Komets jump into first place
Lead second place Jacks and Hawks by five points
Boucher streaks to third straight weekly award
Muskegon visits for two Wednesday and Saturday

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, March 30, 2009

Fort Wayne, IN — Week 24 of 2008-09 began as the Komets' most important week of the year and turned out to be Fort Wayne's most successful week of the season.  The Komets entered the week trailing first-place Port Huron by a single point.  At the week's conclusion the Komets had won all four games played, improved to 41-17-3-9 for 90 points and jumped into a five-point first-place lead over second-place Port Huron and Muskegon with two weeks and six games remaining in the regular season.  The Komets extended their winning streak to six games and are unbeaten in regulation 13 straight (12-0-0-1).  The Komets have won seven consecutive road games and four straight games at home.

The week started with a 4-1 home win against Flint Wednesday with the Komets collecting goals from Leo Thomas, Mathieu Curadeau, Konstantin Shafranov and Rick Varone.  Friday the Komets blanked the visiting Generals 2-0.  Komet netminder Nick Boucher earned his third shutout of the season stopping all 20 Flint shots.  Sean O'Connor scored the game winner with P.C. Drouin adding the insurance tally.

Saturday the Komets doubled-up the visiting Port Huron Icehawks 4-2 to take the season series 9-5-0-1.  Rod Aldoff, Guy Dupuis, David Hukalo and Colin Chaulk each hit the net for Fort Wayne in the win.

Sunday the Komets finished the season series against Flint with a 6-5 shootout win at Perani Arena and took the series against the Generals 14-1-0-1.  Komet goals in regulation were scored by Curadeau, Brad MacMillan, Dupuis, O'Connor and Brian Boulay.  Dupuis and Boulay each hit the mark for Fort Wayne in the shootout while Boucher stoned both Flint shooters for the win.

Sizzling Komet Boucher IHL Goaltender of the Week, again......Nick Boucher has been named the Southern Sports Supply IHL Goaltender of the Week for the third straight week and fifth time this season for the week ending March 29.  Boucher won all four appearances this week to extend his unbeaten streak to 11 games (10-0-0-1) including a six-game win string.  The netminder allowed only three goals in 205 minutes of play for a 0.88 goals-against average and stopped 86 of 89 shots for a .966 save percentage.  Boucher also registered his third shutout of the season on 30 saves Friday vs. Flint in a 2-0 win.  The sixth-year pro registered a career high 28th win of the season Sunday at Flint in relief after facing five shots in the third period and six in overtime before stoning the Generals in the shootout.  He stopped both Flint shooters for his first shootout victory of the year.  Boucher leads IHL goaltenders with 28 wins, an overall 2.40 goals-against average and .921 save percentage in 49 appearances.  Boucher is a leading contender for IHL Goaltender of the Month for March after posting an 11-1-0-1 record, 1.44 goals-against average and .955 save percentage along with two shutouts for the month.

March madness…..The Komets completed the month of March earning 27 of a possible 30 points (13-1-0-1) for a .900 winning percentage for the month, scoring points in 14 of the 15 games played and practically mirroring last year’s March performance of 13-0-0-1. 

Looking ahead, the Muskegon Lumberjacks will be in town this week for both Komet home games.  The Komets faceoff against the Jacks Wednesday at 7:30pm and again Saturday at 7:30pm.  Muskegon (41-21-3-4) has moved into a second place tie with Port Huron in the IHL and trail the Komets by five points going into the second-to-last week of the season with one game in hand over the Komets.  The Jacks are 6-1-0-1 in their last eight games and are coming off a pair of weekend wins Saturday and Sunday, both against Bloomington.   

Friday the Komets will travel to Bloomington (27-34-2-5) for an 8:05pm faceoff against the PrairieThunder at U.S. Cellular Coliseum.  The Thunder have been eliminated from the IHL post season and have not won a game in regulation since March 14 going 0-6-1-1 their last eight games.  The Komets will host the PrairieThunder in the last two Fort Wayne home games of the season April 8 and 11.

Streaking Komets:  Goaltender Nick Boucher is unbeaten in 11 straight games and has a six-game winning streak and win streaks of five on the road and four at home……Sean O’Connor has a three-game point streak (2 goals, 1 assist)…..Guy Dupuis has a three-game point streak (2 goals, 1 assist).

