Let the Games Begin

Published on January 18, 2006 under Central Hockey League (CHL)
Amarillo Gorillas News Release


AMARILLO, TX - The attention of the entire Central Hockey League and its fans will shift their collective heads tonight to Hidalgo, Texas, home of the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees and also that of the 2006 Obra Homes All-Star Game and Skills Competition. The game is set to start at 7:30 pm with the main event previewed by the Skills Competition at 6 pm. It is available for viewing on CHLTV (www.chltv.com).

The CHL Skills Competition, presented by the City of McAllen, is comprised of five events, including the Marc Ecko Watches Fastest Skater, the Best Buy Hardest Shot, the Sher-Wood Accuracy Shoot-Out, and the Oakley Rapid Fire and Breakaway Relay competitions. Amarillo All-Stars Derek Hahn, the leading vote-getter in the Southern Conference, veteran Mark DeSantis, and first-time participant Scott Wray will each be showcased in two events.

Hahn, the CHL points leader with 67 (26 goals and 41 assists), 13 better than Youngstown's Jeff Christian, will serve as one of three participants from each conference in the Sher-Wood Accuracy Shoot-Out. The contest involves each player getting a maximum of 20 seconds to shoot up to eight pucks from 25 feet out from the goal line in an effort to hit each of four destructible foam targets attached to the goal posts, one located in each corner.

DeSantis, tied for ninth in scoring among defensemen with 26 points after a two-goal, two-assist evening in a 5-1 win over rival Odessa Saturday, will represent Amarillo in the Best Buy Hardest Shot competition. He, as one of three men from each conference in the event, will attempt to shoot the fastest shot toward the net from 30 feet outside the goal line and centered to the goal. Each player will receive two attempts with only his highest recorded shot on the radar gun counting.

Wray, with 36 points on 19 goals and 17 assists in only 20 games this season since returning to Amarillo from the London Racers of the Elite Ice Hockey League, will be one of six participants per conference to challenge goaltenders in the Oakley Rapid Fire contest. In pairs of two, shooters will alternate taking five shots each on a tender from the opposing conference. Wray will be teamed with Odessa's Sebastien Thinel as the two will attempt to score on goalie Sean Connors of Oklahoma City.

All three players will also skate in the Oakley Breakaway Relay. Each conference's players will be separated into three groups of five skaters per team and each group will have one minute to have all of its skaters take a puck from center-ice and proceed in a breakaway against a goalie from the opposing team. Each goal scored in the competition counts toward the overall scoring for the player's team.

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Central Hockey League Stories from January 18, 2006


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