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Shots from the Point for January 3, 2014

January 3, 2014 - Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


Three Things You Need to Know

1.) Flock are December's Best- The Quad City Mallards (15-6-5) finished the month of December with 17 points and an 8-3-1 record, best in the CHL. The Mallards are sitting in fourth place with 35 points, just one behind Allen. Also earning eight wins in December were the Rapid City Rush (8-3-0) and the Missouri Mavericks (8-4-0) while the Wichita Thunder (7-4-0), Denver Cutthroats (4-3-3) and Allen Americans (5-4-1) also finished above .500. The Tulsa Oilers (6-6-0), Brampton Beast (4-6-1), St. Charles Chill (4-10-0) and Arizona Sundogs (3-8-0) all finished at or below .500 in the month.

2.) Powers Clash in Texas- The Rapid City Rush (22-5-0) remain unbeaten on the road winning all 12 of their away games so far but that streak will be put to a test this weekend when they battle the Allen Americans (17-10-2) on Friday and Saturday. The Rush's 12-game road win streak is a CHL record and they are coming off an impressive comeback win in St. Charles. Winston Day Chief had a natural hat trick and has been on fire with seven goals and five assists in six games since returning from the injured reserve. Allen has won three straight games and five of their last seven. Tyler Ludwig has been on fire with four goals and an assist along with a +6 plus/minus rating in his last three contests. The Rush and Americans met back in 2010 for the CHL title with Rapid City winning in six games. Rapid City's Scott Wray, Riley Weselowski and Gio Flamminio are the only holdovers from that Champ ionship team and Jarret Lukin is the lone Allen player remaining from that 2010 series.

3.) Lets Head to the Slopes- The Denver Cutthroats (14-9-6) may be out of the Denver Coliseum until February but they will still take a tour around Colorado playing games in Aspen and Vail. This weekend, the Fish host the Tulsa Oilers (16-15-2) at the Lewis Ice Arena in Aspen for games on Friday and Saturday. Later in the month, the Cutthroats will host the Arizona Sundogs in Vail (Jan. 24/25). This weekend's showdown is a big one in the standings with both teams sitting with 34 points. The two clubs have not seen each other since opening weekend when Denver collected two wins on home ice against the Oilers. Kieran Millan was in net for both games recording an impressive 1.44 GAA.

By the Numbers

1,200: The number of professional games Terry Ruskowski will have coached after Friday's game versus St. Charles. Of those games, 732 of them have been in the CHL with the Quad City Mallards, Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees and Laredo Bucks. Only Doug Sauter (918 games) has coached more CHL games than Ruskowski. Outside the CHL, Ruskowski has coached in the ECHL (Columbus), the IHL (Houston) and the UHL (Knoxville).

One-Timers

-No player in the CHL has a longer assist streak this season than Denver's Troy Schwab (10 games). The forward has 13 helpers over that stretch and is tied for first overall with 35 assists (Tulsa's Todd Robinson).

-Missouri's Mike Ramsay extended his goal scoring streak to five games on Tuesday night in his team's 4-2 win over Tulsa. The longest goal streak in the CHL this season is Tulsa's Michel Beausoleil who netted a strike in seven straight games in mid to late November.

-The Oakley 3 Stars of the Month for December were announced this week with Wichita's Matt Robinson winning first star, St. Charles' Robby Moss winning second star and Rapid City's Winston Day Chief winning third star.

-The latest Sher-Wood Power Rankings came out on Thursday with the Rapid City Rush holding the top spot for the fourth consecutive poll. The biggest jump came from the Quad City Mallards who gained 14 points while moving to the #3 spot. Missouri (#2), Allen (#4) and Tulsa (#5) round out the top half of the rankings.

-Two recent offense additions have paid immediate dividends for their teams with Brampton's Scott Howes scoring two goals with four assists in the five games he has played since singing with the team and Arizona's David Rutherford netting a goal in his first game with the team this past Saturday.

-Denver's Daniel Barczuk netted a natural hat trick last Saturday in his team's win in Arizona. The forward has been a big help to the Fish who have numerous players on re-call in the AHL. Barczuk has six goals and three assists in eight games. Last season he had 12 goals in 48 games with Bloomington.

-CHL-TV, powered by America ONE Sports, is back for a second season with monthly and season packages available as well as all games on a given night available for $8.00. Visit www.americaonesports.com for ordering information.



Central Hockey League Stories from January 3, 2014


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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