Vaskivuo Obtained by IceMen
June 7, 2011 - Central Hockey League (CHL)
Evansville IceMen News Release
EVANSVILLE, IN.--- As we move into the heart of the pro hockey off-season summer months aiming toward the their exciting move into the all-new state-of-the-art Downtown Evansville Arena, the Evansville IceMen of the Central Hockey league continue their efforts and preparations both on and off the ice for the 2011-12 CHL season.
On this date, the IceMen General Manager / Head Coach Rich Kromm has announced the acquisition of center MIKE VASKIVUO from the Dayton Gems to complete the trade deadline deal of 2/7/11 in which Evansville sent center Damian Surma to the Gems in exchange for left wing Erik Boisvert and a player to be named at the conclusion of the 2010-11 season. Today's procurement of Vaskivuo satisfies the final part of this player transaction.
VASKIVUO (VASS-kih-voo), 25, is approaching his third pro season overall, having been a major catalyst for the Dayton club in topping the Gems in team scoring in each of his initial two campaigns. The swift-skating 6-1, 185lb point-percolating pivot produced a team-best 60-points in 65-games in the 2010-11 season on team-highs of 26-goals, 34-assists totaling 60-points along with 28-PIM and +4 rating. Attaining status as one of the pre-eminent penalty-killing artisans of the CHL, the left-hand shooting forward cannonaded 5-SHG to tie him for second most in the league. Vaskivuo's offensive output also included 5-PPG, 6-PPA and 3-GWG. In Dayton's brief appearance in the 2011 post-season playoffs, he, once again, paced his team in point-productivity with 3(0-5-5) with 4 of those assists authored as a power play playmaker.
The IceMen's latest acquisition was especially lethal against his new team in 2010-11. In 15-games against the Evansville aggregation nation, he collected 18-points on a series-high 9-goals, 9-assists with 1-SHG and 1-OT/GWG with a healthy +7 rating which was second best against the IceMen last season. Vaskivuo became public enemy #1 against the hometown team as he fired three multi-goal performances including two 2-goals games on 12/31/10 and 1/29/11 as well as the three-goal "hat trick" on 12/28/11 when he connected on the GWG/OT strike at 0:41 of the extra session to spearhead a Dayton comeback victory over Evansville. Twice last season, he was named the #1 Star in contests against the IceMen.
In his rookie season of 2009-10, the native of Helsinki, Finland also led the Gems in scoring while finish-ing fourth overall in IHL league-wide rookie point production, engineering 49-points in 75-games on 25-goals, 24-assists with 34-PIM, 3-PPG, 7-FG and league rookie-foremost 6-GWG.
Overall, Vaskivuo saw his 25-goals rank rookie third best and his 197-SOG listing him fifth among the 2009-10 IHL freshmen class.
Previous to launching his career in the hockey professional ranks, he saw service at the Division I collegiate level, performing for Merrimack College of North Andover, MA in the prestigious Hockey East Conference. Vaskivuo has also seen action in his native country of Finland.
His pro career numbers through two seasons at Dayton are: 140-games; 51-goals; 58-assists; 119-points; 62-PIM; 9-GWG; 8-PPG; 6-SHG; 11-PPA and 399-SOG.
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Central Hockey League Stories from June 7, 2011
- Bucks Make Front Office Changes - Laredo Bucks
- Vaskivuo Obtained by IceMen - Evansville IceMen
- Dayton Gems and Wright State Students Will Help with Tornado Relief in the Midwest - Dayton Gems
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