Missouri Mavericks (39-21-6) vs. Evansville Icemen (40-22-4)


Series Schedule (best-of-7)
Game 1 – Wed., Mar. 28 – Evansville at Missouri, 7:05 PM
Game 2 – Fri., Mar. 30 – Missouri at Evansville, 7:15 PM
Game 3 – Sat., Mar. 31 – Missouri at Evansville, 7:15 PM
Game 4 – Mon., Apr.2 – Evansville at Missouri, 7:05 PM
*Game 5 – Wed., Apr. 4 – Missouri at Evansville, 7:15 PM
*Game 6 –  Tue., Apr. 10 – Evansville at Missouri, 7:35 PM
*Game 7 – Wed., Apr. 11 – Missouri at Evansville, 7:15 PM

*If necessary
**All times local**

Season Series
Missouri (4-1-1); Evansville (2-2-2)

11/18/11 - Missouri 1 at Evansville 2 OT 
11/19/11 - Evansville 6 at Missouri 3    
12/18/11 - Missouri 4 at Evansville 3 OT 
01/24/12 - Evansville 2 at Missouri 3 SO 
03/06/12 - Evansville 2 at Missouri 4    
03/21/12 - Missouri 5 at Evansville 2

Notes: Missouri’s trio of forwards John-Scott Dickson, Ed McGrane and Sebastien Thinel all have nine points in the season series with Dickson leading the way with five goals against the IceMen.  Charlie Effinger is 3-0 with a 1.95 GAA.  Todd Robinson paces the IceMen against the Mavs with five points (1-4=5).  Special teams have been lopsided in the series with Missouri going 6 for 23 (26%) while stopping all but one of the 17 shorthanded chances for Evansville.

Month-by-Month Record
 
Evansville Icemen
October (1-0-1)
November (8-3-0)
December (6-6-1)
January (10-1-2)
February (11-4-0)
March (4-8-0)

Missouri Mavericks
October (5-0-0)
November (3-5-2)
December (6-7-1)
January (8-3-1)
February (8-4-1)
March (9-2-1)

Regular Season Recap
The Evansville Icemen finished the season second in the Turner Conference with 84 points and barely clinched home ice advantage for the first round of the playoffs. The race for the final four seeds was close and it came down to the final weekend. Luckily for the Icemen they had a solid January and February in which they hit a league best 10-game win streak with rookie goaltender Bryan Gillis leading the way with a perfect 10-0 month of January. However, shortly after the win streak they hit a tough patch in the schedule and lost five straight games. Since then they closed out the season with a 4-8-0 record in March and should be thankful to have home ice advantage. Throughout the season the Evansville drew in crowds that averaged 4,882 fans per game and were fourth in league attendance.

Missouri finished the season in third place in the Turner with 84 points as well; however, they were one regulation win shy of Evansville so the Icemen earned the second seed. The Mavericks started the season with a six-game win streak in which they carried this confidence with them through the entire season ending on a four-game win streak. The Mavericks closed out the last three months of the season and went positive in each one to help them make it into the final push for the playoffs. Missouri sat in third in the league average attendance and saw around 5,531 fans per game.

Players to Watch
- Evansville’s Todd Robinson is arguably one of the best forwards in the league and was highly acknowledged for his efforts. Although falling short to Brandon Marino for league MVP, Robinson won the Joe Burton scoring award for his league-leading 92 points (23g, 69a) as well as three different categories in the Best of the Best:  “Best Overall Player”, “Best Playmaker”, and “Best on the Powerplay”. His highest accomplishment so far this season was his league-best 17 game point streak in which he recorded 28 points (11g, 17a).
- Missouri’s Sebastian Thinel led his team this year with 82 points (23g, 59a) and finished in a tie for third in the league leaders. Thinel was the 2010-11 Joe Burton Scoring Award Winner as well as in 2008-09; that same year he won the 2008-09 Most Valuable Player, all those with Odessa.
- Evansville’s goaltender Bryan Gillis has been solid this year in net going 26-8-1; he recorded a 2.51 G.A.A. and finished fourth with his .920 SV%.  His best play came in January in which he won 10 games in a row with back-to-back shutouts giving his team the push they needed to make the playoffs.
- Missouri’s’ net minder, Charlie Effinger, has been arguably one of the most important players on the Mavericks starting in a league-high 51 games and going 32-15-4 with a 2.70 G.A.A. Effinger leads the league with 32 wins and is second with his .923 SV%.

Special Teams
- Evansville is in 3rd in the league with their 19.6 powerplay percentage, 2nd with their 85.9 penalty kill percentage 
- Missouri is 1st in the league with their 21.0 powerplay percentage, 9th with their 82.1 penalty kill percentage
- Missouri is second in the league with 53 powerplay goals with Evansville right on their tail with 52

Key Notes
- Evansville’s Brian Bicek, fifth in the league with 33 goals, was left off the playoff roster due to injury and will be a tough forward to replace
- The Icemen’s Matt Gens leads all defenseman with 47 points (12g, 35a)
- Evansville’s Mario Boillard and Steve Makway are in the top 5 in the league with their penalty minutes
- Evansville led the league with 1390 Penalty Minutes
- Missouri’s Ed McGrane will be entering the playoffs on a 13-game point streak in which he has recorded 20 points
- Missouri’s rookie Andrew Courtney has the most points (59 pts) out of any rookie that will be playing in the 2011-12 Playoffs
-Evansville is 27-6-3 when scoring first, Missouri is 17-10-1 when lighting the lamp first in a game
-The IceMen outscored opponents by 22 goals in the first period this season but were a -4 in the second period and a -1 in the third period