CHL Central Hockey League

Shots from the Point for February 22, 2013

February 22, 2013 - Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


Three Things You Need to Know

1.) First Place Showdown- For the second straight Friday night, the Allen Americans (29-12-9, 67 points) will have a battle for first place in the Berry Conference when they host the Wichita Thunder (30-15-6, 66 points) at the Allen Event Center. Last week, the Americans were tied with the Fort Worth Brahmas (30-16-5, 65 points) entering Friday's matchup and ultimately prevailed, 4-2, regaining sole possession of the top spot. The Americans and Thunder meet for the third straight game with Wichita owning victories in Sunday's and Tuesday's games outscoring the Americans 9-2. Chad Painchaud led the way in the two victories with three goals, three assists and a +5 plus/minus rating. The Thunder are already without goalie Kevin Regan (on goaltender IR) and Torrie Jung left Tuesday's game after taking a shot off the throat in the first period of play. Grant Rollheiser filled in Tuesda y and earned his first win with the Thunder after stopping 27 of 28 shots. The home team is 5-0 in the season series with the Americans and Thunder.

2.) Rapid City Draws First Blood- The Bloomington Blaze (25-23-2) and the Rapid City Rush (26-21-5) are squaring off in a three-game series that began on Wednesday night in Illinois and continues Friday and Saturday nights in South Dakota. The Rush fired the first shot with a 2-1 win at the U.S. Cellular Coliseum earlier this week. Danny Battochio made 26 saves earning the win. Rapid City's 3-1 road trip pushed them into sole possession of fourth place in the standings while the Blaze are in seventh place just a point ahead of Arizona and four points ahead of ninth place Quad City.

3.) Offense from the Blue Line- The Wichita Thunder have benefitted the most of any team this season in getting scoring from their back end with Kevin Young (15-28=43) and Andrew Martens (6-23=29) serving as the top scoring active defensive duo in the CHL combining for 72 points (21g-51a). Allen's Tyler and Trevor Ludwig are second combining for 64 points (16g, 48a) and Bloomington's duo of Steve Makway and Nicholas Rioux are third combining for 57 points (15g-42a). Rounding out the top five are Rapid City's Jamie VanderVeeken and Riley Weselowski (8g, 37a = 45pts) and Quad City's Matt Duffy and Bobby Preece (11g, 33a = 44pts).

By the Numbers

83: The number of CHL wins that Rapid City goaltender Danny Battochio has in his four seasons in the league with the Rush. Battochio is coming off a 26-save performance on Tuesday night in Quad City and a 28-save effort in Bloomington on Wednesday (both wins). On the season he is 11-9-1 with a 2.32 goals against average (best in the league). The 2010 CHL Rookie of the Year is 83-42-12 all-time with seven shutouts and a career GAA of 2.57.

One-Timers

-Missouri forward Colt King is finding his scoring touch after scoring just three times in his first 17 goals of the season. The forward has four goals in his last three games and 10 goals over his last 13 games (has seven assists over that stretch as well).

-The Allen Americans ended a four-game losing streak to the Fort Worth Brahmas last time out and still control the season series with a 6-2-3 record. The two bitter rivals go head-to-head on Saturday night in Fort Worth and Sunday afternoon in Allen. The Brahmas head into Sunday's game with a league best seven-game road winning streak.

-The Quad City Mallards sit just three points out of the final playoff spot with three games in hand on the Arizona Sundogs but they have not been helping themselves out lately going 3-4-1 in their last 10 games losing to Bloomington and Rapid City twice and Missouri once. The Flock head west on Friday and Saturday to visit the Denver Cutthroats for the first time this season.

-The Denver Cutthroats saw the league's top goal scorer, A.J. Gale, get called-up to the Lake Erie Monsters this week. Gale has 31 goals on the season and is the ninth Denver player to get a call-up to the American Hockey League.

-The Arizona Sundogs have struggled with the man advantage for a good chunk of the season and in their last three games they are just 1 for 15 missing out on their last 14 chances. Arizona is last in the league with a 12.0 success rate with the man advantage.

-The first place Allen Americans have three players currently playing in the AHL including Scotty Howes (3-0=3 in six games with Springfield), Brett Skinner (1-3=4 in seven games with Grand Rapids) and Ryley Grantham (0-1=1 with 26 PIMS in nine games with Houston).

-Be sure to catch all of the action on CHL-TV all season long.



Central Hockey League Stories from February 22, 2013


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