Mallards Open First CHL Season at Home

August 3, 2010 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Quad City Mallards News Release


The Quad City Mallards of the "AA" Central Hockey League in conjunction with the CHL today announced a 66-game 2010-11 schedule that will see the Mallards open their inaugural CHL regular season on home ice Saturday, October 16, at 7:05 p.m. against former Quad City coach Paul Gillis and the Odessa Jackalopes.

The match-up with Odessa will be the first of 33 home games for the Mallards. The Flock will play 27 of those home tilts on weekends- Fridays, Saturdays or Sundays- or holidays. With the exception of Sunday contests, all Mallards home games this season will face off at 7:05 p.m. Sunday games will start at 4:05 p.m.

An unbalanced schedule- the Mallards will play all but six of their games against rivals from within the Northern Conference- means the Mallards will see plenty of familiar faces in their first CHL campaign. Quad City will meet the Bloomington PrairieThunder, Dayton Gems and Fort Wayne Komets- the three other CHL clubs, who, like the Flock, competed in the International Hockey League last season- a total of 31 times.

Coach Frank Anzalone's squad will again this season see no team more often than the PrairieThunder. The two clubs will collide 11 times this season after meeting head-to-head 17 times last year. The Mallards will meet the 2010 IHL Turner Cup champion Komets and the Gems ten times each. The Mallards will also battle the Evansville IceMen- a first year franchise- on 11 occasions. The Flock and the IceMen will first get together in Evansville on Saturday, October 3. Quad City will, in fact, play four of its first seven games against the IceMen.

The Mallards will see less of their other four conference rivals: the Missouri Mavericks (who the Flock will play seven times); Wichita Thunder (four), Rapid City Rush (four) and Colorado Eagles (three).

The Mallards will not play five of the nine Southern Conference clubs: the Allen Americans, Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, Laredo Bucks, Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees and Texas Brahmas. The Flock will match up twice with both the Mississippi RiverKings and Tulsa Oilers and will lock horns just once with both the Jackalopes and Arizona Sundogs.

The Mallards, who will play 24 games against clubs that skated in the CHL last season, will get their first ever look at the Central League's reigning Ray Miron President's Cup champions when they travel to Rapid City to square off with the Rush on Friday, December 3 and Saturday, December 4. The Rush will make its first appearance at the i wireless Center and on Friday, January 14.

The Mallards will first meet the Komets, who claimed the IHL crown each of the last three seasons, on Friday, October 29 in Moline.

Odessa's Gillis spent a total of five seasons behind the Quad City bench (from 1997 to 1999 and from 2002 to 2005) and guided the Mallards to the 1998 United Hockey League Colonial Cup title. Last year he steered the Jackalopes to the CHL Bud Poile Governor's Cup regular season championship. The season opener will be the only regular season meeting between Quad City and Odessa.

Other schedule highlights include:

The Mallards will enjoy a six-game home stand- the Flock's longest of the season- starting on Friday, January 14 against Rapid City and concluding on January 26 again against the Rush. Between January 14 and February 8 the Mallards will play 10 of 11 games on home ice.

The Mallards' longest road trip will last five games. The Flock's five game flight will begin on Saturday night, November 27 in Fort Wayne and will wrap up on Saturday, December 11 at Bloomington.

While the Mallards will play one home game against each of Arizona and Odessa and will take on Colorado three times at the i wireless Center, the Flock will not meet any of those three teams on the road.

The Mallards will travel 784 miles to take on Rapid City on December 3, making that journey the Flock's longest (one way) sojourn of the season.

The Mallards will see ample holiday action this season, beginning on Veterans' Day- Thursday, November 11- at the i wireless Center when Quad City for the first time bids to tame the Mavericks. The Mallards will spend Thanksgiving night- Thursday, November 25- in Fort Wayne tangling with the Komets before returning home one night later for a Black Friday battle with Bloomington. The Flock will close out 2010 by returning to Fort Wayne on New Year's Eve for another tussle with the Komets. The following evening the Mallards will be in Missouri for a January 1 contest against the Mavericks. On Monday, January 17, the Mallards will welcome Wichita to Moline for a Martin Luther King Day match-up. The Mallards will hope the luck of the Irish is with them when they bid to silence the visiting Thunder on St. Patrick's Day- Thursday night, March 17.

The Mallards will face their busiest stretch of the season when they play seven games in nine nights between November 19 and November 27.

The Mallards will play three games in three nights on 11 occasions (including six straight weekends in February and March): October 22, 23 and 24; November 19, 20 and 21; November 25, 26 and 27; December 10, 11 and 12; December 31, January 1 and January 2; February 11, 12 and 13; February 17, 18 and 19, February 25, 26 and 27; March 4, 5 and 6; March 11, 12 and 13; and March 17, 18 and 19.

Back-to-back games in Dayton on Friday, March 25 and Saturday, March 26 will close out the Mallards' campaign. The 2010-11 CHL schedule wraps up three weeks earlier than last season's IHL slate, which ran through mid-April. The Mallards will play their final regular season home game on Wednesday, March 23 against Bloomington.

Mallards 2010-11 ticket packages are now available to meet any budget or schedule. For more information on ticket packages for the upcoming season, contact the Mallards at (309) 277-1364. Single game seats will go on sale on a date to be announced in the fall.



Central Hockey League Stories from August 3, 2010


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