CHL Central Hockey League

Shots from the Point for November 15, 2010

November 15, 2010 - Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


Three Things You Have to Know for Monday, November 15, 2010

#1 - Tight Decisions

Last week, 17 of 24 games were decided by one goal (71%), keeping with the trend of almost half the games this season being decided by one goal. Of the 17 one-goal games last week, five were decided in a shootout and one in overtime. One-goal games are up by five percent with 46 of 99 games decided by a goal compared to 36 of 86 games a year ago (41%). Bloomington is unbeaten in the close ones going 4-0-0 in games decided by a goal. Odessa is at the other end of the spectrum going 0-3-1 in one-goal games.

#2 - All Bunched Up in the Turner

The Turner Conference has eight teams over .500 and all clubs within seven points of each other from top to bottom (Colorado has 17 points and Quad City has 10 points). More impressive is the tightness of the middle six teams in the bunch as they are all separated by just three points with Dayton sitting with 15 points, three teams (Rapid City, Wichita and Evansville) claiming 13 points and Bloomington and Missouri boasting 12 points apiece. Fort Wayne is in last place in the conference with five points. The Berry Conference has a bit more separation in the early going with 10 points separating first and fourth place, as a sample.

#3 - All-American Weekend

No team has been more impressive lately and over the past weekend than the Allen Americans (11-2-0), winners of five straight games and holders of first place in the Berry Conference. The Americans went 3-0 this past weekend playing three-games-in-three nights with Friday night featuring a 7-3 win at Laredo and a pair of one-goal wins in Odessa on Saturday and Sunday. Nino Musitelli's late game heroics saved the Americans in Saturday's 4-3 win over the Jacks as he scored the winner with just over a second left in the game. On Friday, Musitelli notched a hat trick in Laredo. Maybe the most impressive thing for Allen is that nine of their 13 games have been away from home and they have gone 8-1-0 in those contests (lone loss was in Rapid City).

Numbers Game

447 - The number of games in a Jackalopes uniform that forward Sebastien Thinel has played with Saturday's appearance versus Allen (Thinel played Sunday afternoon moving his total to 448 games). Thinel is now the Jacks all-time leader in games played passing current Missouri Mavericks head coach Scott Hillman.

1999- The last time the Fort Wayne Komets (2-6-1) have lost four straight road games (lost five straight in January of 1999). Fort Wayne has scored two goals or fewer in eight of their nine games so far and rank last in the league, averaging 1.44 goals per game. The Komets host Arizona (2-7-2) on Friday and Dayton (7-2-1) on Saturday and are 1-2-0 at home this season.

52- The number of shots that Mississippi's Alexander Pechurskiy stopped in his two games this past weekend. The newly assigned prospect of the Pittsburgh Penguins entered Friday's game just past the midway point with his team trailing and stopped all 21 shots he faced in the 'Kings 4-2 loss at Rapid City. He followed that up with 31 saves in Mississippi's 4-3 victory in Colorado on Saturday night.

19- The league-leading point total of Evansville's Nicklas Lindberg and Bossier-Shreveport's Justin Aikins. Lindberg leads all skaters with 15 assists and Aikins has seven goals to go with 12 helpers. Three players (Allen's Nino Musitelli, Bossier-Shreveport's David Rutherford and Laredo's Neil Trimm) are one point behind with 18 on the season.

7-1-1- The record of the Dayton Gems in games they have been outshot this season. Amazingly, the Gems have recorded more shots than their opposition just once this year and that resulted in a 7-5 loss to Rapid City. The Gems are in second place in the Turner Conference with 15 points, two behind Colorado, and have won three straight games.

Slap Shots

-Chris Richards is front and center on the Mississippi milestone watch sitting one goal away from 300 in his pro career and two games short of 700 in his pro career. In his CHL career, the former Ohio State Buckeye has played in 651 games (fourth all-time in CHL) scoring 778 points (fifth all-time in CHL).

-While scoring just one goal in eight games with Laredo, forward Matt Robinson is off and running with Wichita scoring three times in the two games he played with the Thunder this past weekend (traded to Wichita from Laredo last week). On the season, Robinson has four goals and five assists in 10 games.

-With his shootout goal on Saturday versus Wichita, Bloomington's John Snowden now has three game winning goals on the season, tied for second in the CHL. All three of his GWG's have come in extra time, with one coming in a 2-1 overtime win versus Tulsa and the other two coming in shootouts (Oct. 16 vs. Missouri and Nov. 13 vs. Wichita).

-Thanks to a big second period, three goals in a 2:52 stretch, the Tulsa Oilers ended an eight-game winless streak and at the same time ended the Colorado Eagles eight-game win streak. Chad Costello scored the game winner in a shootout in Friday's 4-3 win at the Budweiser Events Center.



Central Hockey League Stories from November 15, 2010


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