KVOA

Posted: Aug 6, 2009 8:53 PM

Tempe, Arizona - The 2009-10 Central Hockey League (CHL) schedule has been officially announced, with the 480-game season beginning on Friday, October 16th in seven locations, and concluding on Saturday, March 20th also with seven contests.  Each of the CHL's 15 member clubs will play a 64 game schedule with 32 games at home and on the road.  Weekends are the prime focus of the schedule with 75% of the games taking place on Fridays (31.7%), Saturdays (33.1%) and Sundays (10.0%).

The season opens on Friday, October 16th with a rematch of last year's Ray Miron President's Cup Finals with the defending champion Texas Brahmas taking on the reigning Governors' Cup Champion Colorado Eagles at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colorado.  It is the first of three meetings between the two teams with other match-ups coming on the following night (October 17th) and the lone meeting in Texas coming on Saturday, January 2nd.

Other highlights on the schedule include a rematch of the Northern Conference Finals with the Eagles playing at the Mississippi RiverKings on Friday, December 4th (the teams meet three times during the regular season) and the first of four Southern Conference Finals rematches between the Brahmas and the Odessa Jackalopes taking place on Wednesday, November 25th (the day before Thanksgiving) at the NYTEX Sports Centre.

The CHL's two expansion clubs for the 2009-10 season, the Allen Americans and the Missouri Mavericks, both open the season on October 16th with the Americans playing in Arizona versus the Sundogs and the Mavericks playing in Rapid City versus the Rush.  Allen's home opener is slated for Saturday, November 7th with the Corpus Christi IceRays visiting the new Allen Event Center.  Missouri opens the Independence Events Center the following weekend on Friday, November 13th when they host the Wichita Thunder in the first of 10 games on the season between two certain rivals (Wichita and Independence are separated by just 200 miles).

The Wichita Thunder will be in the spotlight this season as they move into the new Intrust Bank Arena (capacity 15,000) in late January and close out hockey in the Kansas Coliseum.  The final game in the Coliseum will be Saturday, January 9th versus the Odessa Jackalopes and the first game in their new facility will be on Saturday, January 23rd when they host their long-time rivals, the Tulsa Oilers.

The Tulsa Oilers host a pair of holiday games playing the Missouri Mavericks on Thanksgiving Day and the Wichita Thunder on Christmas Day.  New Year's Eve features a full slate of games with Amarillo, Arizona, Laredo, Missouri, Odessa, Tulsa and Wichita all playing at home.

The 2010 CHL All-Star Game will be played on Wednesday, January 13th in Laredo, Texas at the Laredo Entertainment Center with the game hosted by the Bucks.  This year's format features the teams from South Texas (Laredo, Corpus Christi and Rio Grande Valley) taking on a team of CHL All-Stars comprised of players from the remaining 12 CHL teams.

The playoff format for the 2009-10 season is identical from last season.  A total of 10 teams will qualify for the post-season, consisting of five teams from each conference.  The fourth and fifth seeded teams in each conference will play a best-of-three opening round series with the winner facing their conference's first seed.  The remaining three rounds (Conference Semifinals, Conference Finals and Ray Miron President's Cup Finals) will all utilize best-of-seven game formats.