CHL Central Hockey League

Shots From The Point

November 13, 2009 - Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


Mavericks Unveil the Independence Events Center

The Missouri Mavericks (2-6-1) are expecting sellout crowds for both of their games this weekend when they host the Wichita Thunder (2-7-0) in the first ever home games for the Mavericks. The team will open the brand new Independence Events Center after starting the year with a nine-game road trip. The Mavs are looking for the home ice advantage to turn things around for them as they have just two wins in their first nine games. Those two wins however did come against the Thunder back on October 30th and 31st.

Going for Six

The Odessa Jackalopes (8-1-1) have been very impressive this season, especially their offense averaging close to five goals per game leading the league with 49 goals scored. The Jacks are at home for a pair of games this weekend facing Rio Grande Valley (5-3-1) on Friday and Amarillo (6-5-0) on Saturday. Odessa has won five straight games, all on the road. Forward Kenny Bernard has quite an impressive goal scoring streak finding the back of the net in each of the Jacks last seven games.

Moving Into the Top Five

Corpus Christi center Chris Richards will climb further up the CHL record books on Friday when the IceRays play in Arizona in the first of back-to-back games. The game will be the 586th in the CHL for Richards in his career moving him past Donnie Margettie for fifth place on the league's all-time games played list. Richards will then be just a handful of games from passing Hardy Sauter for fourth place (590 games played) on the list trailing just Travis Clayton, Jason Duda and Joe Burton. Burton currently sits at 708 games played meaning Richards would still be a couple seasons from reaching the top three.

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BY THE NUMBERS

5-0- The record of Odessa goaltender Juha Toivonen who leads the league with a 1.80 GAA and a.930 save percentage. Toivonen has allowed just one goal in two home games this season. The Jacks other goaltender, Joel Martin, is 3-1-1 with a 2.49 GAA (third in the league).

34.09- The combined average of penalty minutes between the Texas Brahmas and the Amarillo Gorillas. The two teams ranks third (Texas-17.73/game) and first (Amarillo-16.36/game) in average PIM's per game and they will square off on Friday in Texas. The teams played last Friday in Amarillo with the Gorillas winning 4-3. There were 30 combined minutes in that contest.

16- The number of consecutive successful penalty kills for the Tulsa Oilers on home ice this season. The Oilers rank 9th in the CHL overall with an 82.6 success rate on the PK (13th on the road at 73.3%). Tulsa has scored three shorthanded goals on the season.

13- The goal differential in the third period for the Wichita Thunder this season. The Thunder have been outscored 15-2 in the final period this year but are just a -4 in the first and second periods combined.

4-0-1- The record of the RGV Killer Bees in one-goal games this season. The Bees have points in five straight games as they had their four game win streak snapped last night with a SO loss in Laredo.

10/23/09- The game date of the last time the Wichita Thunder scored a power play goal. Wichita is 0 for their last 31 on the PP and currently rank 12th in the CHL with a 9.1% success rate.

SLAP SHOTS

-Corpus Christi's veteran defenseman Jeff Alcombrack has been racking up the points lately with five helpers in his last three games while carrying a +3 over that stretch as well.

-The Amarillo Gorillas are 6-0 this season when scoring first. Thus far it has been a true indicator of wins/losses for the team who has never lost when scoring first out of the gate and conversely has never won when their opponent have scored first. The league's leading goal scorer, Joe Guenther, has scored two of the team's six first goals and has a league-leading 11 goals on the season.

-Bossier-Shreveport head coach Scott Muscutt is just two games away from tying Chris Stewart for the third spot on the league's all-time games coached list. Muscutt currently has 588 games coached, the most of any active CHL coach. Stewart finished his illustrious career with 590 games. The 'Bugs are at Mississippi on Friday and home to Rapid City on Saturday.

-Be sure to check out the new CHL-TV offering fans an interactive approach to watching their favorite CHL teams. Monthly passes are available to catch all the action in the CHL. Watch CHL-TV at http://chltv.insinc.com.



Central Hockey League Stories from November 13, 2009


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