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CHL Central Hockey League

Sibling Rivalry

November 25, 2003 - Central Hockey League (CHL) News Release


The first year of any professional franchise is always special, and in the Central Hockey League this season, expansion clubs the Colorado Eagles and Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees have gotten off to tremendous starts both on and off the ice in their first season of play. Both Colorado and Rio Grande Valley are enjoying outstanding fan support, and rank first and second respectively in attendance among all North American "AA" minor professional expansion hockey clubs.

In Colorado, the Eagles have soared to a record of 12-4-1 through 17 games, and have recorded seven wins in eight home games at the Budweiser Events Center, all played in front of capacity crowds of 5,211. Eagles players occupy three spots atop the CHL scoring race with Greg Pankewicz (1st - 31 points), Ryan Tobler (3rd - 27 points) and Riley Nelson (T7th - 22 points), and the club also features the CHL's wins (11) and minutes played (965:28) leader in goaltender Ryan Bach.

The Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees have also been embraced by local hockey fans, welcoming an average of 4,935 (three sellouts) to the Dodge Arena (5,500 capacity) through seven home games. With a record of 8-5-2, the Killer Bees sit second in the Southeast Division, and are paced by a balanced offensive attack, strong defensive play and goaltender Jeff Levy, who has posted a record of 7-4-1 coupled with a goals against average of 2.58.

Both teams had high standards to meet this season after viewing the success of last season's CHL expansion club in Laredo. The Bucks finished the regular season with a record of 41-17-6, including the best home mark (26-4-2) in the CHL, while drawing averages of 6,683 (regular season) and 7,400 (playoffs) to the Laredo Entertainment Center en route to being honored as the Central Hockey League's Franchise of the Year for the 2002-2003 season.

Pointstreak Performance of the Week

Corpus Christi left winger Cosmo Dupaul returned to the lineup November 20th following off-season knee surgery, and the former All-Star showed little rust in leading the Rayz to a 4-3 shootout win over visiting Austin. Trailing 3-1 after two periods, Dupaul assisted on Corpus Christi's second goal, then one timed the game tying marker later in the period. He also scored in the 13-round shootout, eventually decided by teammate Trent Brandvold's first goal of the season.

CHL Team New and Notes – Through 11/24/03

Amarillo Gorillas
Looking to tie CHL records for consecutive wins (12) and consecutive road wins (10) 11/26 in Lubbock.

Austin Ice Bats
Former Mudbug Jonathan Forest made 36 saves in 3-2 overtime win at Bossier-Shreveport 11/21.

Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs
Defenseman Jim Sprott played in his 800th professional game 11/22 vs Memphis.

Colorado Eagles
Goaltender Ryan Bach leads the CHL in both minutes played (965:28) and wins (11).

Corpus Christi Rayz
C Jay Woodcroft has been outstanding on the road, with four goals and four assists in five games.

Fort Worth Brahmas
- 30 goal different worst in CHL. Odessa is 16th (-19), Lubbock is 15th (-16).

Indianapolis Ice
Forward Joe Guenther scored four goals in his first four games back from Injured Reserve list.

Laredo Bucks
+ 35 goal different leads the CHL. Amarillo is second (+21), Colorado third (+20)

Lubbock Cotton Kings
Winless and outscored 33-18 by opposition in last six games.

Memphis RiverKings
Suffered back to back home loss 11/20 & 11/21, first consecutive home losses since January of 2002.

New Mexico Scorpions
RW Walker McDonald recorded a hat trick against his former team (Lubbock) on 11/21.

Odessa Jackalopes
Outscored 26-10 in last five games, all Jackalopes losses.

Oklahoma City Blazers
Blazers lead the CHL with an average of 36.82 shots per game, but are 11th is scoring (2.88 a game)

Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees
Left winger Matic Kralj has three goals and two assists in his last four games.

San Angelo Saints
Center Ryan Finnerty leads Saints with nine goals, four power play goals and 63 penalty minutes.

Tulsa Oilers
Oilers can extend winning streak to a season high four games with win at New Mexico 11/26.

Wichita Thunder
1-6-3 in their last ten games, outscored 47-30 by opposition.

CHL Attendance Report

TEAM TOTAL # AVG
Oklahoma City 60,818 8 7,602
Laredo 52,521 9 5,835
Colorado 41,688 8 5,211
Rio Grande Valley 34,548 7 4,935
Lubbock 38,821 8 4,852
New Mexico 25,866 6 4,311
Bossier-Shreveport 33,609 8 4,201
Austin 33,042 8 4,130
Tulsa 24,452 6 4,075
Indianapolis 36,445 9 4,049
Wichita 37,859 10 3,785
Memphis 30,947 9 3,438
Amarillo 20,231 6 3,371
Odessa 32,382 10 3,238
Fort Worth 18,867 6 3,144
Corpus Christi 33,365 11 3,033
San Angelo 21,007 7 3,001
CHL TOTALS: 576,468 136 4,238

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Central Hockey League Stories from November 25, 2003


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