I’m not sure how many gorillas there are in Amarillo, Texas, but for sure there was an otter, an ice dog, and a bull on the ice in North Texas last hockey season.

There were four Ontario Hockey League alumni on the Amarillo Gorillas of the Central Hockey League in 2009-10. Unfortunately, they were unable to help the team out of last place in the CHL South Division.

Joe Guenther played two seasons in the Ontario Hockey League, 2000-01 and 2001-02. In his first season, Joe played in all 68 games for the Erie Otters and contributed 66 points. In his second season, he was traded after 5 games to the Toronto St. Michael Majors, where he had 44 points in 44 games.

Guenther’s professional hockey career has taken him to nine different teams over eight seasons, all in either the CHL or ECHL. Stability has found Joe in Amarillo. He just finished his second straight season with the team. He had also played for the Gorillas for part of the 2005-06 season.

Andrew Smale played just one season in the OHL, 2001-02 with the Mississauga IceDogs. That season, he played blue line for all 68 of the team’s regular season games. After his junior year, Smale spent four years in the Canadian university system with the University of Toronto. This is his fourth season in the CHL, his first with Amarillo after three with the New Mexico Scorpions.

Neil Smith played two partial seasons in the OHL with the Belleville Bulls, 2001-02 and 2002-03. He then went on to play two seasons in the QMJHL with the Cape Breton Screaming Eagles before a three-year collegiate career with Dalhousie. 2009-10 was Neil’s second season with the Bouncers.

Mike Brown kept goal in the OHL for three seasons from 2002-03 to 2004-05. His first two and a half seasons were with the Saginaw Spirit before being traded midway through his final season to the Owen Sound Attack. Brown is the only one of the four OHL graduates on the Gorillas to have been drafted by an NHL club. Mike was selected in the fifth round, 153rd overall, by the Boston Bruins in the 2003 draft. Brown has defended between the tubes for eight different teams during his five-year professional career, including teams in the ECHL, AHL, the German Bundesliga and CHL.