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Rubber Meets Road for Ice Bats

February 1, 2007 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Austin Ice Bats News Release


Setting the Stage: The Austin Ice Bats of the Central Hockey League are 15-17-8 on the 2006-2007 CHL season, tied for third in the Southeast Division. The Ice Bats have begun play at all-new Chaparral Ice Arena, located on I-35 between Howard Lane and Wells Branch Parkway.

This week, the Ice Bats visit Lubbock, then travel to Tulsa for the start of a home-and-home series. The Ice Bats then return home for the second game of the series, "Mascot Night" Saturday night.

A look back: The Ice Bats finished last weekend 1-1-1 in three games. Friday night, the Bats snapped a five-game winless streak in emphatic fashion with a 5-2 win at Odessa. The Ice Bats' much-maligned power play scored twice on four chances, and newcomer Chris Ovington scored a pair of goals.

After a four-game drought, the Ice Bats collected their second power play goal in as many games late in the first period. Center Aaron Davis rebounded Henry Kuster's shot and flipped it over goalie Mike Gorman with 4:30 left in the period.

Ovington tossed in his two goals from the point early in the second, as the Ice Bats provided traffic around Gorman. His first goal as a Bat came just 35 seconds into the period, and his second, a power play goal, at 2:39.

Odessa's Brian Swiniarski scored a power play goal on a partial breakaway late in the second, but Julian Smith got it right back with 3-1/2 minutes left. Chris Murphy's dump-in hopped on top of short glass in the Odessa zone and back into play. Smith jumped on the loose puck and roofed it to make it 4-1 after two.

Kuster cashed in on a two-on-one give-and-go with Mike Tucciarone 32 seconds into the third, and the Bats coasted to victory despite Swiniarski's second goal with 13 minutes left.

Kuster led scoring with a goal and three assists, and Tucciarone added three assists. The Jackalopes, playing their first home game after nine straight on the road, played without several key performers because of injury, and without Coach Don McKee, who was attending funeral services for his father.

Last Saturday, five different Bossier-Shreveport players scored goals as the Mudbugs routed the Ice Bats, 5-1 in Bossier City.

The Ice Bats had glorious chances on two first-period power plays, including a shot deflected into the crease and cleared from the goal line by Bossier defenseman Brian Sutherland. Mudbugs forward Karlis Zirnis took the puck at the blue line and zipped a backhander past Miguel Beaudry at the eight-minute mark, and Kyle Musselman made it 2-0 off Jason Williamson's face-off win late in the period.

The Mudbugs stretched the lead two minutes into the second, Dan Wildfong rebounding Chris Brassard's hard backhander for a power play goal. The Bats got on the board at 7:38 on Henry Kuster's rebound of a Mike Tucciarone shot, the Bats' fourth power play goal in the last three games. But Mudbugs defenseman Jason Basile countered with a shorthanded score on a two-on-one rush, and Bossier put it away four minutes into the third period on Brassard's goal off Williamson's centering pass.

Sunday, the Ice Bats finished the week with a hard-fought physical effort in a rematch against Bossier-Shreveport. Forbes MacPherson's overtime goal gave the Mudbugs a 2-1 win.

Despite playing their third game in three nights and coming off lengthy travel, the Ice Bats came out with a surprising amount of jump. But neither team was able to push a goal past the respective goalies until Bossier's Karlis Zirnis scored 50 seconds into the second period.

The Bats plugged away against Bossier goalie John DeCaro, and eventually tied the score with forward Ray Smegal crashing the net 6:44 into the third for his first pro goal. From there, DeCaro and Austin goalie Tony Quesada kept the game tied into overtime, with MacPherson deciding the contest in a scramble in the crease 3:38 into OT. DeCaro stopped 32 of 33 shots faced, Quesada 23 of 25.

Roster Flights:

Arrivals: Last Friday, the Ice Bats acquired defenseman Marek Dora from Tulsa in exchange for d-man Justin Togiai. Dora had seven assists in 34 games with the Oilers, while Togiai compiled three assists in 14 games with

the Ice Bats after starting the season with Laredo. Dora was unable to join the team in time for this week's road trip.

Wounded Wings: Ice Bats top scorer John McNabb has missed the last three games, and is expected to be out another two to three weeks due to injury.

Player Plaudits: Winger John McNabb leads the Ice Bats in scoring, with 18 goals and 17 assists. Forward Henry Kuster is next with 18 goals and 16 assists. Center Julian Smith has 14 goals and 13 helpers, and Mike Tucciarone has 11 goals and 14 assists. The line of Kuster, Tucciarone and Aaron Davis was on fire last week, accounting for 20 points in the four games. And with 3 goals and 5 assists on the week, Kuster was named this week's Oakley CHL Player of the Week.

Goalie Miguel Beaudry is 9-6-7 with a 2.93 GAA in net, and ranks among the league's top dozen goalies. Despite just a 1-4-1 record, goalie Tony Quesada has an even better 2.83 GAA.

Potential Bite Victims: Even though they face last-place teams this week, expect the Ice Bats' games to be extremely competitive. Lubbock is 15-19-3, and although in fifth place in the Southwest, is just nine points off the division lead. Center Kyle Nosan leads the Cotton Kings with 15 goals and 23 assists, including 15 points on his current 7-game scoring streak. With a 5-game goal scoring streak, Anders Strome has 22 goals and 14 assists, including 14 points in the nine games since coming over from Rocky Mountain. Veteran Bobby Brown has 34 points. All-Star goalie J.F. Perras is 9-8-2 with a 3.02 GAA. Lubbock is 10-8-1 at home.

