Friday, April 6, 2012 (Playoff Edition)

Upcoming Results/Schedule

Monday, April 2
Game 4- Evansville 1 at Missouri 3 (MIZ wins series 4-0)

Wednesday, April 4
Game 3- Allen 4 at Texas 5
Game 3- Rapid City 1 at Fort Wayne 3
Game 3- Wichita 2 at Rio Grande Valley 5

Thursday, April 5
Game 4- Wichita 4 at Rio Grande Valley 2
Game 4- Rapid City 3 at Fort Wayne 5

Friday, April 6
Game 4- Allen at Texas (Brahmas lead series 2-1)

Saturday, April 7
Game 5- Texas at Allen
Game 5- Rio Grande Valley at Wichita (Thunder lead series 3-1)

Sunday, April 8
Game 5- Rapid City at Fort Wayne (Komets lead series 3-1)
     
Click Here to see Playoff Bracket

Game Notes
-The Missouri Mavericks earned some time off by sweeping the Evansville IceMen earlier this week with goalie Charlie Effinger going 4-0 allowing just six goals in the series.  The Mavs now await the winner of the Rapid City/Fort Wayne series.
-The Mavs finished their series with the IceMen going 3 for 14 on the man advantage (21.4%), good for second best percentage in the post-season.
-Missouri was penalized just 25 minutes in their four games and have the lowest PIM average in the playoffs (6.3 per game).
-Rio Grande Valley is down 3-1 in their series against the Wichita Thunder despite scoring the first goal in all four games.  The rest of the league is 9-1 in the post-season when scoring first.
-Wichita’s Alex Bourret recorded the second hat trick in the playoffs on Thursday night joining teammate R.G. Flath who netted three goals in Game 1 of the Thunder’s series with RGV.  Bourret finished with four points (3-1=4) moving up into a tie for the league lead with seven post-season points (Missouri’s Sebastien Thinel and Rapid City’s Jesse Schultz).
-R.G. Flath scored one of two shorthanded goals for the Thunder on Thursday night (Alex Bourret) giving him a league-best two SHG’s in the post-season.  The Thunder have scored three shorthanded goals in the post-season, all other teams have combined for just two  (Evansville and Texas each have one). 
-Fort Wayne’s Kaleigh Schrock has scored a goal in three straight games including netting the game winning goal on Thursday night in Game 4.
-Rapid City’s Les Reaney (2010 Playoff MVP) was suspended for Game 4 due to a boarding penalty in Game 3.  He will return for Game 5 on Sunday.
-The Fort Wayne Komets have a chance to return the Easter favor the Rush delivered to them last season.  A year ago, the Rush won a deciding Game 5 besting the Komets in their best-of-5 series three games to two.  On Sunday, the Komets can eliminate the Rush with a victory on home ice (Komets are 5-0 all-time in the CHL on home ice).
-Fort Wayne goaltender Nick Boucher has won 17 straight home playoff games.  During the regular season, Boucher went 32-12-4 with a 2.44 GAA (tied for fourth in the league).  
-Texas forward T.J. Fox has scored three goals in his last two games and has accounted for the game winning goal in both Game’s 2 and 3. 
-The Brahmas Erik Spady and Allen’s Dylan King each have 19 penalty minutes marking the most of any players in this year’s playoffs.  Allen is second among all teams with 70 PIMs in the post-season and Texas is fourth with 59 minutes (Fort Wayne leads all teams with 72 PIMs).
-Keep up with all the news, notes, stats and scores from the 2011 Ray Miron Presidents’ Cup Playoffs at the Playoff Headquarters available at www.centralhockeyleague.com.

Number-ology
2 – The number of times in 50 chances that a team has come back from a 3-1 deficit to win a series (CHL/WPHL history).  Both the Fort Wayne Komets and Wichita Thunder have 3-1 series leads and the Texas Brahmas can take a 3-1 series advantage with a win over Allen on Friday night.  Only the 2004 Laredo Bucks and the 1994 Tulsa Oilers have come back from 3-1 deficits to win a best-of-7 series (the Bucks doing so over the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs in the CHL Finals and the Oilers beating the Oklahoma City Blazers in the semifinals).  The last 24 times a team has had a 3-1 series lead, they have gone on to win the series.