GLENDALE, Ariz. – The Central Hockey League will hold its 17th annual ‘Spring Conference’ beginning on Tuesday, May 22nd running through Wednesday, May 23rd with delegates from all CHL teams participating in league meetings, presentations and workshops.  This year’s conference will be held at the MGM Grand Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada. Highlighting this year’s conference is keynote speaker Dr. Rick Rigsby who is an international motivational speaker, ordained minister and author of Lessons of a Third Grade Dropout – the story of timeless common-sense wisdom learned from his father. Some of the stops Dr. Rigsby has made on his speaking calendar include Dell Corporation, the Professional Golfers Association (PGA), General Motors and Callaway Golf Company to name a few. Other speaking guests attending this year’s conference include Jeff Morander (Vice President of Ticketing Strategy of the National Hockey League), Joe Gregory (Vice President and General Manager of the Norfolk Admirals of the American Hockey League and the Norfolk Tides of minor league baseball’s International League), Dr. Nancy Lough (Professor of Higher Education Leadership at UNLV and Editor of Sports Marketing Quarterly) and Chuck Johnson (General Manager of the Las Vegas 51’s of minor league baseball’s Pacific League).  The CHL’s Board of Governors will be meeting over the two days determining policy and operational items for the 2012-13 season.  The final day of the conference will feature the CHL Awards Dinner honoring the outstanding organizational and front office efforts and achievements from the 2011-12 season. Contact comments@prohockeynews.com

GLENDALE, Ariz. – The Central Hockey League announced on Thursday that the two-year agreement between the CHL and the International Hockey League (IHL) will not be renewed for the 2012-13 season.  Both the Bloomington and Quad Cities markets have signed long-term CHL agreements, while Dayton, Evansville and Fort Wayne are no longer affiliated with the CHL. “We are very pleased that the agreement yielded two new markets for the CHL,” CHL Commissioner Duane Lewis said. “We are confident that both Bloomington and Quad City will be strong CHL markets for many years to come.  We do want to thank the ownership groups in Dayton, Evansville and Fort Wayne for the positives that came from the two-year CHL/IHL agreement and wish them well in their future endeavors.”  The Bloomington market joined the CHL prior to the 2010-11 season as one of the CHL-IHL partners and played one season as the PrairieThunder before having their lease with the U.S. Cellular Coliseum terminated. A new ownership group, signed to a CHL agreement, was introduced to the city of Bloomington last summer and took on the team name ‘Blaze’. The Quad City Mallards also joined the league as a part of the CHL/IHL agreement in 2010 and prior to the conclusion of this past season, announced they had fully joined the CHL. “We recognized that the growth of the sport, specifically in the five IHL markets, was in a tough position in the summer of 2010 and that a partnership to play in the CHL would provide great entertainment for the hockey fans in Illinois, Indiana and Ohio while allowing the CHL to move towards securing a more long-term relationship with those clubs,” Lewis said. “This afforded the IHL clubs a way to continue to operate for two seasons to provide their fans with the CHL professional hockey option.  We are happy that both Bloomington and Quad City have joined our family.” Contact comments@prohockeynews.com

DENVER, Colo – The Central Hockey League’s new Denver franchise announced today the team name will be the Cutthroats. The Denver Cutthroats have also released their seating sections, season ticket and game day prices for their upcoming inaugural season, which is scheduled to begin in October 2012 at the historic Denver Coliseum. The Cutthroats will bring professional hockey back to the Coliseum for the first time in 13 years, hosting 33 regular season games. The team’s colors consist of green, blue, red, and white, and the team took its name in honor of the state fish of Colorado – the Greenback Cutthroat Trout. “It’s a great looking logo that really incorporates a lot of what the state of Colorado is about,” head coach Derek Armstrong said. “Colorado has always been an active state with beautiful scenery and the logo focuses on that between the Cutthroat Trout, the mountains, the water, and the colors.  There’s no other logo like it in hockey.” The Denver-based company, Adrenalin, had the responsibility of developing the team’s logo and color scheme. “We wanted to be sure the logo included elements and colors that depict the state of Colorado and the city of Denver,” Adrenalin President Dan Price said.  “The trout maintains a position between white mountain peaks and river rapids, and breaks through a forward moving ‘D’ — representative of Denver’s progressive population.” The Cutthroat Trout was named Colorado’s state fish in 1994. Contact comments@prohockeynews.com