Career Year.....Netminder Boucher has a career high of 28 wins…..winger P.C. Drouin scored a goal in the Komets’ 2-0 win vs. Flint Friday to tie his career best mark of 29 goals in a season and reached his career high of 62 assists with three assists in Sunday’s 6-5 win at Flint….. Guy Dupuis’ goal Sunday at Flint gives the defenseman a career high of 16 goals in a season…..winger David Hukalo tied his career best of 20 goals with a marker in the Komets’ 4-2 win Saturday against Port Huron.  Hukalo has already reached career highs of 35 assists and 55 points for the year.

Milestones:  Left wing P.C. Drouin scored his 100th Fort Wayne career goal in Sunday’s 2-0 win vs. Flint…..defenseman Rod Aldoff netted his 100th pro goal when he scored the first goal of the 4-2 win vs. Port Huron…..
......defenseman Guy Dupuis has appeared in 799 regular season Fort Wayne games and is three games shy of breaking the team’s record of 801 games set by Eddie Long in 1965-66.  Dupuis has skated an all-time total (regular season and playoffs) of 863 Fort Wayne games and needs four more to break the record of 866, also set by Eddie Long.  Speaking of records, Dupuis added two goals this past week for a Fort Wayne career total of 102 and needs four more to break the regular season record of 105 goals by a Fort Wayne defenseman set in 1988-89 by Jim Burton.
KOMETS PLANNER
Komet games coming up
Wednesday, April 1.....Muskegon Lumberjacks at Komets, 7:30pm, ESPN Radio AM 1380
Friday, April 3.............Komets at Bloomington PrairieThunder, 8pm (Fort Wayne time), WOWO Radio AM 1190
Saturday, April 4.........Muskegon Lumberjacks at Komets, 7:30pm (FW time), WOWO Radio AM 1190
All games broadcast on radio are webcast free at www.Komets.com Comcast KometCast
Komet practice schedule
Tue. Mar. 31.....10am-noon at the Coliseum
Wed. Apr. 1......10am-11am at the Coliseum
Thu. Apr. 2.......10am-noon at the Coliseum
Fri. Apr. 3.........10am-11am at McMillen Ice Arena
Mon. Apr. 6......10am-noon at the Coliseum
Tue. Apr. 7.......10am-noon at the Coliseum
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 3/29/09
TEAM                GP    W     L     OTL   SOL   PTS   WPCT   GF     GA     PIM    HOME        ROAD        L-TEN     STREAK    
xFort Wayne         70    41    17      3     9   94    .671   261    198    1572   17-9-3-5    24-8-0-4    9-0-0-1   6-0-0-0   
xMuskegon           69    41    21      3     4   89    .645   285    263    1623   22-11-1-2   19-10-2-2   6-3-0-1   2-0-0-0   
xPort Huron         69    40    20      6     3   89    .645   234    184    1182   19-11-3-1   21-9-3-2    4-4-1-1   0-1-0-0   
xKalamazoo          70    40    28      2     0   82    .586   253    235    1272   22-12-1-0   18-16-1-0   6-3-1-0   0-0-1-0   
Bloomington         68    27    34      2     5   61    .449   216    260    1266   15-16-2-2   12-18-0-3   2-6-1-1   0-6-1-1   
Flint               70    19    44      2     5   45    .321   215    324    1712   13-18-1-2   6-26-1-3    2-7-0-1   0-0-0-1   
TOTALS              416   208   164    18    26   460   .553   1464   1464   8627   -           -           -         -         

