Claiborne Hauling unveils Knoxville Ice Bears truck

November 12, 2008 – The Knoxville Ice Bears professional hockey team are proud to announce a new partnership with Claiborne Hauling, East Tennessee’s premier hauling company.

Claiborne Hauling is also known for their unique dump trucks, including one for the University of Tennessee, WIVK and the Sports Animal. The Knoxville Ice Bears truck will be the latest addition to their fleet. The Knoxville Ice Bears truck will be unveiled this weekend during back-to-back home games at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum in downtown Knoxville.

Claiborne Hauling utilizes these trucks for regular jobs; however, they also strive to create charity partnerships with them. Claiborne Hauling Contractors, L.L.C. is East Tennessee’s premier hauling company for dump truck services and all types of aggregate delivery. They also offer trucks by the hour to meet all of your commercial and residential hauling needs. They provide a variety of landscaping supplies, including but not limited to: decorative rock and sand, river stone, mulch, topsoil, compost and fill dirt.

Claiborne Hauling also offers residential and commercial excavating services, and their Roll-Off “Dumpster” division provides the best and most efficient service in the area. Claiborne Hauling can even accommodate oversize and specialized load services, exceeding 150,000 pounds, through their subsidiary company, Claiborne Heavy Hauling, LLC. When asked about this venture, Mark Phillips of Claiborne Hauling said, “The partnership between Claiborne Hauling Contractors and the Knoxville Ice Bears is something that we are very excited about. Anytime Claiborne can partner with such a great organization as the Ice Bears, it’s a win-win for everyone.

We think Knoxville is a great place for business and recreation, and if we can help attract more people to the area by assisting in the publicity of our very own professional hockey team, then we want to be a part of it.”

On, Friday November 14, the Knoxville Ice Bears organization encourages all fans to bring teddy bears to the game to help collect a dump truck-full during the special “Teddy Bear Toss.” For this weekend’s Bike Night, presented by Knoxville Harley Davidson and WIMZ, fans will be instructed to toss their teddy bears onto the ice after the Knoxville Ice Bears’ first goal. The teddy bears will be collected for patients at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital. Game-worn Bike Night jerseys will auctioned off immediately following the game. The Ice Bears will also be playing at home on Saturday, November 15 as they take on the Richmond Renegades. The first one thousand fans to arrive will receive a free Ice Bears key chain, compliments of the Knoxville News Sentinel. The annual Celebrity Hockey Game will take place during the first intermission. So come out and cheer on your favorites as they battle it out on the ice. This game is brought to by WNOX. For more information visit www.knoxvilleicebears.com.

Swider named Sher-Wood Player of the Week

November 4, 2008 – Knoxville Ice Bears captain Kevin Swider was named the Sher-Wood Player of the Week for the Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) on November 3, 2008. Swider has received this award several times in the past, but continues to be rewarded for his contributions on the ice.

Swider scored one goal and had six assists in three games last week. Swider is in his 7th season with the Knoxville Ice Bears, during which time he has been a positive force on and off the ice. The young talent from Livonia, Michigan started his professional hockey career in the United Hockey League (UHL), where he played for two seasons. Swider’s first experience in Knoxville was in 2002, when the team was part of the Atlantic Coast Hockey League (ACHL). The next couple of seasons, Swider played for various teams in the World Hockey League Association 2 (WHA2), ECHL, and Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL), including the Knoxville Ice Bears. Swider was named team captain of the Ice Bears in 2006.

During his time in Knoxville, he has played in 266 games, scored 183 goals and accumulated 299 assists. Swider has led the SPHL in scoring since the league’s inception four seasons ago. Kevin Swider continues to receive accolades commending his play on the ice. THE HOCKEY NEWS 60th Anniversary Issue listed top hockey players over the years. Even in the SPHL’s short existence, Kevin Swider was listed as the #1 player in the league. Swider was also recognized as the Sher-Wood Player of the Month for November 2007 and March 2008 in the SPHL, and he was the recipient of the Sher-Wood Player of the Week on October 29, 2007. “We are very happy to have Kevin back in our line up this season. He continues to amaze and compliment those around him. We look forward to his leadership in defending our championship title ,” said president and general manager Mike Murray.

The Knoxville Ice Bears will return home on Friday November 14 for Bike Night presented by Knoxville Harley Davidson and WIMZ. The Knoxville Ice Bears organization encourages all fans to bring teddy bears to the game to contribute to the “Teddy Bear Toss,” in which teddy bears are collected for patients at East Tennessee Children’s Hospital.

Under the SPHL Hybrid Icing rule.
1) The teams must be equal strength at the time the puck is shot.
2) The puck having been shot from a player’s defensive side of the Center Red Line must completely cross the goal line without the defending team having an opportunity to play the puck.
3) The goaltender must NOT make an attempt or fake an attempt to play the puck during an icing. He shall not however be penalized for the act of playing goal. Examples:
a) Guarding the edge of the net or post as the puck crosses through the crease.
b) Retreating into the crease after establishing a position outside of the crease for the purpose of cutting down the angle. Icing shall be considered complete once the front linesman determines who would have touched the puck first. This decision shall be made by the end-zone face off dot (an imagery line across the ice connecting through the end-zone dots.) The decision the official makes in any icing situation is to determine “WHO WOULD HAVE REACHED/TOUCHED THE PUCK FIRST.” Once determined, the icing shall be waived or completed (whistle blown).

