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Thursday, December 23, 1999

Look Ma, No Hands
Bumstead on scoring surge despite damage digits
By Mark Button
Caller-Times

John Kennedy/Caller-Times
Corpus Christi's Geoff Bumstead has played in the IceRays' last six games with broken bones in each hand.
National Hockey League star Eric Lindros missed two recent Philadelphia Flyers games because of a bruised left hand.
   What a baby.
   Lindros makes a living as one of the NHL's toughest players; and one who also records loads of points. Not totally unlike Western Professional Hockey League star Geoff Bumstead, a heavyweight fighter who can score and assist just as well.
   The difference is Lindros sat out with a bruised hand while Bumstead played the last six games with two broken hands.
   Before that, he played four games with chipped knuckle in his right hand.
   Oh, and Bumstead is on a 12-game assist streak, the longest individual scoring streak of any kind in the WPHL this season.
   The IceRays' leading scorer with 45 points, Bumstead will try to continue his assist streak today against Amarillo (7:05 p.m. at Memorial Coliseum).
   He'll do so with two mangled fists.
   "I broke the right one in Waco, when I fought (Cory) Evans twice," Bumstead said. "The left one happened against Central Texas, in a fight against Jacques Mailhot. Taylor told me not to fight him, but Taylor also knows me."
   Like Bumstead, Mailhot carries the reputation of one of the WPHL's toughest players.
   Bumstead said he knew it was only a matter of time before Mailhot came calling.
   He was right.
   In one of the most entertaining fights of the year, Bumstead, with the broken right hand, dropped Mailhot with a series of lefts.
  The result was a lumpy face and headache for Mailhot and a torn ligament and displaced knuckle in the pinky finger of his left hand.
  "I would have thrown rights if I would have had to," Bumstead said. "I would have came with everything for that fight."
  Turns out, the lefts were enough.
  But know Bumstead plays with tremendous pain.
  Sometimes, Bumstead said, he can't even feel his hands while he plays.
  IceRays trainer Bobby Oakley, who has 18 years of professional experience including stints with the Cleveland Browns, Carolina Panthers and Seattle Seahawks, said Bumstead is one of the two toughest athletes he has ever known (the other was IceRays captain Jody Praznik).
  Oakley called Bumstead "a seriously, seriously tough human being."
  Bumstead called Oakley a wizard.
  "Bobby's the reason I'm able to play," Bumstead said.
  Oakley wouldn't go into detail, but he said he prepares Bumstead for battle with "very aggressive therapy before every game."
  It's working.
  With 45 points (13 goals, 32 points) in 27 games, Bumstead is on pace for a 117-point season, his best by far. Last year's WPHL Most Valuable Player, Chris Robertson, recorded 109 points.
  "Last year, playing on a line with Chris was just awesome," Bumstead said. "Chris' talent is unbelievable. You could throw him on an NHL line and no one would know the difference.
  "But I like to think I'm able to adapt to whoever I play with. Last year I had to create room for (Chris), whereas this year, playing Kurt Wickenheiser and Tobin Praznik, you have Tobin who is a lot like Lorne Toews (a physical winger who played for the IceRays last season) and Kurt is like Chris in that he is a pure goal scorer. I'm finding him open a lot, so I'm passing more this year."
  Bumstead said his right hand is nearly healed and he hopes the left is back to normal soon.
  "To be honest," he said, "I can't wait for the games to end. It's more of a job with these injuries. It's taken a lot of fun out the game."
  IceRays goalie Jason Genik has known Bumstead for more than five years and said Bumstead has always been the type of player to play with pain.
  "You always hear stories about guys playing with broken bones, but never to this extent," Genik said. "But Bummer never surprises me anymore, except when he takes off his hat and I see that he's changed his hair color again."
IceCubes
ALTERED SCHEDULE: Since Waco and Abilene have ceased operations because of financial difficulties, the WPHL has revised the league schedule through December. Corpus Christi will host Odessa on Dec. 30. The IceRays were slated to entertain Abilene.
  Corpus Christi wear commemorative millennium jerseys for the Odessa game, as it is the team's last game of the century. The first 1,000 fans to the game will have a chance to win a replica jersey.
SAVAGE TO SHREVEPORT: IceRays forward Alain Savage was traded to Shreveport for future considerations to make room for forward Layne Roland, a former 50-goal WPHL scorer, who signed with the IceRays Tuesday.
  Roland recorded 53 goals and 42 assists for Central Texas in 1997-98. The 6-foot-2, 205-pound right wing spent last season and the beginning of this year playing in Germany. Roland's status for today's game will be a game-time decision.
HOLLIDAY SHUFFLE: IceRays coach Taylor Hall said Thursday that he will play defenseman Kevin Holliday at the left wing position today.
  "He's the kind of guy you want to play as much as you can. He's such a force out there," Hall said. "As a defenseman, he's not getting a chance to use all his attributes. This way he can forecheck, bang and crash. It could create a lot of opportunities for us."


Staff writer Mark Button can be reached at 886-3613 or by e-mail at buttonm@caller.com

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