Ice Notes

An update on this weeks roster moves, including suspensions and whose on the IR.

Ice Bears captain Kevin Swider had a rough weekend with injuries. On Friday, he received 4 stitches when an Ice Bears line change went wrong. "Carter went crazy, was a little too excited, had a lot of red bull tonight, was freaking out, telling Timmy to come off, so he freaked out, jumped over the boards, actually jumped on my hand, and sliced me up a little bit - so I told him to lay off the red bull."

Then in Saturday's game, Swider got banged-up in the first period - he played sparingly in the second and sat out the third. Coach Hillman says "Kevin just got hit hard, he got the wind knocked out of him - he'll be fine next game."

Swider watched the end of the Cyclones game along with ejected Ice Bears Jared Siganuk, and Andrew Gallant, and injured players Chris Rebernik and Frank Furdero.

Last week, the Ice Bears traded d-man Sean Cryer to Fayetteville for forward Justin Keller.
Hillman says "Sean Cryer will be leaving us. That's a real tough one, we all love Sean he's a great team player, and has certainly done everything the coaching staff has asked of him."

Keller finished 5th in league scoring last season, but this year through 26 games with the Fireantz, he has only 8 goals and is a negative-6 in the plus/minus category.

Newcomer Clay Lewis got to town last week from Richmond, following the Ice Bears having picked up the former Renegades defenseman off waivers...coach Scott Hillman is hoping Lewis will add toughness to Knoxville's line-up. Lewis says "I've heard nothing but great things about the organization, and just glad to be here." Coach Hillman adds "Clay, another big, strong defenseman will be in the line-up all three games this weekend, we'll put him on a 3-game tryout and make a decision on him after the weekend."

On Friday, defenseman Chris Brannen signed his 4th Ice Bears contract, but this one's a season-long deal, after Brannen previously agreed to other contracts for 3-game tryouts. As for why the decision was finally made, Coach Hillman says "our team defense, our penalty killing, and our win percentage has been much better with Chris in the line-up." Brannen scored his first goal as an ice bear on Saturday against the Cyclones and it turned out to be the game winner.

As we told you last week, Coach Hillman opened up that roster spot for Brannen by releasing forward Caleb Moffat. Hillman says "Not only is Caleb a valuable part of the team, he's a close personal friend, I brought him in here unfortunately with such a long layoff - he himself feels he hasn't progressed the way he wanted to."

Knoxville netminders Kirk Irving and Andrew Gallant are neck-and-neck now holding down the top 2 goaltending spots in the league. Irving is first among netminders with a 2.58 goals against average and a 92-percent save percentage. Gallant ranks second with a 2.59 goals against average and also has 92-percent save percentage.

The Ice Bears also now own the top two positions in the SPHL scoring race. forward Tim Vitek moved into the second spot behind line mate Swider. Vitek picked up 2 goals and 5 assists last week, and now on the season - has a dozen goals and 33 assists for a total of 45 points. Vitek says "it's been a nice little run though, that's for sure. hopefully we can keep things going here."

Forward Mike Carter also jumped up in the individual standings to 6th place, now with 10 goals and 39 points. And Twin City's Ben Manny - a former ice bear - was not in uniform for Saturday's game in Knoxville - instead, he sat on the coliseum's press row with News Sentinel sportswriter Nick Gates.
Ben Manny says, "I got hit into the boards and ending up breaking my nose and missed part of the game, but I guess decided I'd sit this one out tonight."

The Ice Bears Chris Rebernik was injured thanksgiving night in Columbus, and placed on the 30-day injured reserve list - Rebernik came off the IR December 29th, although he was physically not quite ready to re-enter the line-up.

Rebernik was back on the ice Monday and had this to say, "It's my 5th day now back on the ice and just slowly getting back into it with some skating drills on my own, some shooting, just getting a handle for the puck again. It's good, it's where I should be at this point according to the doctors." Coach Hillman says "We're actually hoping to get Chris back on the ice this weekend, whether or not it will be a regular shift is yet to be seen, but he'll join us in practice in the next few days."

Forward Frank Furdero is now wearing a cast on his right leg, after crashing into the boards going for a loose puck a week ago Friday. Furdero says, "I went to the doctor Monday, and he said it was a hairline fracture the back of my leg and I did some tendon-ligament damage." Furdero says he could be out of the line-up 6 weeks. "I'll have the cast off second week of January, and I'll be ready to go back second week of February."