ICE CHIPS: The KOOTENAY ICE enter today’s action with a 23-22-0-1 record (14-8-0-0 at home, 9-14-0-1 on the road, 5-0 in overtime, 1-1 in shootouts)...Following tonight's contest KOOTENAY will play nine of the next ten games on home ice beginning with a matchup against SWIFT CURRENT January 24.
ROSTER BREAKDOWN: KOOTENAY is currently carrying 24 players (two goaltenders, nine defensemen and 13 forwards)...The ICE roster is made up of three 1994-born players, 11 1995-born players, three 1996-born players, five 1997-born players, and two 1998-born players...KOOTENAY has seven first-year players on its roster.
DID YOU KNOW: Forward JAEDON DESCHENEAU leads the ICE in away scoring with 28 points (10-18-28)…Forward LUKE PHILP is ranked second (12-12-24)...KOOTENAY holds a 25-16-3-2 lifetime record versus EDMONTON (16-5-1-1 at home, 9-11-2-1 on the road, 5-3-2 in overtime)...Tonight marks the fifth of six meetings this season between the ICE and OIL KINGS with each team having won twice…Forward SAM REINHART surpassed JARRET STOLL for the KOOTENAY ICE franchise lead in career regular season points January 17 at SASKATOON…STOLL had held the franchise points record since 2002…REINHART now has 289 career points (111-178-289) in 224 games, 21 fewer than STOLL...Two ICE skaters were named this week on the NHL CENTRAL SCOUTING MIDTERM RANKINGS for the 2015 NHL DRAFT…Forward ZAK ZBOROSKY was ranked 97th while PHILP was rated 191st among North American skaters…PHILP recorded his fourth multi-goal game of the season (two goals) January 16 at PRINCE ALBERT…PHILP is one game shy of 200 career regular season games played...DESCHENEAU is one goal away from 100 career regular season tallies…Forward AUSTIN VETTERL is two appearances short of 250 career regular season games played…Forward LEVI CABLE is two points shy of 100 career WHL points...Forward TIM BOZON is four assists shy of 150 in his WHL career… Defenseman BRYAN ALLBEE leads KOOTENAY in away plus / minus with a rating of plus-six…Goaltender WYATT HOFLIN has won each of his last four starts when facing 40 or more shots…ZBOROSKY has scored the deciding goal in the last two ICE victories.
INJURY: Defenseman TANNER FAITH will be out of the KOOTENAY lineup four to six months with an upper body injury.
STREAKS: SAM REINHART has collected points in each of his past five games (2-6-8)…LUKE PHILP (3-1-4) and JAEDON DESCHENEAU (1-3-4) are both riding three-game point streaks…RIVER BEATTIE has scored in back-to-back games.
ONE YEAR AGO: After 46 games of the 2013-14 season the ICE were 22-20-2-2, after 47 games 23-20-2-2 and after 48 games 24-20-2-2.
DRAFTED PLAYERS: SAM REINHART - Buffalo Sabres (1st Round, 2014 NHL Draft), TIM BOZON - Montreal Canadiens (3rd Round, 2012 NHL Draft), RINAT VALIEV - Toronto Maple Leafs (3rd Round, 2014 NHL Draft), JAEDON DESCHENEAU - St. Louis Blues (5th Round, 2014 NHL Draft), TANNER FAITH – Minnesota Wild (5th Round, 2014 NHL Draft).