- Rapid City has the worst special teams in the CHL, ranking dead last in both power play percentage and penalty kill percentage. Allen needs to take advantage of this if they are going to win the game. When it comes to even strength play the Rush are the best in the league. Plus/Minus is one indicator of even strength play and Rapid City is an unbelievable +258 which is over twice what any other team in the league is at. Allen's plus/minus is +59.
- Another key to the game is getting off to a fast start as Rapid City is the master of the quick start and when scoring the first goal the Rush have a record of 23-5-1. When leading after the first period Rapid City has a record of 17-1-0 and when leading after the second period the Rush are 21-0-0. The bottom line is Rapid City is not the type of team that allows teams to come from behind and defeat them. Getting an early lead tonight will very important for Allen.
- Rapid City's season this year is similar to Allen's championship season last year. The Rush got off to an excellent start at the beginning of the year, went through a slump in the middle of the season including one point when they were 1-9, and have turned things around toward the end of the season. The Rush have won eight of their last eleven games. With a great goaltender in Tim Boron if the Rush can just be mediocre rather than awful on special teams they are built to go a long way in the playoffs.
- Here is the team by team comparison:
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Rapid City Allen Americans
RESULT OF LAST GAME OTL 4-5 vs MIZ WIN 6-4 vs STC
GAMES PLAYED 58 56
RECORD 36-20-2 32-20-4
POINTS 74 68
HOME RECORD 19-9-0 16-8-3
AWAY RECORD 17-11-2 16-12-1
SHO RECORD 8-2 4-3
LAST 10 GAMES 7-2-1 6-4-0
LAST 5 GAMES 4-0-1 3-2-0
OCTOBER 5-0-0 5-0-1
NOVEMBER 9-2-0 7-6-0
DECEMBER 8-3-0 5-4-1
JANUARY 5-7-0 8-1-2
FEBRUARY 5-6-1 5-7-0
MARCH 4-2-1 2-2-0
SCORING FIRST 23-5-1 18-6-3
LEADING AFTER 1ST 17-1-0 13-6-0
LEADING AFTER 2ND 21-0-0 19-2-3
TIED AFTER 1ST 11-5-1 10-4-3
TIED AFTER 2ND 11-4-1 10-4-1
TRAILING AFTER 1ST 8-14-1 9-10-1
TRAILING AFTER 2ND 4-16-1 3-14-0
WHEN OUTSHOOTING OPPONENT 25-16-2 15-11-1
1 - GOAL GAMES 17-8-2 13-3-4
GOALS FOR PER GAME 3.34 3.63
GOALS AGAINST PER GAME 2.79 3.29
SHOTS FOR PER GAME 34.48 33.04
SHOTS AGAINST PER GAME 29.16 32.46
POWER PLAY RECORD 34 - 266 12.8% 53 - 284 18.7%
PENALTY KILLING RECORD 63 - 245 74.3% 52 - 298 82.6%
SH GOALS FOR 6 9
SH GOALS AGAINST 4 8
PIM AVERAGE 16.84 23.14
SCORING BY PERIODS 1ST 2ND 3RD OT TOTAL
Rapid City 46 68 70 10 194
Opponents 57 55 48 2 162
Allen 57 77 64 5 203
Opponents 58 55 67 4 184
OTHER COMMENTS:
- Looking forward to the playoffs the current roster has 22 players with only 20 spots available for the playoffs. Anyone the team brings in now will take a playoff spot. From everything talked about recently it seems the coaches are happy with the skill players on the roster but are still looking for a defense first defensemen, most likely a player returning from Europe. The next two weeks is the time current players need to step up and take the lead, finish their checks, make good decisions, and be hard to play against. At least three players on the current roster will not make the playoff roster so the next two weeks will be very important in determining who stays and who goes.
- The CHL announced the finalists for several year end awards yesterday including league MVP, Outstanding Goaltender, Outstanding Defenseman, and Rookie of the Year. Congratulations are in order for Tyler Ludwig who is a finalist for Outstanding Defenseman and Alex Lavoie who is a finalist for Rookie of the Year.
- You may wonder how the finalists are determined. After a nomination period by CHL teams, the league front office determined the five finalists for each award. Balloting will take place among CHL Head Coaches, team Communications Departments and select media members in CHL markets to determine the winners. I am lucky enough to be one of the media members asked to vote to determine the winners. While I am not aware of the criteria the CHL office uses to determine the five finalists, for some reason Spencer Asuchak was left off the list. I say this because Spencer Asuchak clearly deserves to be a finalist for rookie of the year. With Alex Lavoie the odds on favorite to win the award with more points than any CHL rookie has scored since Allen joined the league in 2009, Asuchak was left off the list. Spencer is tied for third in rookie scoring and leads the entire CHL in shorthanded goals. To go along with his offensive skills he is a great two way player, finishes checks, never takes a shift off, kills penalties and often plays against the opposing teams top players. To top it off he has not missed a game all year. Certainly he is deserving!
