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KOMETS FIRE UP 56th SEASON SATURDAY Fort Wayne, IN --- The Komets will launch their 56th consecutive season in Fort Wayne this Saturday night at 7:30 against the visiting Port Huron IceHawks. There have been 2,042 wins, 1,641 losses, 166 overtime and/or shootout lossess and 234 ties in 4,054 regular season games played during the 55-year history of Komet Hockey. In 55 home openers, the 10-time regular season champion Komets are 34-13-7-1 (W-L-OTL/SOL-T). In 1952 the Komets lost their very first home opener 4-0 to the Toledo Mercurys on Oct. 25. Last year the Komets won their 3rd straight home opener 8-3 over the Quad City Mallards Oct. 21 and extended their home-opener unbeaten streak (without a regulation loss) to 12 (10 wins, 0 losses, 2 shootout losses).Saturday night's tilt will be the 4th time the Komets have opened at home against a Port Huron team (2-0-1otl). It will be the first time the Komets have opened the regular season campaign at home since Oct. 10, 1998, when the Komets suffered a 3-2 shootout loss to the Indianapolis Ice. The puck will drop on the return of the International Hockey League to Fort
Wayne for the first time since the 1998-99 season. The Komets skated 47 seasons
in the IHL before entering the United Hockey League in 1999-00. After 8 seasons
in the UHL, the Komets return to the renewed IHL and will skate 76 regular
season games; 38 at home and 38 on the road. In addition to Fort Wayne, the IHL
member teams include Bloomington, Illinois, along with Michigan teams in
Muskegon, Kalamazoo, Flint and Port Huron. Fans are encouraged to arrive early for the pre-game festivities including the introduction of Komet legends that have been a part of Fort Wayne's 55-year history. Komet mascot Icy is sure to have something planned for the ceremony and 5,000 Glow Thunderstix will be given away to fans courtesy of Source One Solutions. The boys are back in town.....players returning to the Komets from last year include captain Guy Dupuis (D), David Hukalo (RW), Terry Marchant (C) and Kevin Hansen (D). Three players are returning as Komets from previous stints in Fort Wayne including veteran center Colin Chaulk. Chaulk is returning from a stint in Italy last season and will serve as player/assistant coach. Kevin Bertram returns to the Komet lineup after taking the last 2 seasons off to pursue a Fort Wayne Fireman career. Bertram skated on the Komet's defense 4 seasons in the UHL from 2001-2005. Also returning is winger Konstantin Shafranov. Shafranov last played in Fort Wayne during the 1999-2000 UHL campaign and has appeared in elite Russian league play over the past 7 years since. Komet game times unchanged.....Komet home games will continue to start under the same arrangement as last year. Monday-Thursday and Saturday games faceoff at 7:30pm at the coliseum. Friday games will begin at 8pm and Sunday games will start at 5pm. The Komets will continue the Thanksgiving day game again this year hosting the Port Huron IceHawks at 7:30pm on turkey night. The annually celebrated New Year's Eve game will bring in the Bloomington PrairieThunder for a 7:30pm faceoff. Komets finish preseason 1-2-0-0.....the Komets skated 3 preseason tune-ups posting a 1-2-0-0 (W-L-OTL-SOL) record. Wednesday, Oct. 10 the Komets were clipped at home by Bloomington 5-4. Friday the Komets stopped the Wings at Kalamazoo 5-4 in a shootout and Saturday night, Oct. 13 the Komets dropped a 7-4 decision to the visiting Wings. Winger Jason Sessa led the IHL in the preseason with 4 goals. Sessa also led the Komets with 6 points while winger Luciano Aquino posted an IHL high +4 in 3 games and defenseman Kevin Bertram accumulated a league-high 23 penalty minutes in 2 games. Goaltender Kevin Reiter topped Fort Wayne netminders with a 2.97 goals-against-average and .900 save percentage in 2 appearances (60:31). Aquino and defenseman Sergei Durdin each finished with IHL high 3-game point streaks. The Komets and Wings tied for most IHL goals in exhibition with 13 each. Komets trim preseason roster by 4.....the Komet's preseason roster has been trimmed by 4 players. Randy Upshall (D), Clay Lewis (D), Dustin Hughes (C) and goaltender Shawn Monette have been released from the Komet's training camp bringing the preseason roster to 23 players as of today, Oct. 15, 2007. Got Komet Tickets.....tickets for all 2007-08 Komet home games are on sale at the Coliseum Ticket Office and online at www.ticketmaster.com. The Komets offer discounts on group tickets sold at the Komet office at 1010 Memorial Way in Fort Wayne. Season tickets also continue to be on sale. For more information on season tickets and group ticket sales, visit the Komet office, call 260-483-0011 or visit the Komets online at www.komets.com. Bob Chase returns for his 55th.....most of the Komet games will be broadcast on WOWO Radio AM 1190 this year with Bob Chase at the Fort Wayne microphone for his 55th consecutive season. Again this year, some games will be aired on WKJG/ESPN Radio AM 1380 as an alternative when conflicts occur. All games aired on radio will also be available via the internet at Comcast KometCast at www.komets.com . Follow the scoring live.....fans can keep up with the official scoring of all Komet games this season by clicking on the "Scoreboard" link at Komets.com. Real time, up-to-the-minute scoring via Poinstreak will be provided over the internet league wide. Icy has free stuff for you.....the Komets mascot "Icy" will have giveaways for fans at the turnstiles for every Komet home game this year. For a list of the fan-pleasers and more information, visit the Komets website at Komets.com. -Icy Giveaways- Speaking of Komets.com.....the official website of the Fort Wayne Komets is www.komets.com . In addition to live gamecasts, the Komet's home on the web also features stats, news, interactive fan features and information as well as real-time scoring via the IHL and Pointstreak. Scoring of all Komet games can be viewed as it happens at www.komets.com . FORT WAYNE KOMETS PLANNNER  |
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