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Shots from the Point

March 20, 2009 - Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


1- The chase for the Governors' Cup (the CHL's regular season championship) is still on coming into the final weekend of the regular season with the Colorado Eagles (92 points) and Mississippi RiverKings attempting (89 points) to track it down. The Eagles need one more win or a Mississippi loss to secure their third regular season championship and more importantly for both the Eagles and RiverKings, the winner gets home ice advantage throughout the post-season. Colorado ends their season with a pair of road games at Rapid City and Mississippi plays at Bossier-Shreveport on Friday and home to Tulsa on Saturday.

2- With just two games remaining for Corpus Christi, Arizona and New Mexico, the fifth and final seed in the South is still anyone's guess. The IceRays have the lead and need to win one of their final two games to advance to the post-season. The IceRays task ahead is very difficult facing Rio Grande Valley tonight and Bossier-Shreveport tomorrow, both on the road. Arizona and New Mexico play each other on Friday and Saturday in Rio Rancho with Friday's game essentially serving as an elimination game. For the Sundogs or Scorpions to make the playoffs, they need to win both remaining games and get some help from the Killer Bees and Mudbugs.

3- Heading into the final weekend, the chase for the Joe Burton Scoring Championship appears to be a snoozer. Odessa's Sebastien Thinel has seemingly run away and hidden from all the competition sitting with 95 points (37-58=95) on the season...The closest competition is Colorado's Kevin Ulanski who has 83 points (24-59=82)...One good race remaining is the one for the top scoring defenseman as Amarillo's Sam Ftorek (58 points) leads Rio Grande Valley's Nicolas Dumoulin (55 points) by two points...The competition for the top scoring rookie is between Laredo's Darryl Smith (named the CHL's Rookie of the Year yesterday) and Odessa's Jeff Pierce...Smith leads by four points

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INSIDE THE NUMBERS

42 The number of wins the Texas Brahmas have this season setting a new franchise record...they topped the old mark of 41 wins on Thursday night with a 5-0 shutout win over Laredo...David Cacciola earned the shutout, his third of the season and fifth of the year for the Brahmas

$8,000 The amount of money raised in the annual Thunder vs. Plunder wheelchair hockey game on Wednesday night for Wheelchair Sports Inc...A portion of the money (10%) was donated to former Thunder coach and player Rob Weingartner who is battling colon cancer

3 The number of shorthanded goals the Rapid City Rush scored in Wednesday's 6-3 victory in Wichita...The three SHG's tie a CHL single-game record...Jon Pelle, R.G. Flath and Luke Fritshaw scored the goals, all in the third period...The Rush now have 12 SHG's on the season (5th in the CHL)

15-0-2 Kevin Beech's record during his 17-game point streak which ended on Tuesday night in the RiverKings loss to Bossier-Shreveport...Beech is one of the finalists for the CHL's Most Valuable Player award and Most Outstanding Goaltender award and currently sits with a 35-11-3 record

500 The number of coaching wins that Laredo Head Coach Terry Ruskowski has accumulated in his career after Wednesday's overtime victory over Texas

100 The number of CHL wins Arizona Head Coach Marco Pietroniro will have after his next triumph...He currently has 99 wins as he completes his third season behind the bench for the Sundogs...Pietronirio won the Ray Miron President's Cup last season in just his second year as the Sundogs coach

7 The number of Wichita Thunder players that have scored their first professional goal this season with the Thunder...Cole Ruwe was the latest scoring in his fourth game with the Thunder on Wednesday in the team's loss to Rapid City

TIDBITS

-It was all in the family on Wednesday night at the BOK Center when Adam Smyth of Mississippi and Matt Smyth of Tulsa squared off receiving coincidental roughing calls at 10:30 of the second period of the 'Kings 6-4 win...The brothers appeared ready to throw punches with each other before being stopped by the linesmen

-Wichita's Jason Duda scored his first goal in over a month on Wednesday night in the Thunder's 6-3 loss to the Rush...Duda had gone 13 straight games without a goal scoring last on February 10th...On the season, the veteran has 18 goals and 51 points

-Colorado's Ed McGrane point streak is now to 18 games....He has nine goals and 17 assists during his streak which is the longest in the league this season.

-Oklahoma City's Ted Vandermeer returned to the line-up on Tuesday night after missing the previous seven games with an injury and he made the most of it by finding the back of the net and extending his goal scoring streak to five games...The longest goal streak in the CHL this season is six reached by several players...The goal gives Vandermeer 20 goals on the season

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Central Hockey League Stories from March 20, 2009


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