- Here are the Award Finalists:
MVP Finalists
Garett Bembridge, Denver
Ben Gordon, Tulsa
Jesse Schultz, Rapid City
Troy Schwab, Denver
Sebastien Thinel, Missouri
Most Outstanding Goalie Finalists
Tim Boron, Rapid City
Andrew Engelage, Arizona
Shane Owen, Missouri
Kent Patterson, Denver
Ty Rimmer, Quad City
Most Outstanding Defenseman Finalists
Tyler Ludwig, Allen
Andrew Martens, Wichita
Nicholas Rioux, Quad City
Matt Stephenson, Missouri
Riley Weselowski, Rapid City
Rookie of the Year Finalists
Vincent Arseneau, Denver
Thomas Frazee, Quad City
Brett Kostolansky, Rapid City
Alex Lavoie, Allen
Adam Pleskach, Tulsa
- The Missouri Mavericks won in Brampton last night (3-2) for their six straight win. Missouri is slowing tightening their grip on the Governor's Cup and now have a six point lead over second place Rapid City & Denver with nine games to play.
- Chris Doyle who was a member of Allen's championship team last year signed a three game tryout contract yesterday with the Fayetteville FireAntz (SPHL) and played his first game last night as Fayetteville defeated Knoxville 4-2. Doyle's signing was overshadowed by another important signing in the SPHL yesterday as Canadian Women's Olympic gold medal winning goalie, Shannon Szabados signed with Columbus.
- One of the regular posters on CHLforums.com, MavsFanJoe, was kind enough to share some attendance figures comparing last year to this year. Here is the average attendance for each team in the CHL for this year and the percent change form last year.
ALN: 4,414 average; UP 1.5%
ARZ: 2,451 average; down 3.3%
BRM: 2,211 average; no data
DEN: 1,632 average; down 44.1%
MIZ: 5,476 average; down 0.8%
QDC: 3,729 average; UP 26.4%
RPD: 4,469 average; down 4.3%
STC: 2,386 average; no data
TUL: 4,838 average; UP 18.9%
WIC: 4,906 average; down 8.6%
- I am sure most of you have seen this by now but just in case you haven't:
Fans
of a minor-league hockey team believed that the price of beer at the
arena was a rip-off. But unlike other sporting enthusiasts who might
feel the same way, they actually conducted an investigation and
confirmed what they thought. Now, the president of the arena has issued
an apology as other fans file a lawsuit.
Heath Forsey and Gwen Gibbs cheer
on the Idaho Steelheads, the ECHL affiliate of the NHL’s Dallas Stars.
The Steelheads play at Centurylink Arena in Boise. Inside of the venue,
small 16-ounce beers cost $4 and large 20-ounce brews cost $7.
But in a video posted by Forsey and Gibbs to YouTube on Sunday, the
same amount of beer in a large cup fits in to a small one. The
difference in the cups is in their shape, not size.
On Monday, the lead story in
Boise made international headlines. Eric Trapp, President of the
Steelheads and Centurylink Arena, took to Facebook to explain the
situation and the venue’s remedy.
“It was recently brought to our
attention that the amount of beer that fits in our large (20-oz) cups
also fits in our regular (16-oz) cups,” Trapp said on The Steelheads’
official Facebook page. “The differentiation in the size of the two cups
is too small. To correct that problem, we’re purchasing new cups for
the large beers that will hold 24 ounces, instead of 20, for the
remainder of this season to provide better value to our fans.”
It is a better value than the
previous non-deal, but the numbers still do not work in favor of the
larger cups. Large beers will now cost 29 cents per ounce, as opposed to
a quarter in the smaller cylinders.
While Forsey and Gibbs are happy
with the arena’s decision, others are not appeased. Brady Peck, Michele
Bonds and William and Brittany Graham filed a lawsuit against Block 22
LLC two days after the video posted. Block 22 LLC operates Centurylink
Arena along with the hockey team and The Grove Hotel in downtown Boise.
The plaintiffs are seeking $10,000 in damages.
- The Denver long road trip has come to an end as they are now home. Here is the blog post as they were headed back to Denver. The way the team is playing and the superstitions that surround hockey teams this blog may have to continue as long as Denver keeps winning.
This morning was pretty uneventful, which is almost always
good. The only highlight was having a chiropractor stop by. Most of us got some
needed adjustments. Many of the players had Chipotle for lunch, while Rusty and
I went with Quad City’s training staff to HuHot Mongolian Grill.
 |
| On our way back to the rink |
 |
| Our training room |
We are on
the bus again, finally on our way back to Denver. The team is in good spirits,
as we’ve won our fourth road game in a row, and sixth overall. It was one of
our best games of the year, a full sixty minutes and what Army would call a game
of great “structure.”
As I write,
it is shortly after midnight and we should be passing through Des Moines in
about an hour, so we have a good ways to go. Typically, when on the road, the
home team provides the away team with a restaurant they can order from and have
the food brought to the arena for after the game (we use Jake’s). Some are
really good, like Quad City (TGI Friday’s), some are awful, like Missouri and
St. Charles (Jimmy John’s), and some we don’t even order, like Allen (we all
stop at In N Out across the street). So, after the game most of the guy’s got
TGIs.
Anyway, in case guys haven’t had enough, we stopped at the
Love’s Travel stop to get some more munchies. We also took the opportunity to
get some cheap movies. The staff got Runner Runner, which is playing now, and
the Snake Pit has The Girl Next Door on.
 |
| Movie time in the snake pit |
DID YOU KNOW: From the time he was six, Wayne Gretzky played in many leagues above his age. He scored only one goal in his first year, when he was playing with ten-year-olds, but each season his skills increased dramatically and he soon set scoring records that seemed preposterous, notably a 378-goal season in his last year in pee wee.
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