FORT WAYNE KOMETS TEAMSTATS  thru games of 3/29/09
#     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   70  29   62   91   +23    80    7   27    2    3    3   6     0   0   3    0      4    .000   197    .147  
2     Dupuis, Guy         D    70  16   46   62   +27   107    6   27    3    2    2   1     1   0   2    1      4    .250   288    .056  
94    Curadeau, Mathieu   C    46  31   27   58   +18    65   12    8    2    1    5   6     1   4   0    1      6    .167   199    .156  
21    Hukalo, David       RW   64  20   36   56   +23    69   10   12    1    3    7   3     0   1   0    0      2    .000   187    .107  
44    Thomas, Leo         C    54  25   23   48   +23    57    8    5    1    0    3   7     0   1   0    0      3    .000   176    .142  
        (TOTALS)               63  29   25   54   +16    98   10    5    1    0    4   7     0   1   0    0      3    .000   201    .144  
7     Varone, Rick        C    70  22   31   53   +11    97    4    6    3    0    3   6     0   1   0    3      12   .250   140    .157  
24    Shafranov, Konstan  LW   54  23   29   52   +21    24    7    9    0    0    4   1     1   3   0    1      6    .167   126    .183  
91    Chaulk, Colin       C    32  6    39   45    +7    50    3   22    0    3    2   1     0   0   1    0      1    .000   80     .075  
20    Versteeg-Lytwyn, M  LW   34  12   18   30   +25    35    2    1    0    1    1   3     0   1   0    1      4    .250   101    .119  
        (TOTALS)               54  16   26   42   +19    47    2    2    0    1    2   3     0   1   0    1      4    .250   147    .109  
29    OConnor, Sean       RW   53  18   21   39   +10    26    5    2    0    2    2   3     0   0   0    1      5    .200   157    .115  
25    Aldoff, Rod         D    11  1     5   6     +8    10    0    2    0    0    0   1     0   0   0    0      1    .000   14     .071  
        (TOTALS)               68  8    28   36   +21    66    4   14    0    0    1   2     0   0   0    1      5    .200   99     .081  
    X Osman, Dominic      RW   37  18   12   30    +4    37    7    3    1    0    3   2     0   0   0    0      1    .000   137    .131  
    X Holladay, Jay       D    57  3    12   15    +9    81    0    4    0    0    0   2     0   0   0    0      2    .000   113    .027  
    X Warner, Brandon     D    26  7     7   14    -1    27    2    3    0    0    1   3     0   0   0    0      1    .000   45     .156  
    X Gravelle, Maxime    C    59  4    10   14    -3    60    0    1    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   55     .073  
4     Boulay, Brian       D    69  6     6   12   +10   104    0    0    1    1    1   0     0   0   0    1      1    1.000  89     .067  
3     Mironovic, Danko    D    65  2    10   12   +16    63    0    0    0    0    1   1     0   0   0    0      0    .000   50     .040  
14    Pence, Jake         D    29  1    10   11    +7    22    0    5    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   58     .017  
15    MacMillan, Brad     RW   48  7     3   10    -4   224    0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   77     .091  
22    Bertram, Kevin      D    53  2     7   9    +25   127    0    0    0    1    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   57     .035  
82    Legault, Olivier    LW   39  5     3   8     0    116    1    1    0    0    1   1     0   0   0    0      0    .000   32     .156  
    X Lewis, Adam         C    22  1     5   6    -10    23    0    0    0    1    0   0     0   1   0    0      0    .000   40     .025  
    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  
    X Podelnyk, Mike      F    1   0     1   1     +1    2     0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   4      .000  
33    Boucher, Nick       G    49  0     0   0     0     0     0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   0      .000  
60    Laplante, Sebastie  G    15  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  
19    Rodger, Keith       D    5   0     0   0     +2    5     0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   6      .000  
    X Row, Dylan          D    3   0     0   0     0     0     0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   2      .000  
                               GP  G     A   PTS  +/-   PIM   PPG  PPA  SHG  SHA  GWG  FG  OTG  UAG  ENG  SHOG  SHOA  SHO%   SHOTS  SPCT  
      TOTALS                   70  261  429  690  +321  1572  74   140  14   18   41   47    5  14   6    9      53   .170   2463   .106  

#       GOALIE              GP  MIN      W   L   OTL  SOL  SO  GA   GAA   SHOW  SHO  SHOGA  SHOAA  SAVES  SPCT  
33      Boucher, Nick       49  2905:45  28  13  1    6    3   116  2.40  1     8    10     21     1346   .921  
60      Laplante, Sebastie  15  858:43   9   2   2    1    1   47   3.28  0     1    2      11     367    .886  
    X   Haun, Tim           8   493:44   4   2   0    2    1   25   3.04  1     2    4      18     218    .897  
        TOTALS              70           41  20  3    9    5   198  2.83  2     11   16     50     1931   .907