The linesmen will NOT blow the whistle until a defending player reaches the face off dot. This makes our icing rule more consistent, for time purposes.If players from opposite teams a tie in the chase for the puck or the linesmen is not clearly able to determine who would have touched the puck first icing shall be called.

Again- this is NOT a race to the dots – just ask yourself- who would have touched the puck 1st- this determination shall be made by the face-off dots. Minor and Double Minor Penalties Assessed in Overtime Recognizing that overtime periods are of shorter duration than the three twenty (20) minute regulation time periods, the SPHL has adjusted the length of penalties for both minor and double minor penalties assessed in overtime. The time of major penalties and misconduct penalties will not be reduced in overtime.

Accordingly, for a minor penalty, any player, other than a goalkeeper, shall be ruled off the ice for two (2) minutes in regulation time or for one (1) minute in overtime during which time no substitute shall be permitted. Double minor penalties which are four (4) minutes in length during regulation time will be of two (2) minutes duration during overtime. Additionally if a player is still serving a minor or double minor penalty at the end of regulation time, the player will be required to serve only half of the time remaining on the penalty commencing with the start of overtime.

Fighting/Jersey RemovalIn order to help reduce the amount of time it sometimes takes to resume play after fighting altercations and to reduce overt actions that may incite additional or continued altercations the SPHL has strengthened one part of the rule on fighting. The new rule requires that a ten (10) minute misconduct penalty be assessed to any player or goalkeeper who engages in a fight and whose jersey is removed (completely off his torso ) unless the jersey is removed as a result of the actions of an opponent in the altercation or by an official in breaking up the altercation.

Delay of Game The new rule change in the area of delay of game is intended to reduce unnecessary stoppages in play and to create additional scoring opportunities throughout the game. Thus, when any player or goalkeeper while in his defending zone, shoots the puck directly, without deflection, out of the playing surface, except where there is no glass, a penalty will be assessed for delaying the game. This penalty will not apply when the puck is shot into the players’ bench unless the puck is shot over the glass ‘behind’ the players’ bench and then a delay of game penalty will be assessed.

Face-off Locations Again to encourage offense as well as help discourage players from committing penalties, the face-off location after many penalties will be automatically moved into the offending teams’ end of the ice. The rule change requires that when players are penalized resulting in time being placed on the penalty time clock to only one team, the ensuing face-off shall be conducted at one of the two face-off spots in the offending teams’ end zone.

Thus, most single penalty situations will require that the subsequent face-off will be moved into the offending team’s end of the ice regardless of where the penalty occurred with one exception as follows: If a puck goes out of bounds immediately after a shot or a deflection by either team off a goal post, crossbar, any player or official the subsequent face-off shall always be conducted in the end zone at the nearest face-off spot. The SPHL “The Leader in Single A Hockey” is committed to providing our fans with ongoing innovation in all aspects of the game while providing the best product in all of Single A hockey.

Knoxville Ice Bears prepare for training camp

October 9, 2008 – The Knoxville Ice Bears are making preparations for their 2008-2009 training camp, which is scheduled to begin on Monday, October 13, 2008.

Each Southern Professional Hockey League (SPHL) team is allowed to have thirty players attend training camp before submitting their final 18-man roster on Wednesday, October 22.

Each team will have either two or three exhibition games during the ten day training camp period.Cool Sports home of the Icearium, located at 110 S. Watt Road, will be hosting camp on Monday, October 13 and Tuesday, October 14 beginning at 9:45 a.m. both days. Players will then skate on Wednesday, October 14 and Thursday, October 15 at the U.S. Cellular home ice located inside the Knoxville Civic Coliseum.

Practices are at the same time and are open to the public. The Ice Bears coaching staff will get a good look at returning players and potential new players during the team’s three exhibition games. The team will take on the Twin City Cyclones at home on Friday, October 17 at 7:30 p.m. The Ice Bears will then travel to Twin City on Saturday, October 18 for a road game before returning for the final pre-season game at home against the Richmond Renegades on Sunday, October 19 at 5:00 p.m. Tickets to the home exhibition games are on sale now and are only $7 each.“

This is a very exciting time of year. Our staff has worked very hard to recruit some very talented players from throughout North America. We are very happy with our signings to this point and expect camp to be highly competitive. We will return 9 or 10 players from last year’s Championship team which leaves another 8 or 9 spots up for grabs. We believe that with the 25 or so players that we will evaluate throughout camp we have an opportunity to once again put a hard working and highly competitive team on the ice.

Training camp also presents an incredible opportunity bringing young players out of college and junior hockey one step closer to fulfilling their dream of playing professional hockey. We hope that the community will join us as we get geared up for another exciting season of Ice Bear hockey in Knoxville,” head coach Scott Hillman commented.The Knoxville Ice Bears home opener is scheduled for Friday, October 24.

The defending SPHL champions will play 30 regular season home games at the Knoxville Civic Coliseum. For more information on game dates, season tickets and promotional activities, please visit www.knoxvilleicebears.com. Call (865) 656-4444 for tickets.