Ice Bats Battle Divisional Foes
Setting the Stage: The Austin Ice Bats of the Central Hockey League are 8-8-4 on the 2006-2007 CHL season, just eight points back of the lead in the Southeast Division, and just four points out of second place. The Ice Bats have begun play at all-new Chaparral Ice Arena, located on I-35 between Howard Lane and Wells Branch Parkway.
The Ice Bats play three games in three nights this week, all against Southeast Division opponents. After visits to Corpus Christi and Laredo, the Ice Bats host Rio Grande Valley on Saturday. The U.S. Army will sponsor the game, billed as "Support Our Troops" Night.
A look back: The Ice Bats' five-game winning streak came to an end with a close 3-2 loss to the Laredo Bucks last Friday at the Laredo Entertainment Center. The Bucks jumped on the Ice Bats for the opening score 17 seconds in. Forward Leo Thomas blew around the defense and slammed the puck on net. Laredo star center Jeff Bes followed up with the rebound goal. And Bucks goalie Eric Marvin turned in sterling saves in stopping all ten shots faced in the opening period.
In the second, Mike Possin's centering pass for Henry Kuster's low wrist shot tied the score at 6:38. It was then Austin goalie Kevin Couture's turn to shine-- the rookie netminder making terrific saves in stopping all 14 shots faced in the second period.
The Bats took their first lead just 61 seconds into the third on a Mike Tucciarone goal from the slot. But the Bucks' Justin Togiai followed up his own shot for a rebound goal at 3:36, and Serge Dube's shot from the point slithered in for the winner at 13:28.
Marvin stopped 26 of 28 shots faced in the win. Couture deserved better, making 30 saves in the loss.
On Saturday, the Ice Bats were blanked by Corpus Christi, 3-0. The Rayz' Justin Quenneville scored the only goal of the first period, and Corpus starting goalie Ron Vogel stopped all 14 shots faced in the period. But Vogel tweaked an injury early in the second, and was replaced by Brent Zelenewich.
The unexpected change didn't faze the Rayz, who built a 2-0 lead on Steve Pelletier's tip-in midway through the second, and salted the game away on Pelletier's empty net goal in the final minute. Zelenewich stopped all 25 shots faced, but Vogel got credit for the win. The Bats outshot the Rayz 40-23 in the loss.
Docile or Disciplined?: The usually rough-and-tumble Southeast Division now features four of the league's bottom five teams in penalty minutes per game. The Ice Bats are the most disciplined team in the league, averaging just 19.7 minutes in penalties per contest.
Wounded Wings: The Ice Bats have three players on the injured reserve list-winger Britt Dougherty, center Aaron Davis and defenseman Doug MacIver. All three will be out of action for the foreseeable future. Meanwhile, defenseman J.F. Picard is listed as questionable for Thursday's game at Corpus Christi.
Player Plaudits: Winger John McNabb leads the Ice Bats in scoring, with 12 goals and 11 assists. Defenseman Terry Virtue has 16 points, and forward Henry Kuster has 9 goals and 6 assists. Miguel Beaudry is 5-4-4 with a 2.94 GAA in net, and Kevin Couture is 3-4 with a 3.08 GAA.
Potential Bite Victims: Corpus Christi snapped a five-game winless skid with a pair of wins last week. The Rayz are now 10-9-4, tied for second in the division. At times, Corpus has struggled to score, ranking 15th with 2.7 average goals scored. Forward Justin Quenneville is the league's #4 scorer, with 13 goals and 17 assists. Derrick McIver (8 goals, 16 assists) and Jason Baird (23 points) are next on the team. Ron Vogel (8-6-3, 3.09 GAA) has more wins, but his other numbers are inferior to the suddenly hot Brent Zelenewich (2-3-1, 2.46 GAA, .926 save percentage). The Rayz are 4-6 playing at home.
At 13-7-2, Laredo once again leads the division, but only by four points. The Bucks feature the league's top-scoring defenseman, and it's not Serge Dube. Adam Rivet has 10 goals and 15 assists from the blue line. Converted to forward, Dube is right behind him with 23 points, and rookie Bobby Chaumont has 10 goals and 12 helpers. When and if goalie Nathan Marsters (5-2, 2.61 GAA) returns from his NHL call-up to Anaheim, he may have to battle Eric Marvin (8-3-2, 3.18 GAA) for time in net. The Bucks are 7-3-2 at home this season.
Rio Grande Valley has built an 11-8-2 record on the strength of their defense. The Killer Bees allow less than three goals per game, third fewest in the league, and their penalty kill (89.4%) ranks second. Veteran forward Jason Cirone leads the attack with 10 goals and 14 assists. The Bees don't have a ton of scoring depth, but forwards Bill Newson (9 goals and 12 assists) and Matt Reynolds (20 points) are nightly in the mix. Goalie Jeremy Symington has been a godsend since his acquisition in a trade, upping his season marks to 8-2 with a 2.41 GAA and two shutouts. 5-4 on the road, Rio will visit Amarillo Friday, then come back down to Austin for Saturday's game.
