Killer Bees Weekly Notes

December 14, 2004 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees News Release


HEAR COME THE BUCKS... LITERALLY AND FIGURATIVELY

The Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees split their two-game weekend set against first place teams, beating the Northern Conference and Northeast Division leading Fort Worth Brahmas 3-2 in overtime on Friday and losing to the Southeast Division leading Corpus Christi Rayz 3-2 on Saturday night, and they prepare for another tough week of action. The Bees, who have won four of their last six games, will make their first trip of the season to Laredo on Tuesday to face the defending CHL champion Laredo Bucks, seeking to end the Bucks four-game winning streak. Rio Grande Valley will remain in Laredo on Friday before returning home Saturday to host the Oklahoma City Blazers. The Bees and Bucks will meet 11 times this season, but Tuesday's meeting will only be the second contest between the two teams this season. The teams have not seen each other since October 29th, as the Bees defeated the Bucks 5-3. Since then, Laredo suffered s six-game winless streak, but they have rebounded with their current four-game winning streak. They have outscored opponents 19-5 in the streak and goaltender Jeremy Symington was named Oakley CHL Goaltender of the Week today. Rio Grande Valley defeated Laredo in their first trip of the season last year (4-3 on 11/19/03) and are 3-0-1 in their last four regular season meetings against the Bucks.

THIS WEEK'S "INSIDE THE NUMBERS"

2 - Wins Needed - By goaltender Jeff Levy to reach his 100th pro-career win in net.

6 - First Goals- The Killer Bees had only opened games by scoring the game's first goal in only two contests (of their first 14 games), but have scored the game's first goal in six consecutive contests.

140 - MPH - Last week, the crew from KGBT put together a television package on how fast Derek Holland's slap-shot is. They set up their "speed zapper" radar and clocked Holland's slap shot at a high of 104 MPH.

OVERTIME IS BEES TIME

The Killer Bees are a perfect 3-0 in overtime shootouts this season and have an overall overtime record of 4-1. The Bees are the only team in the CHL with more overtime wins (4) than regulation wins (3). Three of the last five Bees games have resulted in overtime decisions and the Bees are just under a league recording breaking pace for overtime wins in a season. During the 2000/2001 season, the Topeka Scarecrows road the overtime rollercoaster 21 times and registered 13 overtime wins and the New Mexico Scorpions also had 13 overtime wins in 17 overtime games.

BEE OF THE WEEK

This week's Killer Bees "Bee of the Week," for their performance in last week's two games, is forward Blaz Emersic. The Ljubljana, Slovenia native tallied a pair of goals and contributed an assist on fellow Slovenian Matic Kralj's overtime game winning goal to complete a three-point night in Saturday's 3-2 overtime win over the Fort Worth Brahmas. Emersic is tied for third on the squad with three multi-point games and has 10 points (4g,6a) through 20 games this season.

BEES ON AN EDUCATIVE MISSION

As part of the "Reading and Writing with the Bees" program, which is a 15-week education program in conjunction with The Monitor and South Texas College (STC), the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees will be visiting over 1,200 Mission CISD fifth graders Thursday. At the beginning of the school year MCISD was one of several participating school districts that was issued a 20-page reading and writing supplement, which they use every Wednesday along with a copy of The Monitor paper. The program kicked off with participating school district's fifth grade students partaking in the Killer Bees "School Day Game" at the Dodge Arena on November 9th. After the game, MCISD had all their students write essays on their experience. The essays have been narrowed down to 39 finalists, who will be awarded a Killer Bees Bobble Head Doll. On Thursday at 1 PM, all of the Killer Bees will be at the Mission High School gymnasium for an assembly to announce the award winners and to sign autographs and answer questions from all of the students.

WEEK IN REVIEW Fri. Dec. 10 3-2 W (ot) vs. Fort Worth Brahmas Top Star: RGV-Blaz Emersic (2g, 1a, 3pts.)

Sat. Dec. 11 2-3 L vs. Corpus Christi Rayz Top Star: CRP-Ken McKay (1 goal)

PRACTICE SCHEDULE

Tue: 10 - 10:30 am Wed - Thursday: 10 - 11:00 am (tentative) Fri: 10:00 - 10:30 am

WEEK AHEAD

Tue. Dec. 14 7:00 pm @ Laredo Bucks Radio: ESPN Radio 1240 AM TV: CHLTV.COM

Notes: The Killer Bees and the Bucks meet eleven times this season but the two teams have each played 20 games this season and the Bees are finally making their first trip of the season to Laredo to face the Bucks. By this date a year ago, the Killer Bees and the Bucks had met six times. Laredo Leads the all-time series with a 9-3-2 record, with Jeff Bes leading the all-time series with 25 points (8g,17a). The Killer Bees, who have several players tied with 10 points against the Bucks all-time, are 5-8-1 all-time against the Bucks and are 1-0-0 this season in the series. Rio Grande Valley is 2-3-1 all-time over the regular season at the Laredo Entertainment Center.

Fri. Dec. 17 7:30 pm @ Laredo Bucks Radio: ESPN Radio 1240 AM TV: CHLTV.COM

Notes: Rio Grande Valley will return back to the Dodge Arena to practice and will return to the LEC on Friday to match up once again with the Laredo Bucks for the second of four December clashes. Rio Grande Valley is 4-3-1 against Southeast Division opponents while the Bucks are 4-6-0 against division foes.

Sat. Dec. 11 7:30 pm vs. Oklahoma City Blazers Radio: ESPN Radio 1240 AM TV: TBA

Notes: For the first time ever, the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees face off with the Oklahoma City Blazers. The Blazers make their first trip ever to the Rio Grande Valley and bring along Dallas Stars forward Brenden Morrow, who is riding the NHL lockout. Morrow has played in 19 games with the Blazers and has 8 goals and 14 assists for 22 points. The Bees will wear special camouflage jerseys, which will be auctioned off after the game and the first 3,000 fans will receive Thundersticks thanks to BMP Radio and Magic Valley Electric Co-op. Also, fans are encouraged to bring a stuffed animal and participate in the Docs for Tots Teddy Bear Toss. After the Bees score their first goal fans can throw their stuffed animals out on the ice and they will be collected for donational purposes for Docs for Tots.



Central Hockey League Stories from December 14, 2004


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