BLOOMINGTON, Ill. – The Bloomington Blaze, presented by Mid-Illini Credit Union, have named Brian Gratz as head coach for the team’s second season in the Central Hockey League. In four seasons as a head coach at the professional level, Gratz has taken his team to post-season play three times with the only exception being the past season’s Dayton Gems squad that was decimated by injuries throughout the entire campaign.  Of the three teams he led to playoff berths, two earned league championships, including the Indiana Ice Miners in the Mid-American Hockey League in 2008 and the Jersey Rockhoppers of the Eastern Professional Hockey League in 2009.  While in Indiana, Gratz led the way to a professional hockey record 26-game winning streak on the way to an overall record of 31-1-0. After a season as the head goaltending coach at his alma mater Penn State, Gratz entered the Central Hockey League as the head coach of the Dayton Gems for the past two seasons.  Gratz owns a career record of 118-78-21 as a head coach at the professional level. Gratz was a goaltender on four American Collegiate Hockey Association national championship teams at Penn State, and spent the the next five seasons as a goalie in minor league hockey. After his playing days, Gratz began his coaching career as a volunteer assistant coach for the ECHL’s Reading Royals in 2006-07. “Brian brings a solid understanding of what it takes to be successful in the Central Hockey League,” Blaze President and General Manager David Holt said. “His teams have consistently displayed a high level of toughness and he has a history of success. Brian knows pro hockey, particularly the CHL, very well and that knowledge combined with his enthusiasm will serve the Blaze and our fans on and off the ice very well.” Contact comments@prohockeynews.com

GLENDALE, Ariz. – The Central Hockey League announced today that the Laredo Bucks have notified the league that they will not operate during the 2012-13 season. ‘ The Bucks ownership will maintain their license agreement in the league. “The decision to cease operations was extremely difficult for the ownership group,” minority owner Glenn Hart said. “This is one of the hardest decisions we have ever had to make. We made every effort to avoid this outcome, but in our current position we thought this was the proper decision. We would like to thank the loyal support of our Corporate Partners and Season Ticket Holders over the past 10 years.” “It is a sad day for fans of the CHL and specifically Bucks fans,” CHL Commissioner Duane Lewis said. “There is tremendous history for the Bucks and for the last decade, they helped the sports world take notice of South Texas hockey. We sincerely appreciate all of their efforts over the last 10 seasons, and we will miss seeing hockey in Laredo next season.” The Bucks just completed their 10th season in the CHL and have had success with an all-time record of 368-213-59. Laredo played in four consecutive CHL Finals (2004-2007) winning the Ray Miron Presidents’ Cup in 2004 and 2006. All Laredo players have been declared unrestricted free agents within the CHL.  Contact comments@prohockeynews.com

GLENDALE, Ariz. – The Fort Wayne Komets have won the Turner Trophy as the Central Hockey League’s Turner Conference champions for 2011-12, claiming the title with a 6-4 victory over the Missouri Mavericks on Thursday night in the 30th Game 7 in Central Hockey League playoff history.  Fort Wayne will be making their first trip to the Ray Miron Presidents’ Cup Finals in their second season in the CHL and will be taking on the Wichita Thunder in the battle for the Cup.    The path this year for the Komets included an Opening Round six-game series win over the Rapid City Rush (four games to two) and their 4-3 series win over the Mavericks in the conference finals. 

The Komets earn the series win despite becoming the first CHL team to drop the first two games of a conference final on home ice. Fort Wayne battled back from 2-0 and 3-2 deficits in the series to advance to the Finals.  The Komets finished atop the Turner Conference after the regular season with a 40-19-7 record (87 points) and were the top seed in the conference playoffs.  During the regular season, Fort Wayne was 19-8-6 on home ice and a league-best 21-11-1 on the road. Fort Wayne is celebrating their 60th Anniversary season and are battling for their ninth league title. Prior to joining the CHL, the Komets won eight league titles including seven International Hockey League (IHL) crowns and one United Hockey League (UHL) title.  Fort Wayne is coached by Al Sims who is in his ninth season behind the bench for the Komets. Sims has guided the Komets to four IHL championships including an incredible stretch of three straight (1993, 2008, 2009 and 2010).  The Turner Conference and Turner Trophy is named for Joseph Turner, a goaltender from Windsor, Ontario who played professionally with the Detroit Red Wings before serving in World War II with the United States Army. Turner was killed on December 13, 1944 in Belgium during battle. Turner drew distinction as an amateur goaltender in the Michigan-Ontario amateur league playing on teams in Detroit and Windsor.  The Komets and Thunder will get the Finals underway on Saturday night at the INTRUST Bank Arena and Game 2 has been set for Sunday in Wichita. The remainder of the Finals schedule will be announced shortly. Contact comments@prohockeynews.com Contact the photographer at johnrothwell@prohockeynews.com