CHL Central Hockey League

Shots from the Point for Monday, January 19th

Published on January 19, 2009 under Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


1) Adolescent Bees Buzzing Again

2) Brahmas Bulling Their Way to Conference's Top Spot

3) Blazers Out of Gates Strong in Second Half

1- The Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (18-15-3, 39 points) have rebounded from a tough stretch and are once again doing some damage around the CHL. After going 5-10-1 between December 4th and January 3rd, the Killer Bees have won five straight games outscoring the opposition 23-9 over that stretch. Rookie goaltender Wylie Rogers has regained his early season form winning four straight decisions. The Bees have 11 rookies on their active roster, the most on any CHL team. Grant Goeckner-Zoeller has been a nice addition joining the Bees in early December. Thus far in 21 games played, he has scored 10 goals with eight assists. RGV hits a very difficult portion of their schedule this week playing six of their next seven games on the road with the combined records of their opponents being an impressive 125-76-21 (Tulsa, Mississippi, Bossier-Shreveport, Texas, Laredo and Odessa). 2- The second half of the season is where the Texas Brahmas (24-10-3) made their march to the conference finals last season going 26-10-1 after January 1st. So far this season since January 1st, the Brahmas are 6-1-0 and have jumped into first place in the Southeast Division sitting five points ahead of the Laredo Bucks, the annual Southeast Division power. The Brahmas are just two points behind the Odessa Jackalopes for the top spot in the entire Southern Conference. Brett Jaeger is having an outstanding season going 9-1-0 over his last 10 decisions and sitting 18-5-3 overall with a league best .924 save percentage. His 2-0 week and two goals allowed last week earned him the Oakley CHL Goaltender of the Week.

3- The Oklahoma City Blazers (22-10-5) limped their way into the all-star break and actually fell out of first place (a spot they occupied for nearly the entire first half) on the final day of the opening half of the season. After finishing 1-5-2 in their final eight games leading up to the all-star game, the Blazers won at Mississippi and beat Bossier-Shreveport coming out of the gates in the second half regaining the top of the Northeast Division. OKC plays six of their next seven games on the road starting with Friday night in Tulsa. The Oilers have had success against the Blazers going 3-1-2 in the six previous meeting.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

26-12 The goal differential between the Colorado Eagles and their opponents on their current five-game win streak and since their 7-2 loss to Wichita on January 3rd...All-Star Game MVP Konrad Reeder has scored the game-winning goal in three of the Eagles five wins and has caught fire scoring 10 goals with nine assists over his last 11 games (including all-star game)

12 The number of points that RGV's Jesse Bennefield has over his current nine-game point streak...The rookie has seven goals and five assists during his streak scoring goals in seven of the nine games...On the season, Bennefield has 20 goals and 19 assists in 36 games

5 The number of CHL players currently up with American Hockey League clubs...Arizona's Sean Zimmerman and Texas' Justin Kinnunen are both with San Antonio, Corpus Christi John Adams is with Houston, Bossier-Shreveport's Neil Clark is with Rochester and Wichita's Jonathan Tremblay with Providence

+11 Bossier-Shreveport's Travis Clayton's plus/minus over his last eight games including his +5 in the ‘Bugs 5-4 win at Tulsa on Friday night...Clayton has two goals with nine assists over that stretch

TIDBITS

-The Rocky Mountain Rage had their eight-game point streak (6-0-2) end on Saturday versus Odessa, a 4-1 loss...The Rage are 19-8-3 since their 1-7-1 start and are 11 points in front of Rapid City for the fifth and final playoff spot in the North

-Laredo is 4-5-3 in their last 12 games with three of their four wins coming versus Corpus Christi...The Bucks Jeff Bes had a goal and three assists on Friday versus the IceRays reaching the 900 career point plateau

-Mississippi's Kevin Beech stopped the first 12 shooters he faced in shootouts this season before allowing a goal from Tulsa's Sean Collins on Saturday night...the goal by Collins was the game winner in the 3-2 Oilers victory

-Tulsa is a league worst 5-7-2 when scoring first...Conversely, the Colorado Eagles and Odessa Jackalopes are 19-2-1 when finding the back of the net first in a game

-The Amarillo Gorillas have scored just 29 power play goals while allowing 57 goals while a man down

-Oklahoma City has played in a league-high 19 one-goal games going 9-5-5 in those contests...Five of the last seven OKC games have been decided by a goal

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Central Hockey League Stories from January 19, 2009


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