At 15-18-5, Tulsa is fourth in the tough Northeast. The explosive Oilers rank third on offense (3.74 goals per game) and fourth on the power play (18.4%). But they're last on defense, allowing nearly four goals per game, and it's in that area the Oilers must improve. Top five scorer David Beauregard has 26 goals, 23 assists and Mike Wiggins 22 goals, 16 assists. Tulsa Coach Butch Kaebel shuffled the deck in January with multiple trades, adding forwards Bill Newson (18 goals, 20 assists) from Rio Grande Valley, and Jared Dumba (17 goals, 18 assists) from Oklahoma City. He also tried to shore up his blue line by obtaining Rio Grande Valley d-men Kurtis Dulle and Jamie Lovell, and Austin defenseman Justin Togiai. The Oilers also lead the league with over 32 penalty minutes per game, and Bryan LaChapelle's 174 minutes rank fourth individually. Goaltending is split between Jason Montgomery (9-8-1, 3.68 GAA) and Bill Ruggiero (6-10-4, 3.89 GAA). Tulsa is 6-8-3 at home, 9-10-2 on the road.

The Series: The Ice Bats are 13-9-2 lifetime against Lubbock, 1-1 this season. The Bats lost 4-2 to the Cotton Kings October 27th, but came back with a 5-3 win January 4th, both games played in Austin.

The Bats are 6-3-2 lifetime against Tulsa, heading into the season's first meeting between the teams. In fact, it will be Tulsa's first game against a Southeast Division opponent. The Bats won three of the four meetings last season.

Comments From the Coach:

On Last Week: "The fact is that Odessa was shorthanded last week, but I'd like to think that with the way we played that game, we'd have won anyway. I just liked the whole attitude around the rink that night. In Bossier, we were okay for about eight minutes, but gave up a bad goal and the guys got kind of deflated after that. But Sunday was one of our most physical games of the year. We played with a lot of energy, took the body and finished our checks. I'd take that game any night of the year, just with a different end result."

On This Week: "There are no guaranteed wins in this league. Teams like Colorado, Laredo, Memphis and Bossier may be the elite teams in the league, but anyone can beat anyone. So we need to be ready to play Lubbock and Tulsa this week. We're all in the same boat. I think the Davis-centered line has played extremely well. Tucciarone has stepped up his play a touch, and I think Henry Kuster has been a little more physical. Aaron Davis has played his butt off since coming back, but I don't think he's quite in game shape just yet. He'll get there. And the two guys assigned from Houston have been a benefit. Tony Quesada has played well in net, and Ovington allows us some quality depth on our blue line."

The "New" Bat Cave: This season, the Ice Bats begin a new era at Chaparral Ice Arena, located on I-35 between Howard Lane and Wells Branch Parkway.

Saturday is "Mascot Night." Fans may join Fang and his buddies for free digital photos starting at 6:30pm, and there will be a mascot dance contest and dizzy stick race between periods. Also, free cheer stix go to all fans.

In addition to providing tickets through the Ice Bats office at 927-PUCK, the Bats are for the first time utilizing Front Gate Tickets as the team's ticket outlet. Fans may conveniently purchase tickets at any Front Gate Tickets location, including Stubbs BBQ, Waterloo Records and Encore Video & CD.

Fans may order on-line through the Ice Bats website at www.icebats.com. Phone orders may be placed by calling (512) 927-PUCK, or 1-888-512-SHOW. Individual game tickets range in price from $15 to $35, depending on section, with discounted rates for groups of 15 or more. Fans may call the Ice Bats ticket office at (512) 927-PUCK, or log onto the team's website at www.icebats.com for more information.

In the Air: Once again, all Ice Bats away games will be broadcast on ESPN Radio, 1530 on the AM dial. The station will broadcast all road games during the 2006-07 regular season and CHL Playoffs. The games will also be available on-line, through the station website at www.espnaustin.com. Ice Bats VP of Broadcasting, Media/PR Glen Norman will handle play-by-play duties for a ninth straight season.

Bats in Cyberspace: Bats fans can learn the latest about their team by logging on to www.icebats.com. Home or away, Bats fans can also follow the action with real-time scoring on the website, courtesy of Pointstreak.com. Fans will be able to access a game box score in real-time, as well as those of all other CHL games being played.

In addition, the CHL has partnered with industry leader ONEsite to launch 'myCHLteam.com', a new digital community designed to increase and enhance fan, player, team and league interaction. ONEsite is a leading provider of private labeled social networks and communities, and provides individual websites, blogs, photo galleries and much more to fans at no cost. Fans may log onto www.MyIceBats.com to sign up or for more details.

THIS WEEK:

Thur., Feb. 1st, 7:05pm, vs. Lubbock Cotton Kings, at Lubbock Municipal Coliseum, Lubbock, Texas

Fri., Feb. 2nd, 7:35pm, vs. Tulsa Oilers, at Tulsa Convention Center, Tulsa, Oklahoma

Sat., Feb. 3rd, 7:30pm, vs. Tulsa Oilers, at Chaparral Ice Arena, Austin, Texas



Central Hockey League Stories from February 1, 2007


The opinions expressed in this release are those of the organization issuing it, and do not necessarily reflect the thoughts or opinions of OurSports Central or its staff.

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