Komets enter week 20 at 26-16-2-8
Lumberjacks visit Wednesday, Generals invade Friday

FORT WAYNE KOMETS PRESS RELEASE                    
Fort Wayne Komet Hockey Club | 1010 Memorial Way, Fort Wayne, IN  46805 | 260.483.0011
Member International Hockey League
Contact: Chuck Bailey, Director of Communications | 260.482.6550 | chuck@komets.com

Posted Monday, February 23, 2009

Fort Wayne, IN — The Komets completed week 19 of 2008-09 with a split of two games played for a 26-16-2-8 record and 62 points after 52 games.  Fort Wayne trails Port Huron and Muskegon by six points in the race to the top of the IHL with seven weeks remaining.

The week started with a 10-1 shellacking of the last place Generals in Flint Friday.  It was the third time this season the Komets have reached 10 goals in a game.  The win extended Fort Wayne's road unbeaten streak to eight games.

Saturday the Komets fell 5-3 to the visiting Kalamazoo Wings for their 12th home loss of the season surpassing last season's total home losses by three.  It was the Komets' first loss in regulation in February and the first in eight games.  The loss snapped the Komets' unbeaten streak at seven games.

Looking ahead the Komets will welcome the first-place Muskegon Lumberjacks Wednesday at 7:30pm.  The Komets are an even 4-4-1-2 against the Jacks this season after 11 meetings and 1-2-1-1 in the series on Fort Wayne ice.  The Komets have tangled with Muskegon 444 times over the history of both franchises and Fort Wayne holds a 227-178-16-23 (W-L-OTL/SOL-T) all-time series lead.  The Lumberjacks moved into a first-place tie with Port Huron after a 3-2 win at Flint Sunday and are on a five-game winning streak roll.

Friday the Komets remain home to host the Flint Generals at 8pm.  Friday's Komet game will be the last home game until March 14, making way for Disney On Ice to be held at the Memorial Coliseum March 5-8.  Flint is hoping to turn things around after suffering their sixth straight loss to Muskegon Sunday.  The Komets are unbeaten by the Generals at home this season (5-0-0-0) and lead the series 8-1-0-1 overall after 10 meetings.

Saturday the Komets get back on the road to Kalamazoo for a 7:30pm start at Wings Stadium and the last game of February.  It's the 13th of 16 meeting this season as the Komets are 4-4-1-3 in the series, 2-2-0-1 at Kalamazoo.  The Wings are 6-2-1-0 in their last nine outings and will host Port Huron Wednesday and Muskegon Friday before facing the Komets Saturday.

Speaking of March 14......that's when the Fort Wayne Komet Hockey Club will also present the Legends Game when Komet legends face the Detroit Red Wings Alumni Association at 5pm.  Former Komet greats including Eddie Long, Steve Fletcher, Kelly Hurd, Ian Boyce, Doug Rigler, Dale Baldwin, Grant Richison and more are expected to skate against former Red Wing stars including Dennis Hextall, Joey Kocur, Shawn Burr, John Ogrodnick, Paul Ysebaert and more.  The game will be played in two 20-minute running time periods.  The Legends game will be followed by the current Komets IHL home game against the Kalamazoo Wings at 7:30pm.  All tickets purchased for the Komets game against Kalamazoo will also be good for the Legends game.  Doors will open at 4pm with warmups scheduled to get underway at 4:30pm.

Streaking Komets:  Center Mathieu Curadeau has an IHL high eight-game point streak (5 goals, 6 assists) and four-game goal scoring streak (5 goals).  Right wing David Hukalo has a five-game point and assist streak (3 goals, 6 assists).  Rookie right wing Sean O'Connor is riding a three-game point and assist streak (2 goals, 3 assists).  Komet netminder Sebastien Laplante maintains his unbeaten streak of five games (3-0-1-1).

Hitting the mark:  Right wing David Hukalo dished his 100th Fort Wayne career assist Saturday vs. Kalamazoo.

Season Ticket Exchange Night Wednesday.....Komet season ticket holders can take advantage of another Season Ticket Exchange Night this Wednesday when the Komets host Muskegon at 7:30pm.  Unused tickets from previous Komet home games this season can be exchanged at the Coliseum Ticket Office for tickets to Wednesday night's game.

