Monday, January 26th, 2009
CENTRAL HOCKEY LEAGUE HEADLINES
1) Eagles Soar to New Heights
2) IceRays Taking to Life on the Road
3) Thinel Forges to the Top
1- The Colorado Eagles (32-6-1) swept a pair of games in Arizona over the weekend extending their win streak to eight games (their second eight game win streak of the season, Oct. 17-31). The Eagles are running away with the Northwest Division leading the second place Rocky Mountain Rage by 17 points and are currently sitting with a 14 point lead in the conference over Oklahoma City and Mississippi. Colorado has outscored their opposition 40-19 during their eight game win streak and All-Star Most Valuable Player Konrad Reeder has heated up scoring the game winning goal in four of their eight victories. The Eagles will look for number nine in a row on Wednesday night when they host Amarillo.
On a side note: Colorado goaltender Andrew Penner improved to 22-1-1 with a win on Saturday night at Arizona. Penner leads the league with his 22 wins and has not lost in regulation since November 1st at Mississippi. His current point streak is sitting at 19 games (18-0-1).
2- After three games on their current four-game road trip, the Corpus Christi IceRays (17-18-4) are undefeated winning at Rapid City, Rocky Mountain and New Mexico. The final game is Tuesday night in Odessa who like the Rays have won four straight games. Corpus Christi goaltender Kris Tebbs has won all three games on the journey allowing just five goals (.953 save percentage) earning him the Oakley CHL Goaltender of the Week award. All-Star Chris Richards has paced the offense with two goals and three assists on their road trip.
3- A seven-game point streak has pushed Odessa forward Sebastien Thinel back in front of the league’s scoring race. During his seven-game streak, Thinel has four goals and nine helpers giving him 61 points on the season (27 goals and 34 assist). The Jacks have caught fire again winning four straight games and six of their last seven. During their four-game win streak, they have outscored their opponents 19-7.
INSIDE THE NUMBERS
4-3 The final score of both of Texas’ games this past weekend at Amarillo…The Brahmas came from behind in both games scoring three goals in the third period on both Friday and Saturday…Texas is 3-8-0 when trailing after two period and currently leads the Southeast Division by 10 points over Laredo and trails by one point for the Southern Conference lead (Odessa)…Texas has won three straight games and are undefeated in their last six home games
873 The number of points that Bossier-Shreveport’s Travis Clayton has recorded in his CHL career sitting two behind Doug Lawrence (875) for second place on the league’s all-time points list…The Mudbugs and Clayton are back in action on Monday night at home versus Laredo…This season, Clayton leads the ‘Bugs with 39 points (15-24=39) and is tops with a +12
3 The number of different Odessa goaltenders that have earned a win in the four-game season series sweep of the Tulsa Oilers…Alexandre Vincent has two wins and Juha Toivonen and Jeremy Symington each have one victory versus Tulsa
.927 Wichita’s Tim Boron’s league-leading save percentage…The Thunder’s netminder won both starts this past weekend improving his record to 6-10-1…During his 2-0 week, he allowed three goals stopping 80 of 83 shots
1-6-3 The Laredo Bucks road record over their last 10 games away from home…The Bucks play at Bossier-Shreveport tonight and at Rio Grande Valley on Thursday
TIDBITS
-Texas forward Tyler Skworchinski has five goals in his last five games and is coming off his second multi-goal outburst of the season in Sunday’s win versus Rio Grande Valley
-Rio Grande Valley’s Jesse Bennefield (22-21=43) is currently on a 12-game point streak scoring nine goals with seven assists over his streak…The longest streak this season in the CHL belongs to Laredo’s Jeff Bes and Tulsa’s Michel Beausoleil who each had 17-game streak
-The New Mexico Scorpions are 12-1-2 when holding opponents to three goals or less
-Amarillo’s Mark Carragher scored a pair of goals in the two games this past weekend versus his former team, Texas
-Odessa’s Kenny Bernard has four goals in his last three games
-Texas’ Travis Banga has three goals with six assists in the seven games he has played with the Brahmas since being traded from RGV earlier in the month…Texas is 5-1-1 since Banga joined the team
-Rapid City has lost a franchise-long five straight games and have dropped to just three points in front of Wichita for third place in the Northwest Division…The Rush have scored just nine goals in their last five games
-Rocky Mountain’s Colt King has four goals in his last two games and is a +4 over that stretch
