Hockey

(RIO RANCHO, NM) -- Though the New Mexico Renegades are playing for the playoff lives, the El Paso Rhinos outshot their hosts, 53-24, and dominated throughout for a 6-1 win Friday night. Listen to Saturday's and Sunday's games on 600 ESPN El Paso.

Welcome to another edition of Deep Dish Sports with the Iceman Brandon Cohn. Today's show includes a discussion on UTEP coach Tim Floyd and his recent visit with USC Athletic Director Pat Haden.  We talk about the possibility of Floyd leaving UTEP following this season...

It wasn't a clean sweep, but Sunday's 7-0 shutout over the Phoenix Knights gave the El Paso Rhinos a lift as they charge into their series with the New Mexico Renegades to finish the regular season this weekend. We'll have the action on 600 ESPN El Paso.

The El Paso Rhinos have almost methodically dominated their Mountain Division of the Western States Hockey League. They have clinched a playoff birth and will close out their final regular season homestand this weekend against the Phoenix Knights.

The El Paso Rhinos and the Boulder Bison saved the best for last. After Friday's 3-0 Rhinos' win and Saturday's 4-1 Bison victory, Sunday's rubber match promised to be the best of the three-game series. It lived up to the billing, going to the ninth frame of a shootout before Taylor Barger scored on a top-shelf wrister to win it for El Paso.

The first thing that ran through my mind was, "You want me to do play-by-play for what?!" Call it a blind date that turned into a 16-year relationship spanning Acts II and III of hockey in the high desert. I wasn't around for Act I in the 1970's (Paul Zimmerman's excellent attached video on El Paso's hockey history shows a little of that). Like most of us here, I didn't know hockey from

The El Paso Rhinos are back in action this weekend against the Boulder Bison. You can listen to the action on 600 ESPN El Paso, but it's even better in person, especially when the Rhinos' team captain, Mike Rivera, is from right here in El Paso. It also helps that Mike is pretty good, too, as you can see.

Yesterday, the El Paso Rhinos announced that another member of their youth development hockey program was going to get an opportunity to play with the big club. Kendal Craig has been involved in the Rhinos program for nearly five years, and now has made the final roster of the Junior A amateur team.

Things have been good to the El Paso Rhinos this season. The team is well-rested after an off week. This weekend, the always tough Boulder Bison are in El Paso to play the Rhinos. The two teams met earlier in the season, with the Bison winning two out of the three games.

Having done more than my share of minor league hockey play-by-play, I can appreciate a good call of the wackiness that happens when you combine chaos theory with not-well-thought-out marketing strategies and sporting events. This is called minor league sports. I've dealt with a team that changed its name to the Cow Pattys, seen a team play when it snowed through a hole in the El Paso County Colise