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CHL Central Hockey League

Shots from the Point

March 23, 2009 - Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


1- The quest for the Ray Miron President's Cup begins tonight with both Opening Round series' getting started tonight with games in Broomfield, Colorado and Hidalgo, Texas. In Game One in the North, the Rocky Mountain Rage hosts the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs. Game's Two and Three will be back in Louisiana. In the South, the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees host the Corpus Christi IceRays in Game One of their series. Game Two will be Wednesday in Corpus Christi and Game Three on Thursday back in RGV. The two other series' that are set begin on Wednesday in Mississippi with the RiverKings hosting the Oklahoma City Blazers and on Saturday when the Odessa Jackalopes host the Laredo Bucks.

2- Odessa's Sebastien Thinel finishes the regular season as the Joe Burton Scoring Championship and tied for the league lead in goals. Earlier on Monday, the St. Jerome, Quebec native was named the CHL's Most Valuable Player. Thinel ended the 2008-09 campaign with 97 points (38-59=97). Finishing second in points was Colorado's Greg Pankewicz who had 85 points (38-47=85). Tying Thinel for the league's goal scoring crown was Pankewicz and his teammate Ryan Tobler.

3- The chase for the Governors' Cup came down to the final weekend with the Colorado Eagles and the Mississippi RiverKings having a chance to capture it but in the end it was the Eagles earning their third Governors' Cup in the team's six year history...Colorado finished the season with 94 points (45-15-4) edging out the RiverKings who finished with 91 points (44-17-3)...Colorado earns the number one seed in the playoffs and will have home-ice advantage throughout the playoffs

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INSIDE THE NUMBERS

70 The number points that Laredo's Darryl Smith scored this season finishing as the top scoring rookie in the league...Last week, he was named the CHL's Rookie of the Year...He finished the season with 36 goals and 34 assists

1000 After Friday's game versus Colorado, the number of pro games that Rapid City's Mark DeSantis has played in his professional career...The veteran d-man played in all 64 games for the Rush during their inaugural season scoring three goals with 17 assists

8 The number of points that Amarillo defenseman Sam Ftorek totaled in the team's final week giving him the scoring championship among blue liners...Ftorek finished with 20 goals and 45 assists while playing in all 64 games

+39 The league-leading plus/minus total of Colorado defenseman Aaron Schneekloth who last week was named the CHL's Most Outstanding Defenseman...He finished third in the league among defenseman with 55 points (18-37=55)

401 The league-leading penalty minute total of Arizona's Karl Sellan who finished the season with more than 100 more minutes than any other player...He also had a career year by scoring 29 goals and 39 points

6,508 The Oklahoma City Blazers league-leading attendance average...the Blazers drew more than 200,000 fans finishing ahead of the Wichita Thunder who averaged 5,457 fans during the regular season

5 for 12 The Colorado Eagles power play totals from their final weekend in Rapid City pushing them to a league-leading 23.0% PP average...The Eagles edged out the Odessa Jackalopes who finished at 22.3% but lead the league with 110 PP goals

TIDBITS

-The Texas Brahmas will open their first series versus the winner of the Corpus Christi/Rio Grande Valley series on Saturday, March 28th...The Brahmas led the league this year with a record of 30-3-3 record when scoring the first goal of the game

-The Rocky Mountain Rage are 3-6-2 versus the teams from the Northeast Division including 0-1-1 versus the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs, their Opening Round opponent in the playoffs

-The Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees have the longest active win streak in the CHL at four games...They open their Opening Round series on Monday night at home versus Corpus Christi

-The Oklahoma City Blazers finished the season as the top defensive team allowing a league-low 2.47 goals per game and a league-low 26.58 shots per game

-Colorado's Ed McGrane finished the regular season with a 20-game point streak totaling 10 goals and 18 assists over his streak...McGrane finished the regular season with 80 points (24-56=80)

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Central Hockey League Stories from March 23, 2009


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