Weekly Mid-Western Division Preview (10/22 - 10/25)

Dallas Snipers (5-3-1)

Despite dropping two of the three home games last weekend (and ending their four-game winning streak), the two points from Saturday’s win by the Snipers was enough to keep them in 2nd place in the division. 

Alexander Moustakis continues to impress for Dallas; bouncing back from a rough Friday night, the netminder held Wichita to just 3 goals on Saturday.

Hampus Ahelbrand, Dusan Olsa, and Alexander Yunanov all had multi-point nights in the lone win of the homestand.

El Paso Rhinos (0-0-0)

While most teams in the league have already played nearly a quarter of their season, the Rhinos have yet to lace up their skates to play for points. 

However, the wait is finally over for west Texas as the El Paso Rhinos travel to SoCal for two games in Valencia and one in Long Beach.

Click here to see how the team has been surviving the long wait to their 10th season.

Oklahoma City Blazers (5-1-0)

Despite having just 6 games under their belt so far, the Oklahoma Blazers have played some great hockey to start the season.

After playing just half the amount of games as the division-leading Springfield Express, the Blazers are only 4 points out of the top spot, and have the best +/- by a longshot.

Tomas Nemeth and Kiril Romanov are both off to hot starts with double digit points already with Adam Skutchan leading the team in goals.

Springfield Express (5-3-4)

After jumping off to an early lead in the standings, the Express have fallen on some tough times dropping 4 straight games, and all in the division; to make matters a little more hard on the heart for Springfield, their most recent two losses came in overtime.

However, despite the hard luck losses, grabbing at least one point against a divisional opponent is always a good thing, and the Express have done that in over half of their losses this season to keep them in 1st place.

Goalie Nick Bretzger has been proven to be a key acquisition by Springfield in the offseason. The netminder is posting a .885 Save% in his 8 games played.

Tulsa Jr. Oilers (4-5-0)

The Jr. Oilers get to gear up for the closing 3 games of a 6 game homestand this weekend when they host the Dallas Snipers.

Just two weeks ago, Tulsa left Springfield with 4 points and a lot of momentum to take into their series against Superior.

A fun fact to note about Tulsa so far this season is that aside from their only loss against the Express, they’ve only won or lost games in pairs.

Click here to visit their fan center

Wichita Jr. Thunder (5-7-0)

The longest roadtrip of the season continues for the Wichita Jr. Thunder this weekend as they travel to Cheyenne to take on the Stampede for a three gamer.

It’s been a back-and-forth start to the season for Wichita, who have yet to win or lose more than twice in a row, and almost all of their games have been relatively close.

In only 4 games has there been a goal differential of 4 or more, and they’ve won half of them.

Look for a big weekend from the likes of Zachary Balodis, Joel Gellvear, and Jet Bell who are all averaging over a point per game.