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PrairieThunder's Jason Dale Named MVP of the CHL All-Star Game

January 12, 2011 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Bloomington PrairieThunder News Release


The stars were out in Rapid City on Wednesday night as a near capacity crowd of 5,009 rocked the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center Arena watching their beloved Rapid City Rush (the defending CHL Champs) fall to a team of CHL All-Stars by a final score of 11-6. Box Score

Bloomington's Jason Dale took home the game's Most Valuable Player honors with two goals and a CHL record-tying five assists (along with a +7 plus/minus rating). The MVP honor for the home team went to Ryan Menei who scored a pair of goals in a 25 second stretch of the second period. The Co-MVP awards featured an Apple ITouch for both players presented by Sher-Wood Hockey Inc.

The CHL team showed some great passing in the early going scoring the game's first goal just 3:17 into the opening period when David Rutherford (Bossier-Shreveport) showed some creativity picking the puck up with his blade and getting the shot away. Dale would clean up the rebound with Rutherford and Sebastien Thinel (Odessa) drawing the assists.

Just over a minute later, the Rush would tie the score with Andrew Smale sneaking behind the defense and beating the all-stars goaltender Kyle Jones (Colorado) on the backhand.

Wichita's Matt Robinson would steal the show next scoring three straight goal within a 3:55 span earning the natural hat trick in the first half of the game. The Surrey, British Columbia native's theatrics built a 4-1 lead for the CHL team.

Rapid City would get one back at the 11:51 mark by Derek LeBlanc who walked in on the left circle with the puck and snapped a shot just under the crossbar for the goal making the game look like it might challenge for the highest scoring affair in CHL All-Star history with six combined goals scored in the first 11 minutes.

The defense and goaltenders would answer the bell though settling things down in the final half of the opening frame. Danny Battochio finished the period with 10 saves and looked like the all-star he is when he robbed Arizona's Joey Sides around the 18-minute mark

Jones finished strong as well robbing Colt King twice on point-blank looks and making several clutch stops down the stretch in the first period. The Eagles netminder finished the first 20 minutes with eight saves.

In the second period, the Rush would treat Missouri goaltender Robby Nolan rudely in the first minute setting an CHL All-Star record with three goals in a 39 second time frame. Menei's two goals followed by Konrad Reeder grabbed the lead at 5-4.

The previous record was set in the 2006 game with Jeff Bes scoring twice and Nolan Graham once for the Southern Conference team who lost the game to the North in a shootout, 10-9.

Not to be outdone, the CHL team answered back scoring the game's next three goals regaining the lead around the midway point of the period.

Allen defenseman David Strathman tied the game beating Battochio at the 4:11 mark and Evansville's Brian Bicek scored the next two with nifty moves both times that created some space and allowed him to beat the Rush goaltender. Dale had assists on all three goals giving him five points (1-45) in the game through two periods.

Battochio, also known as 'the Batman' showed his superhero form late in the period making an unbelievable save on Strathman that drew the fans from their seats. He later stopped Neil Trimm on a breakaway continuing his solid performance.

Rapid City outshot the All-Stars 20-12 in the period and maintained a two period shot lead of 32-27. After allowing the record goal run for the Rush, Nolan settled down stopping 17 shots in the period.

The CHL team expanded their lead early in the third period with Bicek netting the hat trick at the 21 second mark of the frame beating Rush goaltender Terry Dunbar who started the third replacing Battochio.

Dayton goaltender Jeff Jakaitis made several spectacular saves to start the period keeping the Rush at bay and finished the period with 13 stops.

With the score 8-5, Rapid City would try to mount a comeback when Brendon Hodge lit the lamp with a blast from between the circles at the 9:38 mark.

The CHL All-Stars would score three times in the final 3and a half minutes putting the game away. The first came from Texas defenseman Jason Krischuk followed by Dale who grabbed hold of the MVP honors by scoring his second of the night and his seventh point.

Mississippi defenseman Nathan Lutz finished off the scoring with just six seconds remaining.

Other offensive stars in the game included Thinel with five helpers, and Bicek's and Robinson's hat tricks.

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Central Hockey League Stories from January 12, 2011


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