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SPHL Challenge Round Selection Show to be Broadcast Live

February 23, 2018 - SPHL (SPHL) News Release


HUNTERSVILLE, NC - The Southern Professional Hockey League announced on Friday that the 2018 Challenge Round Selection Show will be broadcast from the Von Braun Center in Huntsville, AL on Sunday, April 8, beginning at 7:30 pm Eastern/6:30 pm Central. The show will feature analysis and discussion of the first round pairings as teams select their opponents for the inaugural Challenge Round live during the broadcast.

Veteran sportscaster and voice of the Birmingham Bulls Eli Gold will anchor the special SPHL telecast. Gold, has over fifteen years of hockey broadcasting experience, including time in the National Hockey League as the television "voice" of the St. Louis Blues and the radio "voice" of the Nashville Predators. Away from the rink, Eli is best known as the 30- year "voice" of the University of Alabama Crimson Tide, a position he still holds to this day. Stock car racing fans will re- member Eli as a former radio "voice" for NASCAR, a position he held for 41 years. Over the years, Eli has broadcast virtually every sport imaginable including NFL football, basketball, baseball, softball and professional tennis, while work- ing for, among other networks, CBS, NBC, ESPN and the SEC Network.

Long-time NHL player, coach, broadcaster, and three-time Stanley Cup champion, Terry Crisp, will be joining Gold as co- host of the SPHL Challenge Round selection telecast. A 10-year NHL player and an 11-year NHL coach, "Crispy" was a rugged defenseman on two Stanley Cup winning Philadelphia Flyers teams in the 1970s, and later, coached the Calgary Flames to the 1989 Stanley Cup title. One of the most popular personalities in the world of hockey, Crisp continues as a member of the Nashville Predators broadcast crew, a position he has held since the team's inception in the 1998-99 sea- son.

In addition to the live broadcast from Huntsville, each of the other nine SPHL teams will be holding a local Challenge Round/Fan Appreciation Party that night:

Birmingham - Pelham Civic Center

Mississippi - Old Style Bar-B-Que, Olive Branch, MS

Evansville - Ford Center

Pensacola - Buffalo Wild Wings

Fayetteville - The Wing Company

Peoria - Lexus Club, Peoria Civic Center

Knoxville - Knoxville Civic Center Ballroom

Roanoke - Berglund Center

Macon - Wild Wing Cafe

At each location, fans will be able to bid on a limited-edition SPHL Challenge Round jersey, with proceeds going to char- ity. Only one jersey will be up for auction in each city. Other exclusive Challenge Round merchandise will be given away at each party to fans in attendance.

Additional details on how to watch the Challenge Round Selection Show online will be announced in the near future.

For the Challenge Round, the top three teams making the playoffs will have the opportunity to select their first round op- ponent from the teams seeded 5-8. The #1 seed will select their Challenge Round opponent first. The #2 seed will then select their opponent from the remaining three teams, after which the #3 seed will select from the remaining two teams.

The #4 seed will play the team that was not previously selected. All series are best-of-three.

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