Ice Bears announce lineup changes
Published on January 13, 2003 under SPHL (SPHL)
Knoxville Ice Bears News Release
KNOXVILLE, TN- Sixteen is supposed to be one of, if not the sweetest number out there. Try explaining that to Tony Martino. The Knoxville Head Coach has had to make some very important decisions over the weekend, as the Ice Bears announced three roster changes Monday afternoon.
Friday afternoon (January 10th), the Ice Bears had to place Forward Doug Shepherd on team suspension. Terms of the suspension were not disclosed. To fill the roster void the Atlantic Coast Hockey League assigned twenty-two year old Forward Simon Duplessis (DO-pless-SEE) to the Knoxville Ice Bears. Duplessis, a six foot, one-hundred and ninety-three pounder from Ste-Rose, Quebec made a big impact in his Ice Bears debut Friday night, tallying a goal and bringing the crowd to its feet with a late game fight. So far in three games with the Ice Bears Duplessis has scored two goals and served ten penalty minutes.
Doug Shepherd was activated from the suspension list Monday morning and will return to action this Thursday night as the Ice Bears host the Winston-Salem Parrots. To make room for Shepherd's reinstatement, the Ice Bears waived Forward Evgeny Kabanets. Kabanets was assigned to the Ice Bears on December 14th and appeared in thirteen games for Knoxville. During his stint, Kabanets scored one goal to go along with two assists for three total points.
"Somebody had to go", said Ice Bears Head Coach Tony Martino. "(Simon) Duplessis scored two goals in three games and has brought some grit to this team. Doug Shepherd is a guy that we like a lot, and we'll see what he does this week. Kabanets showed a lot of skill while he was here, but a decision had to be made. It came down to him (Kabanets)".
In other Ice Bears news, Kevin Swider, the Atlantic Coast Hockey League's leading scorer will be out for 2-3 weeks with a separated shoulder. Swider has scored 23 goals this season with 22 assists for 45 total points in 32 games.
The Ice Bears will defend their home ice in three big games this weekend. Thursday and Friday the Winston-Salem Parrots will visit the Knoxville Civic Coliseum and then on Saturday the Bears will host the first place Orlando Seals. Game times are set for 7:30 P.M.
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