Fans Warm Up to Bossier-Shreveport Ice Hockey
Published Mar 07, 2008
CenturyTel Center in Bossier City has been the home of the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs since 2000.
Ice and Northwest Louisiana are not usual partners, the winter weather here tending to be gentle and on the warm side.
But for the past decade, locals have found ice can be as hot as any regional offerings of spicy crawfish because of the Bossier-Shreveport Mudbugs of the Central Hockey League. Maybe the area isn’t thought of as a traditional hockey market, but the team’s tremendous fan support suggests otherwise.
“It’s been unlike any hockey market. We’re the exception to the rule, with our fan base growing year after year,” says Justin Scholtes, the Mudbugs’ director of media relations and broadcasting. “Our fans have not only learned the game, they’re extremely knowledgeable and have fallen in love with the team. That’s the reason we’ve had the success we’ve had.”
In the last two seasons, the Mudbugs had the third-highest attendance in the 15-team CHL. They averaged 5,538 and 5,640 at their 32 home games during the 2006-07 and 2005-06 seasons, respectively, according to team statistics compiled by Web site Pointstreak.com.
The team got its start in the mid-1990s playing in Shreveport’s Hirsch Memorial Coliseum – the biggest arena in the area until the $56.5 million CenturyTel Center opened in Bossier City in 2000.
To match increasing fan support, in every year except one the team has made appearances in the Ray Miron President’s Cup playoffs – the CHL’s equivalent of the National Hockey League’s Stanley Cup.
In 2006-07, the Mudbugs compiled the league’s best record during the regular season – 44-14-6, thereby winning the Governor’s Cup for the first time in franchise history. They were 26-5-1 at home and 18-9-5 on the road.
Bossier-Shreveport defeated Wichita in the first round of the playoffs but were upset by Memphis in the semifinal round, 4 games to 1, including an overtime loss in Game 5.
Outstanding goaltending has become a signature of the team. Rookie John DeCaro won the CHL’s Most Outstanding Goaltender award for 2006-07, with a record of 23-7-4. The native of Everett, Wash., led the league with a goals-against average of 2.20 and a save percentage of .931.
A year earlier, when the Mudbugs compiled a regular-season record of 41-15-8, Ken Carroll was named the CHL’s top goaltender, the second time he had received the honor. In 2001, the Ontario native received that award and also was named the league’s Rookie of the Year. During one part of the 2005-06 season, Carroll led the Mudbugs through a stretch of 18 games without a regulation loss.
Story by Dave Raiford
Photo by Wes Aldridge
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