, will drop the ceremonial first puck.

On Saturday night, ticket sales proceeds benefit the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer Foundation in the battle to fund breast cancer research. Tickets for that fundraiser may be purchased by calling 927-PUCK.

Tickets to all Ice Bats home games are now available at all Texas Box Office locations, including the Ice Bats ticket office and all Austin-area HEB stores. On-line ordering is available through www.TexasBoxOffice.com. To charge by phone, fans may call Texas Box Office at (512) 477-6060, or the Ice Bats ticket office at (512) 927-PUCK.

Individual game tickets range in price from $10 to $30, depending on section, with discounted rates for groups of 15 or more. In addition to group tickets, season tickets remain on sale at the Ice Bats office, in full-, half-season, or 10-game plans. Free Belfry Club membership is still included for all new full season packages, as well as free parking for all full-season and half-season plans.

For more information, fans may call the Ice Bats ticket office at (512) 927-PUCK, or log onto the team's website at www.icebats.com.

Stars Road Trips: Fans are invited to join Ice Bats players and coaches on bus trips to see the Dallas Stars at the American Airlines Center.

The cost of $100 per person includes Stars game ticket, bus transportation and food and beverages while en route. Trips will depart from Chaparral Ice Center, 14200 North IH-35 near Wells Branch. Fans may choose from two games: Sunday, November 30th against the Los Angeles Kings (bus departs at 1pm, game time is 6pm), or Sunday, March 7th against the San Jose Sharks (bus departs at 10am, game time is 3pm). Fans may call 927-PUCK to reserve a spot or for more details.

In the Air: For the second straight season, all Ice Bats away games will be broadcast on News Talk 1260, KWNX-AM. The station will broadcast all road games during the 2003-04 regular season and CHL Playoffs. All road games will also be available live on-line, through www.SportsJuice.com. The Texas Dodge Dealers Warm-up Show begins 20 minutes prior to game time. Ice Bats Director of Broadcasting, Media/PR Glen Norman will handle play-by-play duties for a sixth straight season.

Bats in Cyberspace: Bats fans can learn the latest about their team by logging on to www.icebats.com. The official website of the Bats was newly re-designed by BeyondBeyond Design and constructed by webmaster Nathan Jones. Home or away, Bats fans can follow the action with real-time scoring on the website, courtesy of Pointstreak.com. Fans will be able to access a game box score in real-time, as well as those of all other CHL games being played.

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Central Hockey League Stories from November 12, 2003


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