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CHL Central Hockey League

Shots from the Point

December 26, 2008 - Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


1- Two teams that have built quite a rivalry over the past handful of seasons meet on Friday when the Colorado Eagles (21-4-1) host the Laredo Bucks (18-7-1) at the Budweiser Events Center. The Bucks own the all-time regular season series winning five of the nine games but the Eagles have had the best of the Bucks in the playoffs winning both series' thus far lifting them to the President's Cup. The game is the second of a four-game road trip for the Bucks that has them 0-1 after a 1-0 loss in Rio Grande Valley on Monday night. The remaining two games after Friday are both in Rocky Mountain.

2- The Arizona Sundogs (11-17-1) are hoping to get on track after the Christmas break with a pair of games at the expansion Rapid City Rush (8-10-7). The visit will be the first for the Sundogs in Rapid City and they bring a two-game losing streak. The Rush continue to earn points if not a ton of wins. Rapid City has points in 15 of their 25 games (seven overtime/shootout losses). The Sundogs are in a critical part of the schedule playing five of their next six games on the road with only a New Year's Eve showdown with New Mexico slated for the Tim's Toyota Center. Both teams are currently tied for the fifth and final playoff spot in their respective conferences.

3- The Co-Coaches for the 2009 CHL All-Star Game have been determined with Oklahoma City's Doug Sauter and Odessa's Paul Gillis taking the honors. The Blazers are leading the Northeast Division with a 18-5-3 mark and Odessa is first in the Southwest Division and the Southern Conference with a 20-6-2 record. The pair will coach the bunch that will face the host Colorado Eagles on Wednesday, January 14th at the Budweiser Events Center. The game will be broadcast LIVE on Altitude Sports and Entertainment. The voted-in starters for the game will be announced on December 30th and the reserves on December 31st.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS

84 The total points that Odessa's dynamic duo of Sebastien Thinel (19-23=42) and Dominic Leveille (12-30=42) have combined for this season tying them for second in the league in scoring (Laredo's Jeff Bes has 43 points)...Bes and teammate Darryl Smith have combined for 80 points ranking them the second highest scoring due in the CHL

18.48 The average number of penalty minutes the RGV Killer Bees earn per game...The Bees are the only CHL team not to receive a game misconduct and have had just one 10-minute misconduct this season...Their 12 major penalties are the fewest in the league and are 31 fewer than the league leader (Corpus Christi, Arizona and Oklahoma City)

5-4-1 The Rocky Mountain Rage's record versus teams from the Southern Conference...This weekend, the Rage face New Mexico on Friday and Laredo on Saturday and Sunday...Overall, the Rage are just 10-13-2

19 The difference in goals scored in the first period for the Laredo Bucks this season out-gunning their opposition 35-16...Oklahoma City is second at a +16 and Colorado is a +15...On the bottom of the list is the New Mexico Scorpions at -18

ONE-TIMERS

-Arizona's Karl Sellan leads the league with 251 penalty minutes, 17 more than the second and third ranked players combined...Greg Pankewicz (COL) is second with 122 minutes and Sellan's teammate Matt Suderman is third with 112 minutes...Sellan also leads the league with 19 major penalties

-Amarillo's Sam Ftorek and Colorado's Aaron Schneekloth are tied for the league lead among defensemen with 10 goals apiece...Schneekloth is coming off a hat trick in Tuesday's win at Amarillo

-Odessa is a league best 15-1-0 when scoring the first goal of the game...Conversely, the Amarillo Gorillas are the only CHL team under .500 when scoring first (5-7-0)

-The Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs are third in the CHL with their road power play (21.8%) but just 10th at home connecting 16.9% of the time...Overall they are fourth with a 19.6% success rate

-The Texas Brahmas are the only CHL team not to allow a shorthanded goal this season but are tied for second scoring seven shorthanded goals on their own...It has been a balanced attack with six different players scoring a SHG for the Brahmas with Grant Jacobsen standing as the only player scoring two shorthanded goals

-Chris Lipsett has a five-game goal scoring streak (5G) and is one game short of tying the longest goal streak in the CHL this season (RMR's Aaron Davis and ARZ's Adam Perry each have six-game goal scoring streaks)

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Central Hockey League Stories from December 26, 2008


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