A familiar face led to an achingly familiar result for the Rapid City Rush on Wednesday night.

Former Rapid City forward Mike Vaskivuo notched the eventual game-winning goal against his old team in the third period to lift the Fort Wayne Komets to a 3-1 win at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum and a 2-1 series lead in the CHL’s Turner Conference semifinals. Read more at: rapidcityjournal.com

Obviously, Wednesday didn’t go according to plan for Rich Kromm — not even close.

Instead of coaching in a Central Hockey League playoff game, the Evansville IceMen head coach/general manager had to take time to meet with his players before sending them into an uncertain offseason. Read more at: courierpress.com

Perhaps the sequence with less than a minute remaining at Memorial Coliseum on Wednesday best summarizes what’s going on in the Turner Conference semifinals.

The Komets’ Lincoln Kaleigh Schrock finished the 3-1 Game 3 victory with an empty-net goal and, while he was skating toward center ice to celebrate, was upended by Rapid City Rush right wing Konrad Reeder. Read more at: journalgazette.net

It’s like when the newlyweds move in with the bride’s mother. Nobody quite feels comfortable no matter what room they are in.

There’s no home-ice advantage in the playoff series between the Komets and Rapid City Rush because nobody is feeling too comfortable no matter where the game is played.).. Read more at: news-sentinel.com

The Texas Brahmas took a 2-1 series lead in their best-of-7 Opening Round clash with the Allen Americans thanks to their 5-4 win at the NYTEX Sports Centre on Wednesday night.  Game 4 is set for Friday night at NYTEX.

The back-and-forth game saw the Americans jump out to a 2-0 lead before watching the Brahmas score four straight to take a 4-2 advantage. Read more →

In another closely-fought and low scoring affair, the Fort Wayne Komets picked up a 3-1 win over the Rapid City Rush at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum on Wednesday night.  The Komets now lead the best-of-7 series 2-1 with game #4 slated for tomorrow at 5:35pm MST. Read more →

The Rio Grande Valley Killer Bees gave their Berry Conference Semifinal series new life with a resounding 5-2 victory over Wichita in game three. The Bees now trail the series 2-1 with each team winning their home games. Cody Carlson earned his first pro points with a goal and an assist while finishing +3. Read more →

There were things the Killer Bees liked about the first two games against the Wichita Thunder.

They got solid goaltending from Wylie Rogers in Game 1 and an even better outing from John Murray in Game 2. Their penalty kill was successful on all nine of its chances while they generally stayed close to the CHL’s best team in the regular season. Read more at: themonitor.com

Once in a while, Komets coach Al Sims will say something that you know is going to end up on an opponents’ locker room bulletin board.

Just last week, before the playoffs started, he said, “We really didn’t care who we played in the playoffs. We feel that our game hopefully can take any of the top four teams out.” Read more at: news-sentinel.com

Come playoff hockey time, it helps to have a short memory.

Putting what just happened on the ice — good or bad — in the mental rear-view mirror and zeroing in on what’s ahead is a prerequisite. Read more at: rapidcityjournal.com

In the midst of completing a first-round playoff sweep of Evansville on Monday night, the Missouri Mavericks nearly suffered a crushing loss.

Dave Pszenyczny, the sixth-year pro who was nominated for Most Outstanding Defenseman in the Central Hockey League, left game four minutes in the second period with a nasty cut on his arm, his team leading 2-0 at the time, but returned before the end of the period to help preserve the Mavericks’ 3-1 victory. Read more at: examiner.net

Expect an immediate increase in the price of carrots in South Dakota this week.

While his teammates were battling on the ice, Komets defenseman Brent Henley was battling his nerves in the stands during games 1 and 2 of the Central Hockey League playoffs last weekend. He was also devouring bags of baby carrots. Read more at: news-sentinel.com

Welcome to the Turner Conference Finals, the Missouri Mavericks have advanced to their first conference finals thanks to an Opening Round series sweep over the Evansville IceMen.

The Mavs finished off the sweep on Monday night with a 3-1 victory over the IceMen at the Independence Events Center. Read more →

-The Missouri Mavericks are the 26th team in the 20 year playoff history of the CHL (includes WPHL post-seasons as well) to have a 3-0 series lead and they will go for the sweep on Monday night at home against the Evansville IceMen.  In the previous best-of-7 series that a team has a 3-0 lead, a sweep has occurred 18 times and no team has ever come back from a 3-0 deficit to win. Read more →

(Authored by Kevin Jordan) ..Everyone knew before the playoffs began that the IceMen had their struggles down the stretch, Especially the team themselves. All they could hope for is that it not continue into the playoffs. That somehow a light would turn on and make things better. Find there game if you will. Read more →

T.J.’s Fox’s goal late in the third period Sunday night gave the Brahmas the 4-3 win over the Americans, evening the series at one game each.

The Brahmas took a 1-0 lead 3:17 into the first period when Dan Nicholls beat Rejean Beauchemin with a wrister along the right side. Read more →