Wednesday, December 31, 2008

2009 CHL All-Star Game Starters Announced


Admin note: This was information was released yesterday - sorry for the delay in passing it along. Judging by comments, no one has been too distressed about any delays thus far...

The 2009 Central Hockey League (CHL) All-Star game is scheduled for Wednesday, January 14th at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colorado and Tuesday the CHL announced the starting line-up for the CHL All-Star Team that is scheduled to play the host team, Colorado Eagles. The starters were selected following completion of balloting among all CHL Head Coaches, Communications Departments and selected media members in each market. There were 50 total ballots cast in the voting process.

The top vote getter was Oklahoma City goaltender Andy Franck who received 37 of the 50 goaltender votes. As a result, he will start between the pipes for the second consecutive season. Last year, the Reminderville, Ohio native was voted the starter for the Northern Conference while a member of the Youngstown SteelHounds. Franck is 10-4-3 this season with a 2.06 goals against average.

The starting forwards are Arizona’s Joel Irving, Rapid City’s Rich Hansen and Laredo’s Darryl Smith. Irving appeared on 26 of the ballots representing the top vote-getting forward. He is among the league leaders with 41 points and 21 goals for the defending Ray Miron President’s Cup champions. Hansen leads the expansion Rush in scoring with 39 points (13-26=39) and was named the Sher-Wood/CHL Player of the Month for October. Smith (called up to the AHL’s Houston Aeros earlier today) leads all rookies in scoring with 38 points and is tops among first-year players with 19 goals.

The starting defensemen are Amarillo’s Sam Ftorek who led all blueliners with 21 votes. He is tied among all defensemen with 30 points (11-19=30) on the season. Joining Ftorek on defense will be Texas’ Justin Kinnunen who has five goals and 10 assists on the season and is tied for the Brahmas team lead with a +10 plus/minus rating.

2009 CHL All-Star Starters
Position Player Team Appearance

Forward Joel Irving Arizona 1st
Forward Rich Hansen Rapid City 2nd
Forward Darryl Smith Laredo 1st
Defenseman Justin Kinnunen Texas 2nd
Defenseman Sam Ftorek Amarillo 1st
Goaltender Andy Franck Oklahoma City 2nd

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