Marathon Night Friday.....Fans can use their Marathon fill-up cards to get free tickets for this Friday's game against the Flint Generals at 8pm.  Fill up cards are available at all area participating Marathon stations.  Two fill-ups on a card get fans a buy-one, get-one-free ticket offer.

KOMETS PLANNER
Komet games coming up
Wednesday, Feb. 25.....Muskegon Lumberjacks at Komets, 7:30pm, ESPN Radio AM 1380
Friday, Feb. 27.....Flint Generals at Komets, 8pm, WOWO Radio AM 1190
Saturday, Feb. 28.....Komets at Kalamazoo Wings, 7:30pm, WOWO Radio AM 1190
All games broadcast on radio are webcast free at www.Komets.com Comcast KometCast
Komet practice schedule
Tue. Feb. 24.....10am-noon at the Coliseum
Wed. Feb. 25.....10am-11am at the Coliseum
Thu. Feb. 26.....11am-noon at McMillen Ice Arena
Fri. Feb. 27.....10am-11am at the Coliseum
Mon. Mar. 2.....10am-11:30am at McMillen
Tue. Mar. 3.....10am-11:30am at McMillen
Komets Schedule

Tickets.....Komet tickets 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.  For more information visit the Komet office, the Komets' website at www.komets.com, or call 260-483-0011.

Komet Hockey On The Web and Air.....Most Komet games are broadcast on WOWO Radio AM 1190 with Bob Chase at the Fort Wayne microphone for his 56th consecutive season.  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 free on the internet at Comcast KometCast at www.komets.com.  Fans can follow the official scoring of all Komet games this season by clicking on the "Scoreboard" at www.komets.com.

Komets.com.....The official website of the Fort Wayne Komets is www.komets.com.  In addition to featuring free webcasting of live Komet game radio, Komets.com also provides fans and media with up-to-date team stats, news, interactive fan features and information.  Fans can also follow all Komet games with real-time scoring via the IHL and Pointstreak by clicking the Scoreboard at Komets.com.


IHL STANDINGS thru games of 2/21/09
TEAM                GP    W     L     OTL   SOL   PTS   WPCT   GF     GA     PIM    HOME        ROAD        L-TEN     STREAK    
Port Huron          53    31    16      5     1   68    .642   180    144    957    15-9-2-0    16-7-3-1    5-2-3-0   0-0-1-0   
Muskegon            52    31    15      3     3   68    .654   212    199    1290   17-8-1-2    14-7-2-1    7-2-0-1   5-0-0-0   
Kalamazoo           52    31    20      1     0   63    .606   188    164    974    17-6-1-0    14-14-0-0   6-3-1-0   1-0-0-0   
Fort Wayne          52    26    16      2     8   62    .596   192    158    1197   11-9-2-4    15-7-0-4    4-2-1-3   0-1-0-0   
Bloomington         52    23    25      1     3   50    .481   172    200    1007   15-11-1-1   8-14-0-2    6-3-0-1   1-0-0-0   
Flint               55    16    33      2     4   38    .345   172    251    1314   10-14-1-1   6-19-1-3    1-9-0-0   0-6-0-0   
TOTALS              316   158   125    14    19   349   .552   1116   1116   6739   -           -           -         -         

