CHL Mississippi RiverKings

RiverKings Report

November 9, 2009 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Mississippi RiverKings News Release


(Southaven, MS) --- The Mississippi RiverKings continue to battle Northern Conference opponents this week with a trio of scheduled opponents. The RiverKings will host the Tulsa Oilers Tuesday night, November 10th in Southaven at 7:05 PM. Friday, November 13th, the RiverKings are back home to play the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs in a 7:05 PM game in Southaven. That will be followed by a road trip to play the Oilers at the BOK Center in Tulsa on Saturday, November 14th at 7:35 PM.

RIVERKINGS LAST GAME:

Saturday, November 7th

RIVERKINGS 3, RAPID CITY 1

The RiverKings were able to gain a split of the weekend series in South Dakota on Saturday, November 7th, defeating the Rapid City Rush 3-1. Mississippi scored twice in the third period after taking a 1-0 lead in the middle session. Ryan Held opened the scoring for the RiverKings with his eighth goal of the year at 10:43 of the second frame. After David Grimson tied the game for the Rush three minutes into the third period, Bobby Chaumont provided the eventual game-winning goal at 9:09 of the third period. Louis Dumont scored an empty-net goal with ten seconds remaining in the game for the final outcome. Goaltender Ray Jean won his sixth game (6-3-0) with a 32-save performance, as Rapid City outshot the RiverKings by a 33-29 margin. Neither team scored on the power play, as the RiverKings ended the night 0-for-3 and the Rush was 0-for-7.

RIVERKINGS NEXT FIVE GAMES

Tuesday, November 10th vs. Tulsa (7:05 PM)

The long-time CHL rivals meet for the third time this season and the third time in Mississippi. The teams are tied in the season series 1-1-0 after a 5-4 Mississippi victory in the last meeting between the teams on Friday, October 30th. Cam Severson has scored three goals and Steve Makway has three assists in games against Tulsa. Rob Hisey's five goals lead the Oiler offense against the RiverKings and Michel Beausoleil has three assists. Ray Jean won his only start in net for the RiverKings against Tulsa on October 30th, while Kevin Armstrong is 1-1-0 against Mississippi. Tulsa did not win in Mississippi all of last season and the last Oilers' victory in the Mid-South before an October 16th 6-3 season opening victory came in a 10-3 conquest of the RiverKings on February 15th, 2008.

Friday, November 13th vs. Bossier-Shreveport (7:05 PM)

The RiverKings play their second game of the season series against the Mudbugs with another home game in Southaven. Bossier-Shreveport claimed the initial meeting October 31st 2-1, as newcomer Jeff Kryrzakos scored both Bossier-Shreveport goals in their victory. Louis Dumont scored the RiverKings' only goal in the loss. The teams play twice more in the month of November; a home-and-home meeting will take place the following weekend. The November 19th contest will be in Bossier City, LA, followed by another meeting in Southaven on Saturday, November 20th.

Saturday, November 14th at Tulsa (7:35 PM)

The 11-game regular season series against the Oilers continues for the first time in Tulsa. This will be the fourth meeting of the season with the RiverKings and Oilers tied in the season series at 1-1-0 going into the Tuesday, November 10th meeting in Southaven. The last Tulsa victory at home against the RiverKings came on January 17th in a 3-2 shootout win at the BOK Center.

Thursday, November 19th at Bossier-Shreveport (7:05 PM) and Friday, November 20th vs. Bossier-Shreveport (7:05 PM)

It'll be the third game of the season series against the Mudbugs and the first visit to Louisiana on Thursday, November 19th. They'll complete the home-and-home set in Southaven the following night, November 20th at 7:05 in game four of the ten-game season series.

SPECIAL TEAMS REPORT

Mississippi failed to score on the power play in both games in Rapid City last weekend. The RiverKings were 0-for-3 with the man advantage on Saturday, after going 0-for-10 in Friday night's contest. As a result, the RiverKings power play percentage has dropped to 13.51% through the team's first ten games of the year, ranking Mississippi ninth in the CHL. The RiverKings have not scored a power play goal in the team's last three games (0-for-20). Meanwhile, the RiverKings' penalty kill improved Saturday as Rapid City failed on seven power play chances. That moved the RiverKings penalty kill percentage to 85.71%, which is sixth in the CHL. Mississippi has scored two shorthanded goals this season and has allowed one shorthanded goal.

TRANSACTION REPORT

As of Monday afternoon, three RiverKings remained on the injured reserve list. Andrew Lackner is on injured reserve from October 18th, Matt Summers is on injured reserve from October 17th, and goaltender Kevin Beech is on injured reserve from the beginning of the season on October 16th.

