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Ice Bats Wrap Season with Friday Party

March 29, 2006 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Austin Ice Bats News Release


Setting the Stage: The Austin Ice Bats of the Central Hockey League finished 34-27-3 on their 10th-Anniversary 2005-06 season. Despite a 24-10-1 record in 2006, the Ice Bats narrowly missed the CHL President's Cup Playoffs, finishing just one point behind Rio Grande Valley and two points behind Amarillo in the Southern Conference. Amarillo won its final six games, and Rio Grande Valley four of its last five to earn the Conference's two wild card berths.

A look back: A split in the final two games of the regular season wasn't enough, as the Ice Bats narrowly missed the post-season for the third consecutive year. Friday night, the Bats' playoff hopes took a hit in the broadside with a 7-1 thrashing at Memphis.

Specialty teams would prove to be a huge difference in the game. The Ice Bats failed to score on a five-on-three power play in the first four minutes, and Memphis took the lead on their first power play attempt. Memphis defenseman Derek Landmesser's centering pass deflected off Darrell Stoddard in front for the game's opening score, 5:43 into the contest. Just 73 seconds later, Stoddard's goal from the high slot made it 2-0.

The Bats reached the board at 8:30 on a John McNabb shorthanded goal. McNabb tapped a rebound off his own shot between Guy St. Vincent's pads. But the Bats turned the puck over at center, resulting in a Travis Banga score with 1:17 left in the first.

Throughout the first, the tight Ice Bats turned the puck over on the wings, resulting in a 21-8 Memphis shot advantage in the period. The Bats settled down defensively and even outshot Memphis in the second period, but neither team scored. The RiverKings then blew the game open with four goals in the third, including power play scores from veteran Don Parsons and Landmesser.

For the game, Memphis scored three times on six power play chances, while the Ice Bats were shut out on eight power play attempts. Landmesser and Stoddard led scoring with four points each, and St. Vincent made timely stops among his 32 saves.

On Sunday, the Ice Bats were eliminated from the playoffs despite a 2-0 shutout win in their final regular season game at Tulsa. Ice Bats goalie Miguel Beaudry made 26 saves to record his third shutout of the year.

The Oilers controlled the early play, but the Ice Bats scored first at 9:17 of the first period, forward Julian Smith slamming in a Dan Carney centering pass from behind the net.

Late in the period, the Bats upped their advantage to 2-0. Off a Tulsa turnover, Bats winger John McNabb hit the post with a shot from the high slot. The puck bounced to Aaron Davis on the right wall, and he centered right back to the same spot in the high slot, where McNabb whipped in a wrist shot for a shorthanded goal.

With the Ice Bats continually tightening their defense to limit Tulsa opportunities, Beaudry made 14 saves over the final two periods. His toughest came midway through the final period, a glove save on a point-blank shot between the circles by CHL Rookie of the Year Jim Dahl.

Ice Bats penalty killers, who struggled Friday at Memphis, stopped all six Tulsa power plays on Sunday. But it wasn't enough, as shutout wins by Rio Grande Valley and Amarillo later in the day eliminated the Ice Bats from the post-season.

Playoffs: The CHL President's Cup Playoffs begin this week. Here are the seedings and pairings for best-of-seven first round play:

Northern Conference:

(#1) Colorado vs. (#4) Oklahoma City

(#2) Bossier-Shreveport vs. (#3) Wichita

Southern Conference:

(#1) Laredo vs. (#4) Rio Grande Valley

(#2) Odessa vs. (#3) Amarillo

What's Next: Following the conclusion of the playoffs, the Ice Bats will finalize two trades still left pending. The Ice Bats will owe Wichita future considerations in the deal to obtain forward Aaron Davis, and are to receive a player from Oklahoma City in the deal that sent forward Jared Dumba to the Blazers.