FORT WAYNE KOMETS TEAMSTATS  thru games of 2/21/09
#     PLAYER              POS  GP  G     A   PTS  +/-   PIM   PPG  PPA  SHG  SHA  GWG  FG  OTG  UAG  ENG  SHOG  SHOA  SHO%  SHOTS  SPCT  
71    Drouin, P.C.        LW   52  26   42   68   +15    60    6   16    2    3    3   6     0   0   2    0      4    .000  160    .163  
2     Dupuis, Guy         D    52  11   34   45   +18    86    5   20    2    2    2   1     1   0   1    0      3    .000  207    .053  
21    Hukalo, David       RW   47  13   30   43   +17    56    6   10    1    1    4   2     0   1   0    0      2    .000  127    .102  
91    Chaulk, Colin       C    28  5    38   43    +6    46    2   21    0    3    2   1     0   0   0    0      1    .000  69     .072  
7     Varone, Rick        C    52  16   24   40    +8    83    3    6    2    0    2   3     0   1   0    3      11   .273  112    .143  
94    Curadeau, Mathieu   C    28  22   17   39    +8    51    8    6    1    0    3   4     1   3   0    1      5    .200  130    .169  
44    Thomas, Leo         C    36  16   15   31   +15    38    6    3    1    0    2   4     0   1   0    0      3    .000  120    .133  
        (TOTALS)               45  20   17   37    +8    79    8    3    1    0    3   4     0   1   0    0      3    .000  145    .138  
24    Shafranov, Konstan  LW   37  15   20   35   +14    20    5    5    0    0    2   0     0   3   0    1      5    .200  85     .176  
20    Versteeg-Lytwyn, M  LW   16  7    10   17    +7    10    1    1    0    1    0   1     0   1   0    1      4    .250  54     .130  
        (TOTALS)               36  11   18   29    +1    22    1    2    0    1    1   1     0   1   0    1      4    .250  100    .110  
19    Osman, Dominic      RW   31  17   10   27    +3    18    7    3    1    0    2   2     0   0   0    0      1    .000  119    .143  
29    OConnor, Sean       RW   42  14   13   27    0     22    4    2    0    1    1   2     0   1   0    1      5    .200  128    .109  
    X Warner, Brandon     D    26  7     7   14    -1    27    2    3    0    0    1   3     0   0   0    0      1    .000  45     .156  
74    Gravelle, Maxime    C    49  4    10   14    -4    52    0    1    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000  52     .077  
28    Holladay, Jay       D    51  2    11   13    +6    77    0    4    0    0    0   2     0   0   0    0      2    .000  99     .020  
15    MacMillan, Brad     RW   40  6     3   9     -3   192    0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000  62     .097  
3     Mironovic, Danko    D    51  2     7   9    +11    53    0    0    0    0    1   1     0   0   0    0      0    .000  42     .048  
22    Bertram, Kevin      D    35  1     5   6    +13    91    0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000  36     .028  
    X Lewis, Adam         C    22  1     5   6    -10    23    0    0    0    1    0   0     0   1   0    0      0    .000  40     .025  
82    Legault, Olivier    LW   24  3     2   5     +1    49    0    0    0    0    0   1     0   0   0    0      0    .000  18     .167  
14    Pence, Jake         D    13  1     4   5     -2    8     0    2    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000  27     .037  
4     Boulay, Brian       D    52  2     2   4     +5    80    0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000  62     .032  
    X Beckett, Jason      D    8   0     2   2     +7    15    0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000  21     .000  
    X Potts, Ryan         F    5   0     2   2     +2    0     0    1    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000  0      .000  
52    Tarantino, Vince    D    11  0     1   1     +8    2     0    1    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000  9      .000  
    X Field, Mike         F    7   0     1   1     -4    20    0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000  1      .000  
33    Boucher, Nick       G    34  0     0   0     0     0     0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000  0      .000  
60    Laplante, Sebastie  G    11  0     0   0     0     2     0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000  0      .000  
    X Haun, Tim           G    8   0     0   0     0     2     0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000  0      .000  
                               GP  G     A   PTS  +/-   PIM   PPG  PPA  SHG  SHA  GWG  FG  OTG  UAG  ENG  SHOG  SHOA  SHO%  SHOTS  SPCT  
      TOTALS                   52  192  315  507  +149  1197  55   105  10   12   26   33    3  13   3    7      47   .149  1826   .105  

#       GOALIE              GP  MIN      W   L   OTL  SOL  SO  GA   GAA   SHOW  SHO  SHOGA  SHOAA  SAVES  SPCT  
33      Boucher, Nick       34  2035:09  15  12  1    5    1   94   2.77  0     6    9      17     920    .907  
60      Laplante, Sebastie  11  636:01   7   2   1    1    1   30   2.83  0     1    2      11     280    .903  
    X   Haun, Tim           8   493:44   4   2   0    2    1   25   3.04  1     2    4      18     218    .897  
        TOTALS              52           26  18  2    8    3   158  3.04  1     9    15     46     1418   .900