TULSA PREVIEW

The Tulsa Oilers enter Tuesday's game against the RiverKings with a record of 4-3-0 for 8 points and are in a three-way tie for third place in the CHL Northern Conference. The Oilers are led by the CHL Player of the Month for October, Rob Hisey. He has a team leading nine goals, seven assists, and 16 points through seven games. Included in that total is a three-goal hat trick against the RiverKings in the October 16th season opener in Southaven. Former RiverKing Rick Kozak leads the Oilers in penalty minutes with 40 through seven appearances. At the crease, Kevin Armstrong has played in all seven games, has a 4-3-0 record, a 3.47 goals-against-average and a save percentage of.884. Following Tuesday's game, the teams meet in Tulsa for the first time this season on Saturday, November 14th at 7:35 PM. They won't see each other again after that until New Year's Eve, also in Tulsa, in a game starting at 7:05 PM. RIVERKINGS AGAINST TULSA

Mississippi has split the two previous games against the Oilers this season, losing the season opener 6-3 on October 16th, followed by a 5-4 win on October 30th. Cam Severson has scored three goals against the Oilers this season and Steve Makway has three assists in games against Tulsa to lead the RiverKings offensively. Makway and Severson also have six penalty minutes apiece to lead Mississippi in that category. Goaltender Ray Jean was the winning goaltender in the October 30th victory, his only appearance against Tulsa so far this season. Jean has a 4.02 goals-against-average and a save percentage of.871 versus Tulsa this year. Mississippi has scored three power play goals in 23 chances with one shorthanded goal for a 23.1% success rate. The third period has been the RiverKings' most productive period against the Oilers with four goals netted in the final twenty minutes of play.

BOSSIER-SHREVEPORT PREVIEW

The Mudbugs enter the week with a record of 4-5-0 in nine games of the regular season and are tied with Tulsa and Rapid City for third place in the Northern Conference standings. Bossier-Shreveport is perfect in five road games this year, but is 0-4-0 in home games at the CenturyTel Center in Bossier City. Joe Zappala is the scoring leader for Bossier-Shreveport entering the week with four goals and eight points. Simon Mangos leads the team in assists with six and Neil Clark has the most penalty minutes with 30. John DeCaro has played in six of the Mudbugs' nine games this season in goal, earning a 4-2-0 record, a 3.12 goals-against-average, and a save percentage of.902. Following Friday's game, Mississippi and Bossier-Shreveport play a home-and-home series Thursday, November 19th at Bossier and Friday, November 20th in Southaven, beginning at 7:05 PM.

RIVERKINGS VS. BOSSIER-SHREVEPORT

Bossier-Shreveport won the only previous meeting between the teams by a score of 2-1 on Halloween afternoon, October 31st. Louis Dumont scored the only RiverKings' goal of the contest and Ray Jean took the loss in goal, stopping 33 of 35 shots on goal.

HELD KEEPS SCORING LEADERSHIP

RiverKings forward Ryan Held continues to lead the team scoring charts after last weekend's play. Held scored the RiverKings' first goal in Saturday's 3-1 victory over the Rush in Rapid City. The marker gives him eight goals and 13 points for the season. The London, Ontario native enters the week tied for seventh in the CHL scoring chart and is tied for third in goal scoring with his eight red-lighters. Held has one shorthanded goal and two game-winning goals. Between October 24th and October 30th, Held scored seven points in three straight games, including three goals and four assists. Held scored two goals and two assists to begin the streak at Texas on October 24th.

OUT SHOT AGAIN

Saturday's win against Rapid City marked the fourth straight game the RiverKings have failed to outshoot the opposition. Mississippi is 2-2-0 in those four games. The RiverKings have had five contests where they out shot the opponents and five others where they were out shot. Mississippi has also had one game finish where the shots finished even.

ALSO OF NOTE....

The RiverKings played last weekend's games in Rapid City without coach Kevin Kaminski, who was called away late Thursday on a family emergency. RiverKings defenseman Andrew Lackner, currently on the injured reserve list, served as bench "coach" for the two games. He also was the bench "coach" the previous Tuesday, November 3rd when the RiverKings defeated Texas in a 2-1 shootout. Lackner was coach for that game as Kaminski was serving a one-game suspension for a game misconduct received in the October 31st loss to Bossier-Shreveport. Lackner is now 2-1-0 in his "bench coaching" career.

Mississippi forward Louis Dumont scored the empty-net goal Saturday night during his 200th career CHL contest. In 200 CHL games, all with the RiverKings, Dumont has 64 goals and 180 points to go with 200 penalty minutes. Dumont is five games away from reach 1000 career professional contests.

Bobby Chaumont scored the game-winning goal for the RiverKings Saturday night in his 150th career professional game.

Kevin Jarman is one minor penalty away from 100 career professional penalty minutes.

BROADCASTS:

All three games for the RiverKings this week will be aired on Sports 56, WHBQ-AM. Media Coordinator Bob Bakken will provide the play-by-play, with the pre-game report 15 minutes prior to the first faceoff. Saturday's game from Tulsa will start at 7:35 PM, so the broadcast will begin at 7:30 PM. Tuesday and Friday's home games will begin at 7:05 PM, so the broadcast will start at 6:50 PM.

All three games will also be available on CHL-TV through the Insinc web casting system. Click on the link at the RiverKings' web site and follow the prompts to get the broadcast.



Central Hockey League Stories from November 9, 2009


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