CHL Central Hockey League

Shots from the Point for January 30, 2012

January 30, 2012 - Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


Top Three

1.) Gems Happy to Be Home- After a brief three-game road trip and a stretch that saw them play six of seven away from home, the Dayton Gems returned to Hara Arena on Friday night to meet the Rapid City Rush and then to host the Turner Conference leading Evansville IceMen on Saturday night. The Gems used that home cooking and momentum from the fans, including a season-high 5,187 on Saturday night, to beat the Rush in a shootout and then do what no other team in the month of January could do, beat Evansville in regulation. Larry Sterling stopped 57 of 62 total shots leading the way to victory in both games and offensively it was a team effort with 11 different players earning points in the two games. The Gems remain home for a rematch with the Rush on Tuesday before playing in Fort Wayne on Saturday.

2.) Sundogs See Long Road Trip- The Arizona Sundogs ended their six-game losing streak on Saturday night with a 6-3 win over the Fort Wayne Komets and the victory could not have come at a better time as it is the last home game the Sundogs will play until February 28. The Sundogs (13-22-7) will play 11 straight road games seeing Missouri, Quad City, Bloomington, Evansville, Dayton and Fort Wayne on their journey. Arizona is 5-9-2 away from home with six straight road losses. Defenseman Tyler Butler has been hot lately for the "˜Dogs scoring two goals with five assists in his last three games. His strong play earned his Oakley CHL Player of the Week honors on Monday.

3.) Tight in the Berry- There was a lot of movement this weekend in the CHL and some big games were played that resulted in advancements in the standings. The Allen Americans and Wichita Thunder have been in a close race the past couple of games and have been taking turns holding the number one spot. Currently, the Thunder have that title and sit in first place with 56 points, only one point above the Americans who have 55 points. This past weekend the Thunder and the Americans played in Allen, which resulted in a 5-0 win by the Americans giving them the one-point advantage and putting them in first place with 53 points. Each team had their own game on Saturday, Allen lost, while Wichita won in overtime, giving them the two points and putting them back in the driver seat with 54 points. The weekend finished last night with each team playing in another game, and both teams coming out with the win placing them where they a re right now. The race is back and forth and will continue this weekend with Allen hosting Tulsa in a pair of games and Wichita heading to South Texas to play at Rio Grande Valley and at Laredo.

Inside the Numbers

2/6/2012: The date on the calendar that represents when the official "˜CHL Trade Deadline' is. Which teams will be making moves to strengthen their pushes for the Ray Miron Presidents' Cup? Keep up with all the excitement on www.centralhockeyleague.com or follow the CHL on Facebook and Twitter as up-to-the-minute transactions will be posted.

On the Fly

-The Rapid City Rush could be without leading scorer Jesse Schultz on Monday night when they play game two of a back-to-back series with the Bloomington Blaze. Schultz was injured in the Rush's loss in Dayton on Friday night and then missed his team's loss on Saturday in game one versus the Blaze. Schultz is fourth in the league with 52 points (20-32=52).

-Fort Wayne goaltender Nick Boucher won his 199th career game with the Komets on Friday night and will have a chance to win #200 on Friday at Quad City. Boucher is 22-9-1 this season with a 2.43 goals against average and a .918 save percentage.

-The Evansville Icemen have been on fire during the month of January, going 10-1-3, only being denied a point in one outing, which is a large reason why this squad is in first place in the Turner. On top of that, the Icemen have seven straight home wins which is the longest active streak in the league, also one away from tying the season high. The IceMen host Rapid City on both Friday and Saturday this week.

-Tulsa rookie Dylan Clarke has taken over the rookie scoring lead thanks to his three point game on Sunday versus Laredo (a 7-2 Tulsa win). Clarke has 43 points on the season leading Quad City's Jared Brown by two points and teammate Mike Ullrich by three points. Ullrich, fresh off his hat trick on Sunday, leads all first year players with 20 goals.

-Quad City leads the league with 48 power play goals (10 more than any other club) and has notched at least one PP score in four straight games going 7 for 23 (30%) over their last four contests. The Flock is second in the CHL connecting at 22.2% on the season and Brandon Marino leads all players with 10 PP goals.

-Missouri forward Ed McGrane is starting to heat up scoring goals in three straight games and in seven of his last 10 games. On the season, McGrane has 17 goals and 22 assists in 38 games played. His current three-game goal scoring streak is the longest active such streak in the CHL.

-Neil Trimm of the Laredo Bucks currently holds two longest active streaks in the CHL; one for consecutive games with a point and one for consecutive games with an assist. The former All-Star has seven assists over his five-game assist streak and 10 points over his seven-game point streak. Trimm and the Bucks host the Texas Brahmas on Wednesday night.

-Matt Summers of Wichita tied the season-high with four assists in the Thunder's blowout win over the Arizona Sundogs last Wednesday night. Evansville's Todd Robinson and Rapid City's Les Reaney have also each notched four helpers in a single game (Robinson has done it three times).

-Tulsa's Marty Standish became just the seventh player to play in 600 CHL games this past weekend. Standish reached the milestone during Saturday night's game at Wichita. The veteran is 18th on the league's all-time points list with 527 total points.



Central Hockey League Stories from January 30, 2012


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