CHL Central Hockey League

Shots From The Point

Published on December 11, 2009 under Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


Conference Leaders Square-Off on Saturday

The top teams in each conference will meet on Saturday night when the Southern Conference leading Odessa Jackalopes (16-4-2) take on the Northern Conference leading Colorado Eagles (14-4-1). This is the first of four meetings this season between the two teams and it should be quite an offensive show between the two top offensive teams in the league and two of the top three power plays. Colorado's offense is the best in the league averaging 4.47 goals/game and the Jacks average 4.27 goals/game. The league's three top scorers will be in this game with Riley Nelson (36 points) and Kevin Ulanski (34 points) of Colorado and Dominic Leveille (32 points) of Odessa. All of this weekend's action can be seen LIVE on CHL-TV (visit http://chltv.insinc.com for ordering information).

Coaching Milestones

Tonight in Bossier-Shreveport, Mudbugs Head Coach Scott Muscutt will be coaching in his 600th CHL game becoming just the third coach (Doug Sauter and Bill McDonald) to reach that number of games. Coaching in his 10th season, his record is 367-175-57 with the Mudbugs leading his team to five division titles, two regular season championships and the 2001 President's Cup (WPHL). He is just nine wins from passing Chris Stewart (375 career CHL wins) for second on the CHL's all-time wins list. Sauter leads the way with 544 wins. In other coaching milestone news, Rapid City's Joe Ferras became the ninth coach in CHL history to coach in 400 CHL games on Tuesday in Missouri (a 9-2 Rush win). Corpus Christi's Head Coach Brent Hughes has coached in 390 CHL games and is just 10 away from becoming the 10th coach to reach 400 games.

Old Rivals Play in a Home-and-Home Series

The Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs (10-10-0) and the Mississippi RiverKings (11-9-2) face each other on Friday and Saturday nights in a home-and-home series constituting the 98th and 99th all-time meetings between the two teams. The 'Bugs are 51-32-14 all-time versus the 'Kings including 3-1 this season. Two of the four games have been decided by one-goal. Ryan Held (MIS) and Jeff Kyrzakos (BOS) each have two goals thus far in the season series. Mississippi has outshot the Mudbugs 151-112 in the four games so far. Mississippi is 4-1-2 in their last seven games and Bossier-Shreveport is coming off a 4-3 win at Amarillo on Monday.

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BY THE NUMBERS

119- The number of penalty minutes that Colorado's Alex Penner has this season leading all players. A big chunk of those minutes (50) have come over his last five games. Teammate Fraser Filipic is fifth in the league with 83 minutes despite playing in 10 fewer games than Penner. As a team, the Eagles average 25 PIM's/game ranking third in the league.

4- The current number of consecutive losses for the Tulsa Oilers who at one point led the Northern Conference. The Oilers have allowed five or more goals in each of their last three games and have a tough weekend ahead with a game in Allen on Friday and home games versus Texas on Saturday and Arizona on Sunday. The meeting with the Sundogs will be the first ever game between the two franchises. The Oilers leading scorer, Rob Hisey, has missed each of the team's last three games.

299- The number of franchise wins for the Laredo Bucks who host the Missouri Mavericks on Friday night. The Bucks are 299-125-40 in their team's history.

0-4-1- The Killer Bees record in their last five games. The offense is struggling scoring just 10 goals in those five games with the league's leading goal scorer, Jesse Bennefield, scoring half of them.

SLAP SHOTS

-Amarillo (8-11-4) will host Colorado (14-4-1) on Friday night looking for their first win versus the Eagles after three previous tries this season. The Eagles have outscored the Gorillas 20-10 in the three victories highlighted by a 10-4 win on Nov. 25. Kevin Ulanski has four goals and four assists in the three games versus Amarillo.

-The Laredo Bucks (11-4-4) will be making their first ever visit to the Allen Event Center on Saturday night when they play the Allen Americans (15-5-1). The match-up features two of the top teams in the Southern Conference and is a re-match of a classic showdown on October 24th, a 5-4 Americans overtime win in Laredo.

-The Wichita Thunder will look to put an end to their current eight-game losing streak (0-6-2) in a very difficult place, Rapid City. The Rush will host the Thunder both Friday and Saturday and boast a 9-3-0 home record this season. The eight-game slide is one short of the longest losing streak in the league this season, Amarillo lost nine straight. Conversely, Rapid City has won seven straight games.

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Central Hockey League Stories from December 11, 2009


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