Each of the Central Hockey Leagues 16 member teams will take to the ice tonight to close out 2002. The New Years Eve schedule features several key rivalry match-ups, with none more intriguing than the New Mexico Scorpions visit to Lubbock. New Mexico Coach Bill McDonald resigned from the Cotton Kings earlier this season, and visits Lubbocks Municipal Coliseum for the first time since his departure.
In other intra-division contests tonight, the Tulsa Oilers visit the Wichita in the latest installment of their heated Northwest Division rivalry, while the red-hot Indianapolis Ice travel to Fort Worth to take on the Brahmas, and the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs play the RiverKings in Memphis in a pair of key Northeast Division contests.
In the Southeast Division, the San Angelo Saints journey to Corpus Christi to face the IceRays, and the Austin Ice Bats head to Laredo to take on the Bucks. The two inter-conference games tonight feature the El Paso Buzzards visiting Amarillo Gorillas in their 66th all-time head to head meeting, and the Southwest Division leading Odessa Jackalopes making their first visit to the new Ford Center, home of the Oklahoma City Blazers. Following tonights action, the CHLs regular season will be nearly 48% complete.
Thursday, January 2nd, the starting line-ups for both the Northern and Southern Conference All-Star squads will be announced for the January 23rd Dodge CHL All-Star Game in Oklahoma City. Balloting among CHL coaches, broadcasters and selected media members concludes Thursday to select the starting three forwards, two defensemen and goaltender for each Conference. Currently, Tulsa forward Todd Marcellus leads all Northern Conference players in balloting, while Laredo left wing Eric Schneider has received the most votes this far in Southern Conference balloting.
All-Star Coaches Garry Unger (Tulsa, Northern Conference) and Brent Hughes (Austin, Southern Conference) will select the remainder of the All-Star teams in conjunction with the CHLs Hockey Operations department.
Happy New Year from the Central Hockey League.