Fort Wayne, IN — The Komets won three out of four games played to complete week 23 at an improved 41-19-1-2 for 85 points and moved to within six points of first-place Muskegon with 13 games remaining and two games in hand over the league-leader.

In last week's action the Komets started the week with a 4-3 win in their last visit of the season at Port Huron.  The Komets were 2-3-0-0 in five meetings at McMorran Arena.  Friday the Komets grounded the visiting Quad City Mallards 5-3 to reach the 40-win mark for the eighth consecutive season.  Saturday the Komets completed the home double-header with a 4-3 setback to Muskegon.  The week concluded with a 5-0 whitewashing of the Gems in Dayton with Nick Boucher posting his second shutout of the season stopping a team season high 44 shots.  Colin Chaulk (C) posted his third four-point game of the season scoring two goals and adding two assists.  Chaulk's second assist of the game gave him 50 assists for the sixth time in his career.

This week the Komets will hit the road for three games in three nights starting at Muskegon Friday at 7pm.  The Komets are 4-5-0-0 in nine previous meetings after last Saturday's 4-3 home loss to the Lumberjacks.  The second-place Komets trail the Jacks in the race for the Huber Trophy by six points.  Muskegon also has the week off until their meeting with the Komets Friday.

Saturday the Komets return to Dayton for a 7:30pm faceoff at Hara Arena.  The Komets lead the series 8-3-0-0.  Saturday's game will be the Komets' eighth of nine visits to Dayton where they are 6-1-0-0 after last Sunday's 5-0 win at Hara Arena.  The Gems skate at Bloomington Wednesday and host Port Huron Friday before facing the Komets Saturday.

Sunday the Komets travel to Flint for a 4pm faceoff.  It will be the first meeting since the Generals defeated the Komets in both games of a home-and-home series March 6 and 7.  Sunday's match will be the fifth of six at Perani Arena where the Komets are 1-2-0-1 in three previous meetings.  Flint is 7-2-1-0 in their last 10 games and continues to chase Bloomington for a fourth and final playoff spot.  The Generals trail Bloomington by five points with 12 games remaining.  Flint is idle until the Komets visit Sunday.

Next Komet home game Thursday, April 1st.  No Foolin'!  The Komets' next home game is Thursday, April 1st against the Dayton Gems at 7:30pm.  It'll be the third and final Thursday home game of the regular season.  The Komets are 2-0 in previous Thursday home tilts.  It will be Season Ticket Exchange Night.  Komet fans can exchange their unused tickets from earlier Komet home games for tickets to the game April 1st.

Komets clinch for 50th playoff appearance.....the Komets will be in the playoffs for the 50th time in their 58-year history.  When the Komets defend their back-to-back Turner Cup championship titles in April it will be their 43rd appearance as a member of the IHL.  The Komets also qualified for seven UHL playoff runs.

Streaking Komets:  Goaltender Nick Boucher has won six straight road games.....Konstantin Shafranov (LW) has a three-game point-scoring streak (2 goals, 3 assists).....Colin Chaulk (C) is riding a three-game point and assist scoring streak (3 goals, 4 assists).

Milestones:  Boucher celebrated his 100th Fort Wayne career game Wednesday with a 4-3 win over the visiting Port Huron Icehawks.....Chaulk registered his 400th Fort Wayne career point (assist) Friday against Quad City.....Matt Syroczynski (LW) scored his 100th pro goal Saturday against Muskegon.

Komets game-worn Camo Jersey auction raises over $9,000.....The Komets raised over $9,000 for the Indiana National Guard Relief Fund in an auction of their Army Jerseys worn Saturday night against Quad City.  The Komets' Army camo jerseys were sold in a silent auction during the game with Guy Dupuis' sweater yielding the most at $1,222.00.  Kaleigh Schrock's game worn jersey fetched the second highest amount at $750.00.

Boucher, Schrock named IHL Players of the Week
Nich Boucher was named the IHL Goaltender of the Week and winger Kaleigh Schrock was honored as Rookie of the Week for the period ending March 21. 

Boucher won both of his appearances for the week and registered a 1.50 goals-against average stopping 74 of 77 shots for a .961 save percentage.  Boucher, 29, also snagged his second shutout of the season 5-0 over the Gems at Dayton Sunday stopping all 44 shots faced for his sixth straight road win. 

The Leduc, Alberta native improved to 16-8-1-0 for the season and improved his save percentage to tie teammate Tim Haun at an IHL-high .922. 

The award is Boucher's second Goatender of the Week honor this year.  The netminder also received the Goaltender of the Month award for January.




Schrock scored three goals and one assist for four points during the week. 

The Fort Wayne native leads Fort Wayne rookies with 18 goals after scoring goals in each of the first three games of the week. 

Schrock, 25, passed an assist on the game winning goal Friday against Quad City and completed the week at plus-one.  This is the second Rookie of the Week award for Schrock this year.



