OK City Coach Doug Sauter to Coach in CHL All-Star Game

First, the press release:

The Central Hockey League (CHL) announced today that Oklahoma City Head Coach Doug Sauter will represent the Northern Conference as one of two co-coaches for the 2009 CHL All-Star Team. The 2009 CHL All-Star Game features a unique format this season with the host Colorado Eagles (coached by Kevin McClelland) welcoming a team of CHL All-Stars. This year’s All-Star Game, presented by Poudre Valley Health System, will be played on Wednesday, January 14th, 2009 at the Budweiser Events Center and will be broadcast LIVE on Altitude Sports and Entertainment.

Sauter is entering his 14th season as the coach of the Blazers and is the CHL’s all-time winningest coach with 522 wins. The Fairlight, Saskatchewan native reached several milestones last season winning his 1200th professional game and becoming the first CHL coach to reach 500 wins. This season, his team is in first place in the Northeast Division with a 17-4-2 record.

The two coaches for the CHL All-Star Team will be comprised of the coaches with the top winning percentage in each conference following the games of December 23rd. Joining Sauter behind the bench will be either Paul Gillis of Odessa (.760 win percentage) or Terry Ruskowski of Laredo (.717 win percentage).

The playing roster for the team will be made up of 18 players (a minimum of one representative from each team) with the starters for the game announced on December 30th and the reserves on December 31st.

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Secondly, even though the Blazers aren't a Texas team, they're close enough that they qualify as a step-cousin or something (along with the Mudbugs). Anyway, Doug Sauter is a man's man. While looking for a photo for him, I came across this very amusing story that happened last fall (2007). Wow!