CHL Central Hockey League

Shots from the Point for November 4, 2011

November 4, 2011 - Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


Top Three

1.) Christening a New Home- The Evansville IceMen will open the doors at the new Ford Center on Saturday night when they host their in-state rivals, the Fort Wayne Komets. The two clubs have already met twice with each team taking a victory (Fort Wayne's coming via a shootout). The new home of the IceMen is a state-of-the-art facility with an overall capacity of 11,000 (hockey capacity is 8,800). Evansville is off to a great start in this, their second season in the CHL, earning points in each of their first two games (1-0-1). Learn more about the new arena at www.thefordcenter.com.

2.) Rivalry'- When the Fort Wayne Komets entered the CHL prior to the start of the 2010-11 season, it wasn't clear who would be established as a ‚¬Ëœnew' rival but it became clear on opening weekend a year ago when the 2010 Champion Rapid City Rush shutout the Komets and later beat them in a hard-fought five-game playoff series in the conference semifinals. The two teams meet for the first time this season on Friday night when Rapid City visits Fort Wayne in the first of three meetings this season, all in the next eight days (Nov. 11 and 12 in Rapid City). So far this season, the Rush is off to a strong 3-0-1 start and Fort Wayne has split their first two games, both against Evansville.

3.) Monthly Honorees- Awards for the month of October were announced this week with Wichita's Matt Summers winning the Sher-Wood/CHL Player of the Month, Missouri's Charlie Effinger winning the Sher-Wood/CHL Goaltender of the Month and Quad City's Eric Giosa who was named the Oakley Three Star Player of the Month (second star was Tulsa's Ian Keserich and third star was Effinger). A new monthly award for the CHL is the 50/50 Central/CHL Rookie of the Month which will be announced on Friday (Nov. 4).

Inside the Numbers

0: The number of combined losses this season for the Missouri Mavericks (5-0-0) and the Wichita Thunder (4-0-0) who meet in a home-and-home series Friday and Saturday. The two clubs are the lone remaining undefeated teams in the CHL. The Mavs lead the all-time series with a 14-5-2 mark against Wichita. Saturday's game for Missouri will be their home opener and will end their season-opening six-game road trip. Wichita has won three of their four games by way of a shootout (all on home ice) and have found the third period to be the most productive outscoring their opponents 8-0 in the final frame.

On the Fly

-Missouri forward Sebastien Thinel is off to a fast start this season with eight points (2-6=8) in five games. His 655 CHL points rank ninth on the league's all-time list, just three points away from tying Paul Jackson for the eighth spot. The 2009 CHL Most Valuable Player and 2009/2011 Joe Burton Award winner (league scoring champion) is 13th on the all;-time goals list (237) and 14th on the all-time assists list (418).

-After starting the season with a five-game home stand, the Arizona Sundogs (1-3-1) will play their first road games of the season when they begin a five-game swing through the state of Texas beginning with a pair of games in Allen against the Americans (1-1-2) this weekend and continuing with a game against the Laredo Bucks (1-3-0) and a pair of games against the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees (1-3-0). Arizona will have to find a way to solve the second period where they have been outscored 11-1 this season.

-Rapid City is the lone CHL team to still sit perfect in the penalty kill department thwarting all 18 efforts from the opposition.

-The Dayton Gems (0-1-2) open their home portion of the schedule on Saturday night when they host the Quad City Mallards (2-1-0). The two clubs also meet Friday night in Quad City with the Gems looking for their first win of the season (all three losses have come by one goal). Last year, the two clubs split 10 games with each team winning five games.

-Veteran Marty Standish and the Tulsa Oilers hit the road this weekend when they travel to South Texas to face the Laredo Bucks on Friday night and the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees on Saturday night. Standish continues to move up the CHL's all-time leaders list sitting three games behind Riley Nelson for 12th all-time in games played and sitting two points behind Randy Murphy for 21st all-time in points.



Central Hockey League Stories from November 4, 2011


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