The Kootenay Ice continued to falter away from the Cranbrook Rec Plex early in the 2011-12 season as the club dropped their third game on the road this season, 2-1 in a shoot-out to the Edmonton Oil Kings last night in Edmonton.
Max Reinhart had the Ice goal that gave the club a 1-0 lead until late in the third period.
Kootenay gave up 8 minor penalties and killed seven of them, the only blemish being when T.J. Foster scored with Elgin Pearce in the box to give the Oil a 4-on-3 advantage.
The Ice had only three opportunities but one was a five minute major to middle Reinhart brother Griffin, who was assessed a knee-on-knee to Ice forward Brendan Hurley. Hurley left the game with a suspected Charlie Horse.
Goaltender Nathan Lieuwen was again the difference tonight as the 20-year-old was solid in stopping 26 of 27 shots. Oil Kings goaltender Laurent Brossoit stopped 22 of 23.
T.J. Foster and Martin Gernat scored in the shootout for Edmonton while Reinhart brothers Max and Sam were stopped.
Couple of recaps here and here.
Like seasons past, scoring in the early stages of 2011 seems to be an issue, at least on the road where the club has five goals in three games and 12 on home ice. Veteran forward Drew Czerwonka is due back likely by next week's home date with the Oil Kings. His depth will make a difference but whether or not it's a big difference, we'll see.
The Ice are in Red Deer Saturday.
On another note the Swift Current Broncos - one of the Ice small-market CHL brethren, announced that the club lost almost $200,000 last season. That story is here and here.
The report and numbers are significant for several reasons but the least of which is that the two organizations can be compared to, at least off the ice, when it comes to revenue. The Broncos expenses were almost $1.6 million last season with an average attendance of 2135.
Kootenay is a private business and as such the numbers aren't made public but you can bet that the two organizations have similar expenses, demonstrating the importance of fan support. In Cranbrook that fan support has moved in the right direction with over 2100 season tickets. Of course the fact that the club wins championships doesn't hurt either.
Of note is a study the Broncos brass did with the University of Saskatchewan business school on the impact of the Broncos to Swift Current totalling $6.2 million annually with $2.2 million of it being 'new money annually'.
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