ICE CHIPS: The KOOTENAY ICE enter tonight's action with a 24-22-0-1 record (14-8-0-0 at home, 10-14-0-1 on the road, 5-0 in overtime, 1-1 in shootouts)...Following tonight's contest KOOTENAY will host PRINCE GEORGE January 25 before visiting LETHBRIDGE January 28.
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 LUKE PHILP leads the ICE in home scoring with 25 points (8-17-25)…Forward JAEDON DESCHENEAU is ranked second (12-12-24)...KOOTENAY holds a 34-30-5-2 lifetime record versus SWIFT CURRENT (21-11-2-1 at home, 13-19-3-1 on the road, 5-6-2 in overtime)...Tonight's game marks the third of four meetings this season between the ICE and BRONCOS with the home team having won both prior encounters...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 290 career points (111-179-290) in 225 games, 20 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…Forward TIM BOZON recorded his fourth career hat-trick (and second with KOOTENAY) January 22 at EDMONTON...BOZON is four assists away from 150 in his WHL career and one point short of 100 with the ICE…BOZON has scored 12 points (6-6-12) in seven career games versus SWIFT CURRENT...PHILP appeared in his 200th career WHL regular season game January 22 against the OIL KINGS…DESCHENEAU is one goal away from 100 career regular season tallies…Forward AUSTIN VETTERL is one appearance short of 250 career regular season games played…Forward RYAN CHYNOWETH is four games away from 200 career WHL regular season appearances...Forward LEVI CABLE is one point shy of 100 career WHL points...Goaltender WYATT HOFLIN has won each of his last four starts when facing 40 or more shots...This evening marks the 1,200th regular season game in KOOTENAY ICE franchise history, with the club holding an record of 666-410-123 since its first season in CRANBROOK (1998-99).
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 six games (2-7-9)…LUKE PHILP (3-2-5) and JAEDON DESCHENEAU (1-4-5) are both riding four-game point streaks.
ONE YEAR AGO: After 47 games of the 2013-14 season the ICE were 23-20-2-2, after 48 games 24-20-2-2 and after 49 games 25-20-2-2.
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).
TONIGHT’S OFFICIALS: The Referees for tonight’s game are PATRICK GAGNON and FRASER LAWRENCE...The Linesmen are SCOTT SHARUN and JUSTIN SLIMM.