The Series: Heading into this weekend, the Ice Bats have played 12 of their 20 games against divisional foes. The Ice Bats are 55-30-9 lifetime against Corpus Christi, but have had anything but an easy time with the Rayz this season, going 1-2-2 against Corpus. The Ice Bats have had better luck against the Rayz in Corpus Christi, pulling out a win and an overtime loss in their two games there.
The Bats are 16-26-2 lifetime against Laredo, 2-2-1 this season. With the first three meetings played in Austin, the teams have split the last two, both played in Laredo.
Austin is 16-15-2 lifetime against Rio Grande Valley, after winning both games played between the teams this season.
Comments From the Coach:
On Last Week: "Against Laredo, we were right there until the end. One mistake in defensive coverage probably cost us the game. Saturday, we outshot Corpus Christi by a heavy margin, but give them credit-- they kept us to the outside. We need our offensive guys to be offensive consistently. We kind of got back to playing on the perimeter last week. We'll switch the lines up a bit again this week, making sure there's sufficient grit to make each line effective."
On This Week: "Once again, these are tough, tough games in our division. They represent a chance to make up significant ground or lose significant ground. We've had good technical practices this week, and working the new guys in, we were able to work on the power play quite a bit. Hopefully we'll get that working again."
The "New" Bat Cave: This season, the Ice Bats begin a new era at Chaparral Ice Arena, located on I-35 between Howard Lane and Wells Branch Parkway.
This Saturday, the U.S. Army presents "Support Our Troops Night," as the Ice Bats face Rio Grande Valley. Fans who attend that game will have an opportunity to express their support by signing a large banner in the main lobby at Chaparral Ice Arena. After the game, the banner will be sent to U.S. Army troops in the 1st Squadron, 7th Cavalry, 1st Cavalry Division, stationed near Baghdad in Iraq.
Also, all military members receive $5 off regular admission price with their military ID. And the U.S. Army will provide personalized souvenir dog tags to all fans. In addition to providing tickets through the Ice Bats office at 927-PUCK, the Bats are for the first time utilizing Front Gate Tickets as the team's ticket outlet. Fans may conveniently purchase tickets at any Front Gate Tickets location, including Stubbs BBQ, Waterloo Records and Encore Video & CD.
Fans may order on-line through the Ice Bats website at
Austin Ice Bats Hockey!. Phone orders may be placed by calling (512) 927-PUCK, or 1-888-512-SHOW. Individual game tickets range in price from $15 to $35, depending on section, with discounted rates for groups of 15 or more. Fans may call the Ice Bats ticket office at (512) 927-PUCK, or log onto the team's website at
Austin Ice Bats Hockey! for more information.
Shuffle Up and Deal: The Ice Bats congratulate winger John McNabb, the top overall winner, and Marc Gray, the "last fan standing," as the winners of the third annual Texas Hold 'Em Tournament benefiting Ice Bats Children's Charities. The tournament took place this past Sunday at Chaparral Ice Arena.
In the Air: Once again, all Ice Bats away games will be broadcast on ESPN Radio, 1530 on the AM dial. The station will broadcast all road games during the 2006-07 regular season and CHL Playoffs. The games will also be available on-line, through the station website at
The Big 1530 ESPN Radio. Ice Bats VP of Broadcasting, Media/PR Glen Norman will handle play-by-play duties for a ninth straight season.
Bats in Cyberspace: Bats fans can learn the latest about their team by logging on to
Austin Ice Bats Hockey!. Home or away, Bats fans can also follow the action with real-time scoring on the website, courtesy of Pointstreak.com. Fans will be able to access a game box score in real-time, as well as those of all other CHL games being played.
In addition, the CHL has partnered with industry leader ONEsite to launch 'myCHLteam.com', a new digital community designed to increase and enhance fan, player, team and league interaction. ONEsite is a leading provider of private labeled social networks and communities, and provides individual websites, blogs, photo galleries and much more to fans at no cost. Fans may log onto
Whoops! Browser Settings Incompatible to sign up or for more details.
THIS WEEK:
Thu., Dec. 14th, 7:05pm, vs. Corpus Christi Rayz, at AmericanBank Center, Corpus Christi, Texas
Fri., Dec. 15th, 7:30pm, vs. Laredo Bucks, at Laredo Entertainment Center, Laredo, Texas
Sat., Dec. 16th, 7:30pm, vs. Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees, at Chaparral Ice Arena, Austin, Texas
