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CHL Mississippi RiverKings

RiverKings Meet IceMen Tonight in Southaven

November 9, 2010 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Mississippi RiverKings News Release


SOUTHAVEN, MS --- The Mississippi RiverKings play week night hockey tonight against the Evansville IceMen in a 7:05 PM start at the DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven. The RiverKings are on a two-game winning streak and bring a 4-4-0 record into tonight's action, while the IceMen at 3-4-1 for the year.

RIVERKINGS RECAP: The Mississippi RiverKings enter this week's action with a two-game winning streak, after claiming victories Friday against Bossier-Shreveport and Saturday against Tulsa. In Friday's game, defenseman Derek Landmesser scored with just over four minutes remaining in the game to stifle a Mudbugs' comeback from 3-1 down. Matt Boyd, Louis Dumont, and Chris Richards (PPG) also scored goals in the game. Larry Sterling stopped 22 shots in posting the goaltending victory. Mississippi outshot Bossier-Shreveport 27-25 and scored once in three power play chances. Saturday, Mississippi posted a win in its first meeting with Tulsa, getting a 4-1 victory at the DeSoto Civic Center. Balanced scoring again showcased the offense, as Russell Smith (PPG), Matt Miller, Richards (PPG), and Darrell Stoddard netted goals. Sterling (3-2-0) again was a stone wall in goal, getting 34 saves in the victory and the RiverKings were 2-for-5 on the power play.

OPPOSING VIEWPOINT: Evansville enters the DCC tonight with a record of 3-4-1 for seven points and eighth place in the Turner Conference standings. The Icemen are 1-4-0 in road games this season, with the only victory away from home coming in an October 22nd conquest of the RiverKings in Southaven (5-2). In that game, Brian Bicek and Mario Larocque each scored a goal and added an assist. In Evansville's last outing, the Icemen fell at Fort Wayne 4-3 on Saturday night. Niklas Lindberg leads the IceMen in assists with ten and in points with 11. Damian Surma leads in goal scoring with six. Matt Lundin has spent most of the time in goal and brings a 2-2-1 record into tonight's game and a 3.21 goals against average. David Wilson has the better save percentage at .917.

RIVERKINGS POWER PLAY: Mississippi's two goals on the power play Saturday night marked the second time this season the RiverKings have netted more than one PPG in a game. The RiverKings are 3-for-8 in their last two games on the power play and for the season moved into sixth place in the CHL on the power play at 19.23%. All of Chris Richards' four goals have been on the power play this year.

RIVERKINGS PENALTY KILL: The RiverKings advanced above the 80 percentile level for the first time this season with Saturday's 0-for-7 effort on the PK. Mississippi is now 80.36% on the penalty kill for the year, ranking them 14th in the CHL. Saturday's effort marked the second time in the last three games the RiverKings have held an opponent scoreless with the man advantage, which they've done on three occasions this season.

SHOTS IN THE DARK: Saturday's 36 shots on goal against Tulsa marked the second-highest number of shots taken by the RiverKings this season, topped only by the 38 shot effort of October 22nd against Evansville. The 35 shots allowed were the second-most allowed by Mississippi in a game this year, eclipsed only by the 37 taken by Rio Grande Valley on October 30th. The RiverKings average 32.13 shots per game (8th in the CHL) and allow an average of 28.5 shots a contest (2nd in the CHL).

POWERED BY RICHARDS: Mississippi's power play has been fueled by the sniping of veteran forward Chris Richards, who enters the week tied for the CHL lead in power play goals with four, which is the total number of goals he has scored this season.

LET ME HELP YOU: Rookie forward Matt Boyd leads first-year CHL players in assists with six and is second among league rookies for points with seven. He's also second among rookies in penalty minutes with 22 PIMS charged against him.

IT WASN'T ME THIS TIME: For the first time Saturday against Tulsa, forward Darrell Stoddard was not penalized, stopping a seven-game streak of 37 penalty minutes which dated back to the start of the season. It's the second-longest penalty streak of the year, topped only by former RiverKing Adam Smyth's eight-game run of 95 PIMS which continued Saturday night.

THAT'S A FOUL ON YOU: Mississippi remains the most penalized team in the CHL with a total of 392 penalty minutes for an average of 49.00 PIMS per game. The RiverKings have been tagged for a league-leading 22 majors, four 10-minute misconducts, ten game misconducts, and one match penalty.

APPLYING FOR MEMBERSHIP: Although a member of the Berry Conference, Mississippi will be playing its next six games against members of the new Turner Conference, against which it has a record of 2-1-0 this season. The next meeting in the RiverKings' own conference will come at Tulsa on Thanksgiving night. Mississippi's record against its own conference alignment is 2-3-0.

BROADCASTS: Tonight's game is aired locally on Sports 56, WHBQ-AM (560), with pre-game coverage starting at 6:50 PM. Media Coordinator and the Voice of the RiverKings Bob Bakken provides the call. An audio stream of tonight's game is available at www.sports56whbq.com Tonight's contest is also available for viewing on CHL-TV. Fans can click the Watch Live button on the RiverKings home page to access the webcast.

BROADCAST NOTE: Friday's game from Rapid City will be heard on WMFS-AM (1210) with the pre-game show starting at 7:50 PM, due to the game being in the Mountain time zone. Saturday's game will return to Sports 56, WHBQ-AM (560) with the pre-game show again starting at 7:50 PM due to the Mountain time zone. Audio streams of both games will be available on the Sports 56 WHBQ web site at www.sports56whbq.com.

TICKETS: Orders are already being taken for RiverKings season tickets next year, and fans can always save money with flex packs and group orders to this year's action at the DeSoto Civic Center. For more information, call 662-342-1755 or go online to www.riverkings.com today!

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