CHL Central Hockey League

Shots From The Point

Published on January 18, 2010 under Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


Championship Pedigree on Display in Colorado This Week

Long-time CHL rivals, the Laredo Bucks and the Colorado Eagles meet twice this week playing on Wednesday and Friday at the Budweiser Events Center. The two teams have played once this season, in Laredo, with the Bucks winning 6-5 in a shootout on January 8. The history between the two clubs features two Finals match-ups with the Eagles winning in both cases (2005, 2007). The Bucks and Eagles have collectively combined for eight Finals appearances and four Ray Miron President's Cup Championships. Colorado's Riley Nelson and Steve Haddon as well as Laredo's Robin Richards each scored two goals in the first meeting in early January.

Expansion Showdown

The CHL's two expansion clubs this season meet for the first time on Thursday when the Allen Americans travel to Missouri to play the Mavericks at the Independence Events Center. The Mavs will be concluding a six-game home stand and are 3-1-1 on the stretch thus far. Missouri is currently in the fifth spot in the Northern Conference playoff race (five teams qualify for post-season) and are in the comfortable position of playing 17 of their final 28 games at home where they are 9-5-1 on the season. The Americans are cruising along sitting in second place in the Southern Conference. Although they trail the first place Odessa Jackalopes by nine points, they lead the third place Texas Brahmas by seven points. Allen is 11-6-1 on the road this season.

Rush Racing for the Conference Lead

The Rapid City Rush returns home for games on Tuesday and Wednesday versus Amarillo and in those games the Rush will have a chance to lay claim to the Northern Conference lead. Rapid City is 7-1-0 in their last eight games and are coming home after road wins versus Allen and Amarillo this past weekend. The Rush have won a league-high six straight road games and have relied heavily on rookie goaltender Danny Battochio, the recently named Oakley CHL Goaltender of the Week, who has won 11 straight decisions and has not tasted defeat since November 20. Brendan Cook (four goals) and Les Reaney (five goals) have been the catalysts on offense with nine combined goals in their last five games.

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BY THE NUMBERS

6- The number of road games the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees will play in their next eight contests. The Bees will cover a lot of geography this week playing at Corpus Christi on Tuesday, at Bossier-Shreveport on Wednesday and then at Tulsa on Sunday. RGV is 6-7-3 on the road this season and have lost three of their last four away from home. RGV has just 18 goals in their last nine games after scoring 21 in their previous four games (Dec. 11-20).

4- The number of game winning goals that Colorado's Ryan McLeod has scored this season as on two occasions he had scored back-to-back game winners in consecutive games. McLeod scored the winning goal in both of the Eagles wins over Bossier-Shreveport this past weekend.

17- The number of wins the Tulsa Oilers have this season as they are just two points out of a playoff spot in the Northern Conference. The Oilers next win will match last year's entire win total as they did not win their 18th game of the season until March 14.

7-2-1- The Corpus Christi IceRays record this season versus the Laredo Bucks. The Rays have won five straight versus the Bucks and goaltender Kevin Nastiuk has recorded back-to-back shutouts versus Laredo. Nastiuk has played 130:13 of consecutive shutout hockey versus Laredo. The teams will meet again in Laredo on January 30. Entering this season, the Bucks had won 63 of 88 all-time match-ups against the Rays.

12- The number of points that Missouri's Jeff Christian has in the month of January. The all-star has six goals and six assists in seven games and is a +5 over that stretch. He currently has the league's longest active point streak at 12 games (11 goals and eight assists during the streak) and has goals in each of his last four games.

375- The number of career wins for Bossier-Shreveport Head Coach Scott Muscutt who is currently tied with Chris Stewart (coached with Huntsville, San Antonio and Colorado) for the second most wins in CHL history. The next win for Muscutt will move him into sole possession of second place sitting behind Doug Sauter who has 544 career CHL wins. The 'Bugs play RGV on Wednesday night.

SLAP SHOTS

-The Colorado Eagles two victories over the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs this past weekend makes it nine in a row for the Eagles over the 'Bugs. The amazing number in the series is that eight of those nine wins for Colorado have come by just one goal including both games this past weekend.

-Texas Brahmas rookie goaltender Joe Palmer leads all first-year players in the current Oakley Three Star Award standings sitting with 32 points. He trails Missouri's Jeff Christian who leads the way with 41 points. Players earn five points for a first star, three points for a second star and one point for a third star.

-The Wichita Thunder play their first game in their new building, the INTRUST Bank Arena, on Saturday night when they host long-time rival Tulsa. The new building will seat just over 14,000 fans for hockey. Tulsa is 5-1-0 this season versus Wichita.

-The Odessa Jackalopes are 13-4-3 in one goal games this season and are tied for the most one-goal decisions with the Amarillo Gorillas who are 8-6-6 in the close ones.

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Central Hockey League Stories from January 18, 2010


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