CHL Mississippi RiverKings

RiverKings Start Weekend Play in Tulsa Tonight

December 3, 2010 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Mississippi RiverKings News Release


SOUTHAVEN, MS --- The Mississippi RiverKings (9-10-0) play the Tulsa Oilers (6-12-1) tonight in the third meeting of the season between the teams, a game that starts at 7:35 PM at the BOK Center in Tulsa.

BROADCASTS: RiverKings hockey tonight will be heard on Sports 56, WHBQ-AM, beginning at 7:20 PM. An audio stream of the broadcast will be available at www.sports56whbq.com. RiverKings hockey is also available on CHL-TV through the team web site, www.riverkings.com. Media Coordinator Bob Bakken provides the play-by-play.

There will be a watch party tonight at the Southaven Buffalo Wild Wings, located on Airways Boulevard just north of Goodman Road, where fans can come and watch the game on the big screen.

RIVERKINGS RECAP: Chris Richards and Milan Maslonka each scored two goals in Mississippi's 5-2 victory over the Evansville IceMen Tuesday night at the DeSoto Civic Center in Southaven. Maslonka gave the RiverKings a 1-0 lead by deflecting a shot from Russell Smith at 1:10 of the first period. His other goal came at 1:47 of the final period of play. Richards' first goal was his 300th career professional game, coming at 13 minutes of the second period and gave the RiverKings a 2-2 tie with the IceMen at the time. Richards scored his second tally of the night on the power play with 2:06 remaining. Larry Sterling was the winning goaltender for Mississippi, stopping a season-high 35 of 37 shots on goal.

OPPOSING VIEWPOINT: Tulsa, coached by Bruce Ramsay, enters tonight's game off a 6-3 victory Saturday night at Evansville. Harrison Reed scored two goals and ended with four points in the victory. Tonight's game is the first of four straight home games for the Oilers. Chad Costello leads the team with eight goals and 19 points. Goaltender Ian Keserich, a former RiverKings net minder, has a 4-5-0 record since coming to Tulsa from Wichita, where he was 0-3-0. Another former ‚¬ËœKings' goalie, Tyler Sims, has an 0-6-1 mark for the year.

RIVERKINGS VS. TULSA: Mississippi and the Oilers have split their two previous meetings this season. The RiverKings defeated Tulsa 4-1 in Southaven on November 6th. The Oilers claimed a 7-2 victory in Tulsa on November 25th. Matt Miller has scored twice against the Oilers for the RiverKings and Chris Richards has three points (1-2-3). Russell Smith leads the RiverKings with 14 penalty minutes against Tulsa. Richards and Smith have scored solo power play goals. On the goaltending side, Larry Sterling is 1-0-0 vs. Tulsa and Alexander Pechurskiy is 0-1-0 against the Oilers.

TULSA VS. RIVERKINGS: John Mori and Gordon Bell each have two goals and three points in two previous games against the RiverKings. Brennan Barker has collected 21 PIMS in two meetings with Mississippi. Ian Keserich has been the Tulsa goaltender in both previous meetings and carries a 1-1-0 record into tonight's game.

RIVERKINGS SPECIAL TEAMS: Mississippi was 3-for-11 on the power play in Tuesday's win over Evansville. It was the first time the RiverKings had scored more than one power play goal since ending 2-6 at Wichita on November November 24th. The 11 power play chances were also the most given the RiverKings in one game this year. Mississippi is 4-for-17 in its last two games. The RiverKings allowed one power play goal in Tuesday's win against Evansville. Opponents have scored one PPG in the last two games and are 2-for-11 in those past two contests. For the season, the RiverKings are 22-for-122 on the power play (18.03%) and are 19-of-114 on the penalty kill (83.33%).

NOVEMBER'S DONE: Mississippi finished the month of November with a record of 7-6-0. The RiverKings had two-game winning streaks on two occasions and played their first shootout and overtime contests of the season during the month. Chris Richards led the RiverKings with five goals and Jeff Christian paced the team in assists with 12. Richards and Matt Summers each scored four power play goals. On the goaltending side, Alexander Pechurskiy finished the month 4-3-0 with a 2.86 goals-against-average, while Larry Sterling was 3-1-0 for the month with a 2.93 GAA.

RICHARDS HITS 300: Chris Richards' first of his two goals in Tuesday night's game marked his 300th career professional goal. The power play goal came at 13:07 of the second period of the 5-2 victory over Evansville. Richards now totals 301 goals for his pro career with all but the first 38 (German pro league) coming in the Central Hockey League.

LUTZ SCORES FROM THE LINE: Nathan Lutz remains one of the top point producers from the blue line in the CHL, with his six goals, 11 assists, and 17 points ranking near the top of the league statistics. Four goals and seven assists have come on the power play, also putting him near the top of those categories.

LET ME HELP: Jeff Christian leads the CHL for power play assists with 11.

THAT'S A FOUL ON YOU: Mississippi continues to lead the CHL in several penalty areas, including penalty minutes (587), majors (33), ten-minute misconducts (4, first place tie with Rapid City), game misconducts (11), and match penalties (1). While the number continues to drop, Mississippi's 30.89 penalty minute average remains tops in the league.

FINALLY SOME FREE HOCKEY: Mississippi had to go beyond regulation for overtime and shootout hockey this past week for the first time this season, and came away victorious in both cases. Saturday's 5-4 win over Laredo was the first time a RiverKings game had been decided in overtime this season, and Wednesday's 3-2 shootout win was the first to be decided on "penalty shots." Wednesday's win was also the longest RiverKings shootout game since before 2002. Prior to this season, the RiverKings won a ten-round game against Youngstown, 5-4, on March 10th, 2007, and also won a nine-round marathon against Bossier-Shreveport on January 6th, 2005, by a score of 4-3.

NOTABLES: Matt Summers is one point short of 100 career RiverKings points (35 goals, 64 assists). Milan Maslonka's two goals against Evansville Tuesday were his first goals since netting a red-lighter with Dayton (IHL) on October 23, 2009 against Muskegon. Jeff Christian passed the 300 mark for career CHL assists in Tuesday's win against Evansville, now at 301 for his career in 319 CHL contests.

UP NEXT: Mississippi returns home to play the Wichita Thunder in a 7:05 PM game at the DeSoto Civic Center. St. Jude's Children Research Hospital will be featured with a jersey auction held after the game, presented by Emergency Mobile Health Care, or EMHC.

TEDDY BEAR TOSS NIGHT: The Saturday, December 11th game between the RiverKings and the Dayton Gems will be the team's annual Teddy Bear Toss Night. Fans are encouraged to bring new teddy bears to the game and help celebrate the RiverKings' first goal by tossing the bears onto the ice when the goal is scored. All bears collected will be donated to the U.S. Marine Corps' Toys For Tots program. A post-game skate for fans after the game tops off the night.

TICKETS: For RiverKings ticket information, call 662-342-1755 or go online to www.riverkings.com today!



Central Hockey League Stories from December 3, 2010


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