Fort Wayne, IN — The Komets' defense of the Turner Cup Championship will begin Friday, April 17, at 8pm at the Allen County War Memorial Coliseum against the Kalamazoo Wings.  The first round will be a best-of-seven series with the winner advancing to the finals against the winner of the Port Huron/Muskegon series.

The Komets/Wings first-round pairing will be played under a 1-1-1-1-1-1-1 format.  Game two will be at Kalamazoo Saturday at 7:30pm.  Game three will be in Fort Wayne Sunday at 6pm.  Game four is slated for Kalamazoo Wednesday, April 22 at 7pm.  If necessary, game five is scheduled for Fort Wayne ice Friday, April 24 at 8pm and game six will be held at Kalamazoo Saturday, April 25.  If a game seven is needed, it will be played in Fort Wayne Tuesday, April 28 at 7:30pm.

The Komets will have home ice advantage throughout the playoffs after taking the regular season title for the third consecutive season.

Fort Wayne vs. Kalamazoo First Round IHL Turner Cup Playoffs
Game 1:  Friday, April 17 at Fort Wayne, 8pm (WOWO Radio AM 1190)
Game 2:  Saturday, April 18 at Kalamazoo, 7:30pm (WOWO Radio AM 1190)
Game 3:  Sunday, April 19 at Fort Wayne, 6pm (WOWO Radio AM 1190)
Game 4:  Wednesday, April 22 at Kalamazoo, 7pm (ESPN Radio AM 1380)
*Game 5:  Friday, April 24 at Fort Wayne, 8pm (WOWO Radio AM 1190)
*Game 6:  Saturday, April 25 at Kalamazoo, 7:30pm (WOWO Radio AM 1190)
*Game 7:  Tuesday, April 28 at Fort Wayne, 7:30pm (Radio TBA)
*if necessary
All Komet playoff games will be webcast free at www.komets.com at Comcast KometCast.

The Komets were 7-5-1-3 vs Kalamazoo during 2008-09 while the Wings posted a 9-6-1-0 series record against Fort Wayne.

The defending Turner Cup Champion Komets will be making their 49th post-season appearance since the Fort Wayne franchise began in 1952.  It will be the 42nd appearance in the Turner Cup playoffs.  The Komets qualified for post-season play seven times while a member of the United Hockey League.  The Komets have won six championships, five in the IHL and one in UHL.  

About last week and 2008-09.....The Komets completed the 2008-09 regular season schedule with a 5-1 home win Saturday night over Bloomington for a 46-18-3-9 record and 104 points.  The Komets reached the 100-point plateau for the third straight season and 14th time in the team's 57-year history. The Komets finished with more road wins (25) than home wins (21) for the first time in Fort Wayne’s history, tying the Komets’ record of 25 road wins in a season set in 2003-04.  The Komets had only 18 losses in regulation for the fewest regulation losses in the league for the third straight season.  Over the 76-game schedule the Komets scored a total of 288 goals for the most goals scored in a season since 1994-95 when they reached 296.  The Komets attracted an attendance of 8,688 at the final home game of the regular season Saturday and set a new Fort Wayne regular season home average attendance record of 7,810 fans per game to beat the old record of 7,777 set in 2003-04.

Streaking to the finish…..rookie Sean O’Connor finished the season on an 11-game point-scoring streak  (8 goals, 6 assists).....Netminder Sebastien Laplante completed the season on a three-game win streak and nine-game unbeaten streak (6-0-2-1) after taking the 5-1 win over Bloomington Saturday. 


It’s a new Komet record…..defenseman Guy Dupuis, appearing in his 12^th Fort Wayne season, set a new record for most Komet games played.  He broke Eddie Long’s record Wednesday with game 867 and will start the playoffs at 869 (regular season and playoff games).  Dupuis finished the season with a new Komet regular season record of games played of 805, breaking Long's record of 801.
 

Eddie Long presents Guy Dupuis with a plaque commemorating Dupuis' 867th Komet game,
breaking Long's 43-year-old record of 866 Wednesday night April 8. 
photo by Ken Wiegmann

Missed it by that much……winger P.C. Drouin scored career highs of 32 goals and 66 assists to lead the Komets with a career high 98 points, just two shy of a 100-point season.....Guy Dupuis led IHL defensemen in 2008-09 with 16 goals, 51 assists and 67 points.  Dupuis, with 102 Fort Wayne career goals as a defenseman, is three short of the Komets’ record of 105 scored by defenseman Jim Burton in 1988-89.

Komet practice schedule in the week ahead
Tue. Apr. 14.......10am-11:30am at McMillen Ice Arena
Wed. Apr. 15......10am-noon at the Coliseum
Thu. Apr. 16.......10am-noon at the Coliseum
Fri. Apr. 17.........10am-11am at the Coliseum
Sun. Apr. 19.......10am-11am at the Coliseum
Tue. Apr. 21........10am-noon at the Coliseum
Komets Schedule

Komet Playoff Tickets.....the hottest ticket in town!  Komet playoff tickets for the first two Komet home playoff games Friday, April 17 and Sunday, April 19 against the Kalamazoo Wings are on sale at the Coliseum Ticket Office and online at www.ticketmaster.com.  Discounts on group tickets are also available 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.

