Friday, October 24th, 2008

CENTRAL HOCKEY LEAGUE HEADLINES

1.) Undefeated Clubs Tackle the Weekend
2.) Welcome to the BOK Center
3.) Rapid City Road Trip
4.) ‘Franck’-Enstein Loves October

1- The CHL heads into its second weekend with six teams without a loss.  Leading the way is the Oklahoma City Blazers, Colorado Eagles and Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs who are all unbeaten in three games.  The Odessa Jackalopes are 2-0 and the Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees and Corpus Christi IceRays are 1-0.  The big match-ups for the weekend are below with the highlight being a potential match-up on Sunday afternoon with the Eagles traveling to Oklahoma City.

Friday: Arizona @ Colorado, Rapid City @ Corpus Christi, Mississippi @ Oklahoma City, Laredo at Rio Grande Valley, Odessa at New Mexico
Saturday: Odessa @ Texas, Laredo @ Corpus Christi, Mississippi @ Bossier-Shreveport, Colorado @ Amarillo, Rapid City @ Rio Grande Valley, Oklahoma City @ Tulsa
Sunday: Colorado @ Oklahoma City    

2- The Tulsa Oilers have their home opener on Saturday night squaring off against their long-time rivals, the Oklahoma City Blazers.  The Oilers will be playing their first game in the new BOK Center and should have a huge crowd (capacity – 17,096).  The Oilers are looking for their first win of the season after dropping a shootout to the Blazers a week ago and getting trounced in Corpus Christi, 12-3.  Tulsa will be without Michel Beausoleil who is suspended for Saturday’s game for his action in the Oilers game at Corpus Christi.

3- The expansion Rapid City Rush continues their 14-game season opening road trip this weekend with three-games-in-three-nights in South Texas.  The Rush will play Corpus Christi on Friday, Rio Grande Valley on Saturday and Laredo on Sunday.  The Rush have earned a point in each of their first two games dropping a pair of shootouts in Colorado.  Rich Hansen leads the team with six points (2-4=6).  

4- Oklahoma City goaltender Andy Franck seems to be at his best early and late in the season.  This season, the CHL All-Star is off to a 3-0 start with a 1.30 goals against average and a .942 save percentage.  He is 8-0 in his last eight starts in October and dating back to last season is 12-0-1 in his last 13 decisions.  The Blazers host the RiverKings tonight, are at Tulsa on Saturday and host Colorado on Sunday presenting a challenging weekend for OKC.    
 

INSIDE THE NUMBERS
97 The number points that Jeff Bes has versus the RGV Killer Bees (29-68=97) in 60 career games played.  He is also a +44 over that time with 13 power play goals and nine game winning goals versus the Bees (the teams play on Friday night)
209 The number of goals veteran Chris Richards (CRP) has in his CHL career after his four goal outburst in the Rays opener
14 The number of consecutive games that Colorado’s Ed McGrane has recorded a point in dating back to last season.  He has 10 goals and 11 assists in those 14 games
7 The difference in goals for and goals against in the third period for the Tulsa Oilers who have been outgunned in the final frame 9-2 through two games
8 The number of power play goals scored by Corpus Christi in Saturday’s 12-3 victory over Tulsa setting a new CHL record
 

TIDBITS
-Rocky Mountain Rage goaltender Marty Magers has been suspended one game after his actions in Wednesday’s game versus the Colorado Eagles.  He was assessed 32 PIM’s in the game including two game misconducts
-Forward Dallas Costanzo was claimed off waivers by Mississippi after being waived by Bossier-Shreveport.  He dressed in two games for the ‘Bugs but did not record a point
-The Arizona Sundogs and the Colorado Eagles meet on Friday for the first time since the Sundogs swept the Eagles in the Ray Miron President’s Cup Finals in May
-If any team should know how to knock off Andy Franck (OKC) it would be Mississippi who has five of the goaltender’s teammates from Youngstown and his head coach Kevin Kaminski