Friday, November 20, 2009

CENTRAL HOCKEY LEAGUE HEADLINES

Two of the Top Teams in the South Battle Tonight
The Odessa Jackalopes (11-2-1) and the Laredo Bucks (7-2-2) meet tonight for the first time since the Jacks dismissed the Bucks from the playoffs last season.  The two teams come into action tonight at the Laredo Entertainment Center as the two of the hottest teams in the CHL with Odessa just having an eight-game win streak snapped last night to Texas, 7-3, and Laredo wining each of their last four games.  Even with their strong recent play and being in third place in the South, the Bucks are seven points behind the Jacks in danger of falling further behind with a potential four-point swing tonight.  The ones to watch for Laredo are defenseman Mike Looby (2-2=4 in last five games) and veteran Jeff Bes (1-5=6 in last five games) and for Odessa its Dominic Leveille who has three goals and five assists in his last four games and is tied for the league lead with 25 points (6-19=25).
 
1K Man
Mississippi veteran forward Louis Dumont will reach a historic milestone tonight when the RiverKings play the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs at the DeSoto Civic Center.  The Calgary native will play in his 1000th professional game.  In his 16th season, Dumont is one of the top scorers in all of minor-pro hockey scoring 410 goals and 691 assists in his career.  In his 204 games with the ‘Kings, Dumont has totaled 64 goals and 119 assists.

Big Home-and-Homes in Each Conference
The schedule has several big home-and-home match-ups this weekend with Corpus Christi and Allen, Colorado and Rapid City and Wichita and Tulsa all doing battle.  The IceRays have gotten hot lately going 3-1 in their last four games and splitting two games with the Americans early in November.  Allen is in second place in the conference with 17 points.  Colorado has lost back-to-back games for the first time this season including Tuesday in Rapid City.  Each team has won one game on home ice versus the other this season.  When the Oilers and Thunder meet this weekend it will be the 196th and 197th time the two longtime rivals have squared off against each other.  Tulsa won earlier this week by a 4-3 score versus the Thunder.  The Oilers are on a four-game win streak and in first place in the Northern Conference and the Wichita Thunder have gone 0-6-1 in their last seven.

________________________________________

BY THE NUMBERS

12- The number of consecutive games the Odessa Jackalopes have scored a power play goal.  The league’s leading PP has scored 35 times with the man advantage scoring more than 50% of the team’s high-powered offense.  Kenny Bernard and defenseman Alex Dunn are tied for the league lead with six PP goals.  In all, 11 different Jacks have scored on the power play. 

16- The number of points that the Tulsa Oilers have accumulated through their first 11 games posting an 8-3-0 record.  The Oiler have won four straight games and are all alone in first place in the Northern Conference heading into their game tonight at Missouri.  Tulsa has not won five straight games since they won six straight between Nov. 24th and Dec. 9th in 2006.

9- The length of the point streaks for three players in the CHL currently.  Tulsa’s T.J. Caig (21 points) and Rob Hisey (22 points) each have tallied points in their last nine games and RGV’s Daymen Rycroft has at least a point in nine straight (16 points over that stretch).  The nine-game streaks are tied for the longest in the CHL this season.  Caig is also riding a goal scoring streak with nine goals in his last six games.

24-13- The goal differential for the Amarillo Gorillas during their current six-game slide.  The Gorillas are 0-5-1 in their last six games and are 6-7-1 after starting the season 4-0-0.

TRANSACTION WATCH

-The Corpus Christi IceRays released goaltender Kris Tebbs on Thursday clearing up the cluttered goaltending situation going with Kevin Nastiuk and Kevin Desfosses.  Tebbs was 2-2-2 with a 3.69 goals against average.  Last year he posted 24 wins and a .908 save percentage.

-Allen signed free agent defenseman and former CHL All-Star Kurtis Dulle this week.  Dulle has played with RGV and Colorado this season posting two goals and one assist in six combined games with the two teams.  Entering this season, he had put up 66 points (12-54=66) and is a +33 over his last two seasons.  He was a +2 in Allen’s 4-2 win over Arizona last night.  Allen also signed Mike Willemsen (formerly with Texas) who netted a hat trick in his first game with the Americans last night.  It was his first three professional goals.

-Rio Grande Valley traded for versatile defenseman Jason Seerey on Wednesday.  The former Allen American comes over to the Bees with a goal and four assists in 11 games with the Americans.  He had 17 points (4-13=17) and was a +14 with Oklahoma City last season.

ON THIS DATE IN CHL HISTORY (November 20th, 2003)
Current Mudbugs goaltender Ken Carroll combined with teammate David Haun to shutout the Memphis RiverKings, 3-0, in the DeSoto Civic Center.  Carroll made 17 saves in the game that saw the goals scored by Colin Kendall, Jason Basile and Chad Spurr.  The veteran goaltender is the CHL’s all-time leader with 29 career shutouts.  Exactly six years later, the Mudbugs and RiverKings will once again do battle in the DeSoto Civic Center when they meet tonight.