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 2008-09 FINAL
yFort Wayne         76    46    18      3     9   104   .684   288    213    1678   21-9-3-5    25-9-0-4    9-1-0-0   1-0-0-0   
xPort Huron         76    44    21      6     5   99    .651   262    201    1275   22-11-3-2   22-10-3-3   5-3-0-2   0-1-0-2   
xMuskegon           76    43    26      3     4   93    .612   315    298    1732   24-11-1-2   19-15-2-2   4-6-0-0   2-0-0-0   
xKalamazoo          76    44    29      2     1   91    .599   274    253    1367   24-13-1-0   20-16-1-1   7-1-1-1   0-0-0-1   
Bloomington         76    29    40      2     5   65    .428   235    291    1418   16-18-2-2   13-22-0-3   2-7-0-1   0-1-0-0   
Flint               76    22    47      2     5   51    .336   241    359    1847   16-19-1-2   6-28-1-3    4-5-0-1   1-0-0-0   
TOTALS              456   228   181    18    29   503   .552   1615   1615   9317   -           -           -         -         
y-clinched regular season title
x-clinched playoff berth

FORT WAYNE KOMETS REGULAR SEASON TEAMSTATS  2008-09 FINAL
#     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   75  32   66   98   +27    92    9   29    2    3    4   6     0   0   4    0      4    .000   213    .150  
2     Dupuis, Guy         D    76  16   51   67   +34   117    6   28    3    2    2   1     1   0   2    1      4    .250   310    .052  
94    Curadeau, Mathieu   C    52  34   31   65   +21    71   13    9    2    1    5   6     1   4   1    1      6    .167   227    .150  
24    Shafranov, Konstan  LW   60  28   35   63   +26    28    9   10    0    0    4   1     1   3   0    1      6    .167   147    .190  
21    Hukalo, David       RW   70  23   39   62   +26    69   10   12    1    3    7   3     0   1   0    0      2    .000   209    .110  
44    Thomas, Leo         C    60  27   25   52   +24    76    9    5    1    1    3   7     0   1   0    0      3    .000   190    .142  
        (TOTALS)               69  31   27   58   +17   117   11    5    1    1    4   7     0   1   0    0      3    .000   215    .144  
7     Varone, Rick        C    75  23   32   55   +13   101    4    7    3    0    3   6     0   1   0    3      12   .250   145    .159  
91    Chaulk, Colin       C    38  8    45   53   +11    54    3   25    0    4    3   1     0   0   1    0      1    .000   99     .081  
29    OConnor, Sean       RW   59  23   24   47   +20    28    5    2    3    2    4   4     0   1   0    1      5    .200   176    .131  
20    Versteeg-Lytwyn, M  LW   40  13   19   32   +23    37    3    1    0    1    1   3     0   1   0    1      4    .250   122    .107  
        (TOTALS)               60  17   27   44   +17    49    3    2    0    1    2   3     0   1   0    1      4    .250   168    .101  
25    Aldoff, Rod         D    17  1     5   6    +10    12    0    2    0    0    0   1     0   0   0    0      1    .000   22     .045  
        (TOTALS)               74  8    28   36   +23    68    4   14    0    0    1   2     0   0   0    1      5    .200   107    .075  
    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  
14    Pence, Jake         D    35  1    14   15    +9    30    0    7    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   67     .015  
    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  
3     Mironovic, Danko    D    70  2    11   13   +21    65    0    0    0    0    1   1     0   0   0    0      0    .000   53     .038  
    X Boulay, Brian       D    69  6     6   12   +10   104    0    0    1    1    1   0     0   0   0    1      1    1.000  89     .067  
22    Bertram, Kevin      D    59  2    10   12   +29   131    0    2    0    1    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   62     .032  
15    MacMillan, Brad     RW   50  7     3   10    -4   231    0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   77     .091  
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  
88    Hodgman, Justin     F    6   2     3   5     +4    20    0    1    0    0    1   1     0   1   0    0      0    .000   10     .200  
    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    54  0     0   0     0     0     0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   0      .000  
60    Laplante, Sebastie  G    16  0     0   0     0     2     0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   0      .000  
19    Rodger, Keith       D    11  0     0   0     +4    5     0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   12     .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  
10    Row, Dylan          D    4   0     0   0     +2    0     0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   3      .000  
        (TOTALS)               7   0     0   0     0     0     0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   6      .000  
                               GP  G     A   PTS  +/-   PIM   PPG  PPA  SHG  SHA  GWG  FG  OTG  UAG  ENG  SHOG  SHOA  SHO%   SHOTS  SPCT  
      TOTALS                   76  288  475  763  +380  1678  81   154  17   20   46   49    5  16   8    9      53   .170   2692   .107  

#       GOALIE              GP  MIN      W   L   OTL  SOL  SO  GA   GAA   SHOW  SHO  SHOGA  SHOAA  SAVES  SPCT  
33      Boucher, Nick       54  3204:35  32  14  1    6    3   130  2.43  1     8    10     21     1475   .919  
60      Laplante, Sebastie  16  918:43   10  2   2    1    1   48   3.13  0     1    2      11     391    .891  
    X   Haun, Tim           8   493:44   4   2   0    2    1   25   3.04  1     2    4      18     218    .897  
        TOTALS              76           46  21  3    9    5   213  2.80  2     11   16     50     2084   .907