Pair of Sundogs Crack NHL Rosters
A pair of former Arizona Sundogs defensemen have cracked the opening day line-ups in the National Hockey League as David Schlemko has made the Phoenix Coyotes roster and Mike Vernace has made the Tampa Bay Lightning roster.
Schlemko played with the Sundogs during the 2007-08 championship season scoring 10 goals with 29 assists in 58 games played. He also had eight points in 14 playoff games helping the Sundogs hoist the Ray Miron Presidents’ Cup Championship. Since, he has played in a 124 games in the American Hockey League and has had several call-ups to Phoenix seeing action in 20 NHL games. He has dressed in two NHL games with Phoenix this season.
Vernace, a seventh round draft pick of San Jose in 2004, dressed in 24 games during his rookie season with the ‘Dogs scoring three goals with 11 assists for 14 points. He has since played in 236 games in the American Hockey League and during the 2008-09 season he played in a dozen games with the Colorado Avalanche making his NHL debut. So far this season, he has dressed in two games with Tampa Bay.
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