Ice Notes

On Friday, the Ice Bears received another honor.
At a banquet in Nashville, the Tennessee sports hall of fame recognized the organization as the 2009 professional team of the year. This season is the Bears' 6th in the SPHL, and 8th overall in Knoxville. The Ice Bears have won 3 playoff championships over the past 4 years.

The league suspended forward David Segal for 3 games following an incident Thursday night. Segal shoved a linesman during the Mississippi game, and was assessed a game misconduct for physical abuse of officials. Over the weekend, a lot of critics of the officiating. Before his ejection Thursday night, Segal was hit high by a Ryan Bartle elbow, the blow kept Segal prone on the ice surface for several minutes with no call.

Then, on Friday, defenseman Travis Martell receives a charging minor after he levels Fayetteville's Brett mcconnachie. Although after reviewing the tape it looks to be a legal hit. Penalties may be assessed at the discretion of the referee, but most charging penalties result from the offender traveling a good distance and taking three or more strides before impact; the video shows Martell is slowly coasting before the hit.

"Refereeing needs to be really closely monitored," Ice Bears GM Mike Murray said after the game. "As to how that gets done, and how we're developing the referees, like we're developing the league. Some guys aren't really welcome in other cities, and we've got to work with the refs just like we've got to do everything else. And hopefully it'll get better as time goes on."

The SPHL reports that on Saturday against the Ice Bears, Rob Sich broke the league record for number of goals in a single season - his 47th goal surpassed his own record of 46, set back in the 2006-2007 season. Sich leads the SPHL scoring race.

The bears now have 4 players among the top 20 in the SPHL scoring race. Captain Kevin Swider's in 2nd, Tim Vitek's 10th, while Taylor Hustead is tied for 14th. All 3 are linemates. Frank Furdero is tied for 16th in scoring.