CHL Central Hockey League

Shots From The Point

January 15, 2010 - Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


Key Showdowns Start Second Half

There are several big showdowns looming in the first weekend of games following the all-star break with maybe the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs (18-12-3) traveling to Colorado to take on the Eagles (21-7-3) in a pair of games taking top bill. The Eagles are in a tie for first place in the Northern Conference with 45 points, six more than the Mudbugs. The team the Eagles are tied with, the Rapid City Rush (22-9-1), start the second half on the road with their first ever meeting with the expansion Allen Americans (23-8-2) on Friday night. The Southern Conference leading Odessa Jackalopes (26-6-3) start in South Texas playing in Corpus Christi (14-15-5) on Friday night and in Rio Grande Valley (16-13-4) on Saturday night. Only 10 points separate the six teams fighting for the last three spots in the South behind Odessa (55 points) and Allen (48 points).

All-Star Recap

The South Texas All-Star Team topped the CHL All-Star Team 9-4 on Wednesday night at the Laredo Entertainment Center in Laredo, Texas. The CHL took a 2-0 lead but then watched as the South Texas squad scored seven straight goals putting the hurt on the CHL team. RGV's rookie Sean Muncy won the Sher-Wood/TPS All-Star Most Valuable Player honors for the South Texas team with two goals and two assists and Odessa goaltender Joel Martin won the honor for the CHL Team with 27 saves on 28 shots in the first period of play, he left the game with a 2-1 lead. Other top performances include Corpus Christi's Justin Quenneville (three assists) and Kyle Peto (three assists) and RGV's Grant Goeckner-Zoeller (goal and two assists). IceRay goaltender Kevin Nastiuk stopped 19 of 21 shots earning the win and Rapid City's Danny Battochio suffered the loss.

Thunder Looks to Avoid History

The Wichita Thunder are a team in the rare spot of trying to stay out of the record books when they play the Allen Americans on Friday night in Texas. The Thunder has lost 20 straight games, one shy of the CHL record set by the Memphis RiverKings in the 1999-2000 season. Wichita has not won a game since Nov. 20 when they beat Arizona, 3-2, and have won just three times this season (vs. ARZ, vs. MIS, vs. TUL). During their streak, the Thunder offense has scored four goals or more once and has one goal or fewer nine times. The team has been very busy in recent weeks acquiring Steve Makway, Ian Keserich and Kevin Cooper from Mississippi, Paul Kelly and J.R. Bria from Odessa and Jason Reese from Arizona. The new faces, along with the move into their new building (the INTRUST Bank Arena) on Jan. 23 has the team set-up for redemption in the second half of the season.

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BY THE NUMBERS

19 of 30- The number of home games the Missouri Mavericks have remaining this season. So far, the Mavs have played just 13 games in the new Independence Events Center and are 7-5-1 at home.

5- The number of goals that Arizona's Joey Sides has scored during his current four-game goal streak and his team's four-game win streak. The Sundogs will look to extend their win streak on Friday in Amarillo and Saturday in Texas.

6-1-2- The record of the Amarillo Gorillas in their last nine games as the have climbed back into the playoff race sitting just two points behind Rio Grande Valley for the fifth and final spot. 2008 CHL Rookie of the Year, David Nimmo, has been the catalyst scoring eight goals with four assists over that stretch.

12-2-3- The Mudbugs record in one-goal games with their 27 points ranking as the most in the league. Bossier-Shreveport can't get away from the close ones lately as five of their last seven games have been decided in overtime or a shootout.

9- The number of points out of a possible 10 that the Mississippi RiverKings have earned versus the two CHL expansion clubs this season. The 'Kings play a pair of games in Missouri this weekend who they are 3-1 against so far.

SLAP SHOTS

-The Allen American team leaders in the game winning goal category, Nathan O'Nabigon and Ryan Fairbarn, have made their tallies count. O'Nabigon has five game winners (tied for second in the CHL) and just eight total goal and out of Fairbarn's nine total goals, four have been game winner.

-Missouri's Jeff Christian has eight goals and six assists over his current 10-game point streak.

-Texas Brahmas goaltender Brett Jaeger is one win shy of 100 for his career. This season, the hero from last year's Finals is 7-9-1 with a 3.57 goals against average. The Brahmas play Tulsa on Friday and Arizona on Saturday.

-Amarillo goaltender Tuomas Lohtander has been on fire lately stopping 109 of the last 116 shots he has seen (.940 save percentage). He is 3-0 over that stretch with a 2.34 goals against average.

-Catch all of this weekend's action on CHL-TV with individual games costing just $5.95. Visit http://chltv.insinc.com for more information.



Central Hockey League Stories from January 15, 2010


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