CHL Central Hockey League

Shots from the Point

December 22, 2008 - Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


1- On Thursday, the Oklahoma City Blazers will host the Tulsa Oilers in their traditional Christmas Day game. It will mark the 16th straight season the Blazers have played on Christmas. All-time, the Blazers are 10-4-1 with 11 of the 15 games being played against their in-state rivals. In the games versus the Oilers, OKC is 6-4-1. The only other two teams to play the Blazers on Dec. 25 are the Wichita Thunder and the Fort Worth Fire. The Blazers won the game last year versus the Oilers by a final score of 5-3.

2- After having his seven-game point streak end last Wednesday Arizona's Joel Irving responded on Saturday with his first hat trick of the season. The three goal effort makes the Sundogs power forward the first 20-goal scorer in the league this season and moves his point total to 40 (20-20=40) ranking him third in the league. He has been on a tear in December scoring eight goals with 10 assists. He has been one of the consistent performers for the defending champs who are just 11-17-1 on the season. In 29 games, Irving has 13 multiple-point games and six multiple-goal games. This week, Irving and the 'Dogs make their first ever visit to Rapid City to meet the Rush on Friday and Saturday.

3- The Rapid City Rush (8-10-7, 23 points) lead the league in games heading to overtime and are second in one-goal games. So far this season, the Rush are 3-1-7 in one-goal games and are currently sitting tied for the fifth and final playoff position in the Northern Conference. The expansion club could be better off with just a few wins in overtime/shootouts but are 0-7 in games that extend beyond regulation including 0-5 in shootouts. Six of the seven games the Rush have gone to overtime/shootouts were played on the road earning six hard points.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

5 Where Chris Lipsett's current goal scoring streak stands after tallying a goal in each of last weekend's games for the Rush...Lipsett has one goal in each of his last five games and has 17 on the season leading the way for Rapid City

24 The number of goals the Wichita Thunder have allowed in their last 10 games while scoring just 19 times...The Thunder are 3-6-1 over that span

670 The number of points Corpus Christi's Chris Richards has in his CHL career after his one goal, one assist night versus Laredo on Saturday...The two points move Richards past Hardy Sauter into fifth place on the league's all-time points list

29-3-4 The Colorado Eagles all-time record versus the New Mexico Scorpions after their pair of victories in Rio Rancho this past weekend...The Eagles are the first CHL team to 20 wins and lead the league with a .820 win percentage

18/251 The number of goals and penalty minutes that Arizona's Karl Sellan has this season in 29 games...He leads the league in PIM's and with his 19 major penalties and ranks fourth in goals...He is just five goals shy of his career high of 23 set in the 2006-07 season and his 251 penalty minutes are 20 more than his career high set last season (231)

ONE-TIMERS

-The co-coach representing the Southern Conference in the upcoming 2009 CHL All-Star Game will be decided on Tuesday night...Joining Oklahoma City coach Doug Sauter as the co-coach will be either Paul Gillis (ODE) or Terry Ruskowski (LAR)...The representative will be determined by winning percentage with Odessa currently holding the edge .741-.740...The tiebreaker, head-to-head, favors the Jacks who are 2-0 versus the Bucks this season

-All Texas Brahmas players recorded at least a point in the three-game series in Arizona last week (except Justin Kinnunen who missed the last two games)...The Brahmas won two of the three games versus the Sundogs in the first ever meetings between the two teams

-The Tulsa line of Michel Beausoleil, Jeff Christian and Sean Collins have combined for four goals and six assists in the team's two games last week

-Rapid City's Rich Hansen has the league's longest active point streak at eight games...He has two goals and nine assists over that stretch and ranks fourth in the league with 39 points (13-26=39)

-The Eagles .820 win percentage is the second highest in all professional hockey trailing just the NHL's San Jose Sharks who are 26-4-3 (.833 win percentage)



Central Hockey League Stories from December 22, 2008


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