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Shots from the Point

March 9, 2009 - Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


1- No team in the CHL made more news than the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees last week who, despite being penalized two points in the standings for using an ineligible player, clinched their first playoff spot since the 2006-07 season. The Bees have pulled to within four points of the Laredo Bucks for third place in the Southern Conference and play the Bucks on Tuesday morning in the Bees annual Kid's Day Game (it's the final regular season meeting between the two teams). RGV is coming off a three-game road sweep of the Arizona Sundogs last week fueled by Jesse Bennefield whose hat trick on March 6th in Arizona made him the Bees single-season record holder with 31 goals and 64 points. RGV has been one of the better teams in the CHL during the second half of the season posting a 17-8-3 record since January 1st.

2- The Oklahoma City Blazers were one of the top teams through the start of the 2008-09 season posting a 9-0-2 record through their first 11 games of the season. They are 5-1-1 in their last seven games with six remaining in the regular season. The Blazers have won three straight games and goaltender Doug Groenestege has allowed just five goals over those three games including a shootout win versus New Mexico on Saturday. For the second time this season, Groenestege was named the winner of the Oakley CHL Goaltender of the Week thanks to his 3-0 record and .943 save percentage. He leads the league with his 2.08 goals against average and sports an outstanding 21-5-4 record. The Blazers play at Tulsa on Tuesday night.

3- Voting for the CHL's top four awards is underway amongst select media members, CHL Head Coaches and CHL Communication's Departments. The five finalists for each of the four awards were announced on Monday with the nominees for CHL's Most Valuable Player being Colorado's Riley Nelson, Odessa's Sebastien Thinel, Mississippi's Kevin Beech, Corpus Christi's Chris Richards and Texas' Scott Sheppard. The other three main awards are the Scott Brower Memorial Trophy (Most Outstanding Goaltender award), the Most Outstanding Defenseman award and the CHL Rookie of the Year award.

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INSIDE THE NUMBERS

5 The number of goals that Corpus Christi's Jereme Tendler (a trade deadline acquisition from Tulsa) has scored in his last four games...Twice he has potted the game winner over his hot stretch and is a +3 over the same period

500 The number of points that Bossier-Shreveport's Chris Brassard has in his CHL career after his third period goal on Saturday night versus Mississippi...Brassard becomes just the 20th player in CHL history to reach the 500 point plateau...He has 191 goals and 309 assists in 512 career CHL games... He is just one point away from becoming the third Mudbugs player to record 400 points with that franchise

11 The length of the Mississippi RiverKings win streak before the Odessa Jackalopes ended it on Sunday with a 3-2 victory...The Jacks had an 11-game win streak earlier in the season and defended that crown with two second period goals on Sunday afternoon keeping their streak tied with the 'Kings streak

7-2-0 The RGV Killer Bees record in their last nine games away from home...The Bees play a pair of games at Corpus Christi and a road game at Bossier-Shreveport this weekend in a three-games-in-three-nights scenario

15 of 21 The number of power play goals that Colorado's Ryan Tobler has scored inside the Budweiser Events Center...His 21 power play goals lead the league and he is tied for second in the CHL with 34 goals on the season, just one behind Odessa's Sebastien Thinel

TIDBITS

-Colorado's Ed McGrane has points in each of his last 14 games totaling 18 points over that stretch (5-13=18 over the streak)...He is currently tied for the CHL lead with 51 assists and with one more game he can reach the fifth longest point streak in Eagles franchise history

-Corpus Christi's Chris Richards is the only IceRay to play in every Corpus Christi game this season...Richards is having another stellar season tied for eighth in the league with 69 points (26-43=69)

-The Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs and the Texas Brahmas meet for the final time in the regular season on Tuesday night in Texas...The Brahmas have win six of the previous nine meetings this season and are riding a league-long 16-game home winning streak...Texas has not lost at home since December 26th against RGV...The home streak is the longest since the Mudbugs won 18 straight games at the CenturyTel Center a year ago...The CHL record for consecutive home wins is 21 set by Laredo during the 2003-04 season...The most that Texas can get to is 19 this season with three home games remaining

-Tulsa's Jeff Christian had a goal and six assists last week propelling the former league MVP to second in the scoring race with 75 points (27-48=75)...The league leader is Odessa's Sebastien Thinel who has 86 points (35-51=86)

-Mississippi's Derek Landmesser is just three games shy of playing in 800 professional games...This season, the veteran d-man has eight goals and 41 assists and has turned it on lately posting 22 (3-19=22) points in February and March

-Laredo brought back James Hiebert who has 245 points in 238 career games with the Bucks

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Central Hockey League Stories from March 9, 2009


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