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CHL Central Hockey League

Shots from the Point for March 31, 2014

March 31, 2014 - Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


Three Things You Need to Know

1.) QDC Streaking into the Playoffs- For the second straight season, the Quad City Mallards take the league's longest win streak into the post-season thanks to their four-game winning stretch to close out the regular season. The Flock carried a five game win streak into last year's playoffs but it didn't amount to much as they were ousted in five games in the Opening Round. The Mallards have outscored the opposition 19-7 during their four-game win streak with Thomas Heemskerk seemingly finding his early season form with wins in all four games. The goalie finishes the regular season with a 15-9-5 mark and with a 2.73 GAA (fifth best in the CHL). The Mallards have a date with the Rapid City Rush (39-23-4) in the Opening Round in a series match-up between the #4 and #5 seeds. The Flock and Rush split six games in the regular season with each team winning once in a shootout.

2.) Beast Ready for Post-Season- The expansion Brampton Beast (33-26-7) finished the regular season with three straight wins over the Rapid City Rush and appear primed and ready for their Opening Round series match-up with the Allen Americans (39-22-5). Brampton won their games with defense allowing just five goals over the last three games which included a shootout win and an overtime win. Kris Westblom won all three games stopping 98 of 103 shots (.951 save percentage). Brampton and Allen split six games during the regular season with the home team going 2-1 in the series. Andrew Fournier (BRM) and Jonathan Lessard (ALN) each scored four goals for their respective teams in the season series. Allen comes into the post-season with a 13-4-1 mark over their last 18 games.

3.) Strong Finish for Sundogs- The Arizona Sundogs (32-27-7) finished strong on their season-ending eight-game home stand posting a 6-1-1 record and ending the season on a four-game point streak (3-0-1). The Sundogs finish with a 17-13-2 home record and are set as the eighth seed in the upcoming playoffs. Arizona will square-off with the top seed Missouri (44-20-2) beginning on Friday night at the Independence Events Center. Forwards Brandon Coccimiglio (10 pts in L5 gms) and Shawn Limpright (9 pts in L5 gms) have been pacing the offense as of late and David Rutherford scored a spectacular natural hat trick in a span of 9:52 late in the third period and into overtime in the Sundogs 6-5 win over Wichita on Friday. Rutherford has 34 points in 27 games and is an impressive +21 over that span.

By the Numbers

+44: The final league-leading plus/minus total of Rapid City forward Jesse Schultz which was a +6 better than any other skater (RPD's Konrad Reeder was a +38). Schultz finished the season as en even rating over his last nine games but on the season was a minus player just 12 times in 66 games. The veteran finished the season fifth in points with 85 (23-62...) and was one of five finalists for the CHL MVP.

6,532: The attendance at the St. Charles Chill's final game of the season on Saturday night versus Quad City. It marked the second largest crowd of the season and gave the Chill their four largest crowds in the final 30 days of the season. The Chill drew crowds of 6,839, 6,542, 5,536 and 4,823 in home games since Feb. 28.

17: The league-leading number of sellouts for the Missouri Mavericks who drew 181,493 fans over the course of their 33 home games finishing with the league's top attendance average at 5,499.

3: The number of 30+ goal scorers the Tulsa Oilers had this season, most in the CHL. The Oilers were led by Ben Gordon's 36 goals followed by Adam Pleskach at 33 and Michel Beausoleil at 31. Missouri was next with a pair of 30+ goal scorers.

One-Timers

-Denver's Garett Bembridge earned a hat trick of a different kind on Monday wining the CHL's Most Valuable Player Award, the Joe Burton Scoring Championship and the Oakley Three Stars Player of the Year Award. Bembridge finished as the lone 100-point player in the league (104 points) and also led the CHL with 42 goals. Teammate A.J. Gale led the CHL with 46 goals last season giving the Cutthroats back-to-back seasons with the top sniper.

-The Missouri Mavericks finished with the league's best power play at 22.7% (the highest since the 2010-11 season, Allen at 23.9%) and also had the league's best penalty kill at 87.2% (the highest since 2008-09, Bossier-Shreveport at 87.3%). The Mavs are the first team since the 2009-10 Odessa Jackalopes to lead the league in both PP and PK.

-The Allen Americans finished the season as the CHL's top offensive team scoring 249 goals (3.77 average per game). They finished strong with an incredible 25% of those in the month of March (61 of 249). Greger Hanson and Jamie Schaafsma each scored nine times in March and Jonathan Lessard and Spencer Asuchak each had eight goals.

-The Denver Cutthroats finished as the CHL's top team in March notching 25 points to go along with a 12-2-1 record. Missouri was second with a 10-4-0 record (20 points) followed by Allen's 9-4-1 mark (19 points).

-Wichita forward Tomas Klempa finished the season on a tear with seven goals and 10 assists over the span of his season-ending nine-game point streak. Klempa finished with 46 points (19-27F) in 48 games.

-What a month of March for Missouri's Andrew Courtney who scored 12 goals with 10 assists in 14 games. Courtney ends the season on a 15-game point streak (26 points over that span) and sets the Mavs single-season goal record with 34.

-Rapid City forward Jared Brown ended the season with goals in six straight games tying him for the third longest goal streak in the CHL this season. The longest was eight games, set by Denver's Vincent Arseneau earlier in March.

-CHL-TV, powered by America ONE Sports, is back for a second post-season with playoff packages available as well as all playoff games available individually each night. Visit www.americaonesports.com for ordering information.



Central Hockey League Stories from March 31, 2014


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