The Ice Bats will then make four players available for the CHL Expansion Draft in June. The Prescott Valley-based Arizona Sundogs and Broomfield, Colorado's Rocky Mountain Rage will join the CHL as expansion teams for 2006-07.

Player Plaudits: Winger John McNabb once again led the Ice Bats in scoring with 33 goals and 36 assists. Forward Aaron Davis (55 points) was second on the team in scoring, and finished the season with a six-game point streak. And Mike Tucciarone finished fourth among all rookie scorers with 45 points, including 25 goals.

Aaron Schneekloth finished among the top ten league defensemen with 16 goals and 27 assists. Tucciarone was named to the CHL All-Rookie Team, and was a finalist for CHL Outstanding Rookie honors. Schneekloth was a finalist for the CHL Outstanding Defenseman award. Goalie Miguel Beaudry was 12-8-1 as an Ice Bat, with a 2.83 GAA and three shutouts.

Keep On Going: One Ice Bat is still playing. Goaltender Miroslav Kopriva, recalled to the team's American League affiliate in Houston on March 9th, is now 6-3-1 with a 3.28 GAA in 11 appearances with the Aeros. At 45-21-2, Houston has clinched a spot in the AHL Calder Cup Playoffs, and is just one point behind West Division-leading Milwaukee.

Comments From the Coach:

On Last Week: "Obviously, we're disappointed not to have made the playoffs. We were in a good position going into the final two weeks, and had hoped to be in. After playing our last game at the Expo Center, we had 11 games left-- nine on the road and two in Belton. If I'd been told we'd go 8-3, I'd have bet anything we were still going to be playing. Hats off go to the teams that made it, especially Amarillo. We played damn well from January on, but they were phenomenal over the last few weeks."

"With the parity in the league, we said at the start of the year that there were going to be good teams that didn't make the playoffs. As it turned out, we were by far the best of those teams."

On The Season: "Despite the way it ended, everyone on our team rightfully feels good about our season. We finished seven games above .500. We weren't as talented as a lot of teams in the league, but we proved you can win with work ethic, chemistry and a good system. We're not going to make excuses. A lot of teams talk about injuries, and we had our share too, playing December without Aaron Davis and Jeff Neufeld, Jonathan Jolette and others for a stretch. And we lost Dave MacIntyre. But hockey's hockey, everyone deals with those things and if you don't, you don't deserve to win. We maintained our focus and stuck with it right up to the final day."

"We had a great group of kids who were willing to learn and bought into our system. We'll evaluate our team over the next month and hopefully correct some of our deficiencies over the summer. But we'd like to keep a good nucleus from this year's team."

Time to Celebrate: All Ice Bats fans are invited to attend the team's Season-Ending Party, Awards Presentation and Charity Jersey Auction this Friday. The event will take place starting at 7pm this Friday, March 31st at Sam's Boat, located at MoPac and Braker. The Budweiser Select Post-Season Player Awards will be handed out in six categories, based on fan balloting. And there will be an auction of the team's game-worn jerseys, to benefit Ice Bats Children's Charities.

Cave, Sweet Cave: 209-97-22 in ten years of play at the Travis County Expo Center, the Ice Bats in February announced they will vacate the Expo Center and move to Chaparral Ice Center, located on I-35 South between Howard Lane and Wells Branch Parkway. The Ice Bats will begin play at Chaparral Ice for the 2006-07 season.

Because of the unavailability of the Expo Center, the Ice Bats played four playoff games at Chaparral Ice in 2003, hosting New Mexico and Laredo en route to the President's Cup Finals. During the coming summmer, permanent seating will be installed to bring the building's capacity to close to 2,000 fans, with other improvements to include a renovated club area upstairs overlooking the ice and an expanded concession area downstairs. In addition to a raucous, energetic environment for fans, Chaparral Ice will give the Ice Bats greater scheduling flexibility, a superior location, and the ability to provide corporate partners the year-round display of their message. Chaparral Ice will remain the team's home arena until construction is complete on a new facility, currently under study.

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