PHOENIX, Ariz. — The 2009 Central Hockey League (CHL) All-Star game is scheduled for Wednesday, January 14th at the Budweiser Events Center in Loveland, Colorado. Under a new format this year, the selected team will play the host team Colorado Eagles. The CHL announced the starting line-up for the CHL All-Star Team. 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. One day after announcing the starters the CHL named the 12 reserves for the game. The reserves were selected by the two co-coaches (Doug Sauter of Oklahoma City and Paul Gillis of Odessa). Making his seventh appearance, most among any player on the team, is Bossier-Shreveport’s Travis Clayton who recently set the CHL record for career games played. Joining Clayton as a reserve for the team is former long-time teammate Jason Duda of Wichita who played alongside Clayton for 11 seasons with the Thunder. Another reunion among the reserves features Tulsa’s Jeff Christian and Corpus Christi’s Chris Richards who played together for two seasons with the Youngstown SteelHounds (2005-07). During the 2006-07 season both Christian and Richards eclipsed the 100-point mark and both were finalists for the league Most Valuable Player award eventually won by Christian and both were named to the All-CHL Team. A pair of Odessa Jackalopes (the top team in the Southern Conference) were named as reserves, forward Dominic Leveille (the CHL’s leading scorer with 47 points) and defenseman Russ Moyer (tied for the league lead among defensemen with 30 points). Also named as reserves for the team are forwards Louis Dumont of Mississippi, Daymen Rycroft of Rocky Mountain along with defensemen Aaron MacInnis of New Mexico, Nicolas Dumoulin (the lone rookie reserve on the team) of Rio Grande Valley and Tyler Fleck of Oklahoma City. The back-up goaltender in the game will be Laredo’s Sebastien Centomo who is 11-7-1 with a 2.46 goals against average. Contact the author at: mitch.cooper@prohockeynews.com Media information courtesy of the CHL
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