CHL Central Hockey League

Shots from the Point for November 28, 2011

Published on November 28, 2011 under Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


Top Three

1.) Komets Rising- Maybe no team is playing better at the moment than the Fort Wayne Komets (9-5-0) who have won four straight games (longest active win streak in the league) and sit tied for second place in the Turner Conference just one point behind the Evansville IceMen (9-3-1). The Komets have been a powerhouse offensively scoring more than four goals a game during their win streak and are tied for third in the league overall averaging 3.71 goals per game. Brett Smith has points in all but the first game of the season sitting with a league-best 13-game point streak (9g, 13a) and Jean-Michel Rizk has four goals and two assists over the Komets win streak and has eight goals in the 11 games he has played this season. Fort Wayne travels to Rapid City to play the Rush (8-6-1) on Friday and Saturday.

2.) Thunder Roars Back to the Top- Riding a three-game win streak, the Wichita Thunder (11-4-0) have reclaimed first place in the Berry Conference sitting one point ahead of the Allen Americans (9-3-3). The Thunder defeated Missouri last Wednesday (4-1) and then topped the Tulsa Oilers in back-to-back games on Friday and Saturday. Adam Russo was in net for all three Thunder wins and is tied for the league lead with eight wins on the season (8-2-0). On Friday night, Wichita head coach Kevin McClelland became just the 11th coach to manage 400 CHL games. During his CHL coaching career, McClelland is 233-137-32. The Thunder are home, where they are 7-2-0 on the season, for a pair of games this week hosting Evansville (9-3-1) on Friday and Tulsa (9-6-2) on Sunday.

3.) Scoring Race All Bunched Up- Missouri's Sebastien Thinel (two-time Joe Burton Trophy winner) is still sitting atop the CHL's scoring leaders with 24 points (6-18$) but the room is getting a bit more crowded with 10 skaters boasting 20 points or more. One point behind Thinel is Rapid City's Jesse Schultz (8-15=23) and Evansville's Todd Robinson (4-19=23), while Arizona's Kyle Hood (7-15=22) and Fort Wayne's Brett Smith (9-13=22) round out the top five. A total of five skaters sit with 20 points including Allen's Bruce Graham, Tulsa's Mike Ullrich and Dylan Clarke, Dayton's Damian Surma and Fort Wayne's Bobby Chaumont.

Inside the Numbers

117: The combined number of penalty minutes the last time the Arizona Sundogs (6-8-3) and Laredo Bucks (5-9-0) squared off, a 6-3 Laredo win on Nov. 9. The two rivals meet again on Wednesday night in Laredo with the Bucks winners of back-to-back games and the Sundogs winning three of their last four contests. In that game in early November, Todd Griffith (LAR) accumulated 30 PIM's and Corey Toy (ARZ) was assessed 20 PIM's. The 73 minutes given to the Sundogs were the most in any single CHL game this season.

On the Fly

-The Bloomington Blaze (2-10-2) entered Saturday night's showdown with the Allen Americans (9-3-3) with the lowest point total while the Americans had the CHL's highest point total but Mark Znutas and Jon Booras scored just 49 seconds apart late in the third period erasing a 3-2 Allen lead. The win for the Blaze ended a 12-game losing streak and at the same time marked the first regulation road loss for the Americans in their 10th road game.

-Fort Wayne center Colin Chaulk had two assists in Saturday's 5-2 win at Dayton giving 499 as a member of the Komets (regular season and playoffs). The veteran is in his ninth season with the Komets.

-The Texas Brahmas (7-6-2) went 0-2-1 last week despite holding third period leads in all three games. On Nov. 23, the Brahmas led the Arizona Sundogs 3-2 midway through the third period before former Brahma Jeff Hazelwood scored two goals for a 4-3 OT win. On Nov. 25, the Brahmas led 3-2 with less than five minutes remaining before falling 4-3 in OT to Laredo and then on Nov. 26 they led 3-2 before the Bucks tied the game with 3:39 remaining and then Laredo won the game on a Rusty Masters goal with one second remaining in regulation.

-Allen forward Keith Johnson scored his 100th pro goal in Friday's 4-1 win at Missouri. Johnson has six goals and eight assists in 15 games this season with the Americans.

-After starting the year without a regulation loss in their first seven games (6-0-1), the Missouri Mavericks have gone 2-5-1 since ending their four-game slide on Saturday night with a 2-1 win at Quad City. Charlie Effinger stopped 43 shots and won for the first time since Nov. 11.

-Tulsa has netted a power play goal in seven straight games going 14 for 42 over that stretch (33%). On the season, the Oilers are fourth in the CHL connecting at 22.5% (first on home ice at 26.8%). Sean Erickson, Dylan Clarke and Ryan Cramer each have three PP goals leading the team.

-Arizona's Kyle Hood had his five-game point streak snapped on Saturday in the Sundogs 2-0 loss to Rio Grande Valley. Hood had two goals and nine assists during his streak and is now tied for fourth in the league with 22 points (7-15=22) on the season.

-Wichita defenseman Daniel Tetrault played in his 700th game as a pro this past Friday and in his 12th pro season, is just three points away from tying the Thunder team record for points by a defenseman (Sean O'Reilly-169).

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Central Hockey League Stories from November 28, 2011


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