Hottest Ticket In Town.....still plenty of great seats available for all upcoming Komet home games.  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.  For more information visit the Komet office, call 260-483-0011 or visit the Komets' website at www.komets.com. 

Komet Hockey with Bob Chase......follow the Komets worldwide at www.komets.com Comcast KometCast with Bob Chase, in his 57th consecutive season calling Komet action.  The Komet Hockey broadcast can also be heard on Fort Wayne radio outlets WOWO AM 1190 or ESPN AM 1380 depending on availability.  All games broadcast can be heard at www.komets.com Comcast KometCast.

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. 

KOMETS PLANNER
Komet games this week
Friday, March 26..............Komets at Muskegon Lumberjacks, 7pm, WOWO Radio AM 1190
Saturday, March 27..........Komets at Dayton Gems, 7:30pm, WOWO Radio AM 1190
Sunday, March 28............Komets at Flint Generals, 4pm, WOWO Radio AM 1190
All games broadcast on radio are webcast free at www.Komets.com Comcast KometCast.
Komet practice schedule
Note:  All Komet practices originally scheduled for McMillen Ice Arena have switched to the new Canlan Ice Sports arena, 3869 Ice Way in Fort Wayne.
Tuesday, March 23..........no practice scheduled
Wednesday, March 24.....10am-11:30am at Canlan Ice Sports
Thursday, March 25.........10am-noon at the Coliseum
Friday, March 26.............10am-11am at Canlan Ice Sports
Tuesday, March 30..........10am-11:30am at Canlan Ice Sports
Wednesday, March 31.....10am-11:30am at Canlan Ice Sports

IHL STANDINGS  thru games of 3/21/2010
TEAM                GP    W     L     OTL   SOL   PTS   WPCT   GF     GA     PIM    HOME        ROAD        L-TEN     STREAK   
Muskegon            65    44    18      0     3   91    .700   244    190    1402   27-7-0-0    17-11-0-3   5-5-0-0   2-0-0-0  
Fort Wayne          63    41    19      1     2   85    .675   212    149    1349   22-7-1-1    19-12-0-1   7-3-0-0   1-0-0-0  
Port Huron          64    39    21      0     4   82    .641   217    190    1157   23-9-0-0    16-12-0-4   6-3-0-1   2-0-0-0  
Bloomington         63    28    27      3     5   64    .508   204    223    1594   18-12-2-0   10-15-1-5   3-6-1-0   0-2-0-0  
Flint               64    26    31      3     4   59    .461   189    215    1286   15-9-2-4    11-22-1-0   7-2-1-0   0-1-0-0  
Quad City           66    24    31      4     7   59    .447   178    231    961    18-11-1-4   6-20-3-3    4-5-0-1   0-1-0-0  
Dayton              65    23    38      3     1   50    .385   177    223    959    13-17-1-1   10-21-2-0   2-8-0-0   0-2-0-0  
TOTALS              450   225   185    14    26   490   .544   1421   1421   8708   -           -           -         -        

FORT WAYNE KOMETS TEAMSTATS  thru games of 3/21/2010
#     PLAYER              POS  GP  G     A   PTS  +/-   PIM   PPG  PPA  SHG  SHA  GWG  FG  OTG  UAG  ENG  SHOG  SHOA  SHO%   SHOTS  SPCT 
91    Chaulk, Colin       C    58  23   50   73   +32   101    5   19    1    1    5   7     0   1   4    1      1    1.000  140    .164 
71    Drouin, P.C.        LW   63  21   43   64   +15    52    9   17    0    3    5   1     1   2   0    1      3    .333   178    .118 
24    Shafranov, Konstan  LW   48  19   31   50   +24    12    4   12    0    0    5   6     0   0   0    2      3    .667   81     .235 
44    Thomas, Leo         C    61  28   20   48   +18    53    7    6    4    0    5   5     2   2   0    0      3    .000   151    .185 
29    OConnor, Sean       RW   59  16   24   40   +12    43    5    5    3    1    3   0     0   3   0    0      1    .000   190    .084 
27    Syroczynski, Matt   LW   35  20   19   39   +20    39    7    4    0    0    3   2     0   0   1    0      0    .000   174    .115 
14    DeAngelis, Frankie  D    60  9    23   32   +24    6     2    9    2    0    3   1     0   0   0    0      0    .000   116    .078 
2     Dupuis, Guy         D    63  8    24   32   +20    81    5   13    0    0    2   0     0   1   0    1      1    1.000  187    .043 
79    Schrock, Kaleigh    RW   63  18   11   29    +5   145    0    0    1    2    3   2     0   2   2    0      1    .000   173    .104 
96    Chwedoruk, Justin   F    53  13   15   28    +1    31    5    4    1    1    1   3     0   1   1    0      2    .000   142    .092 
21    Hukalo, David       RW   29  8    12   20    +8    34    4    5    0    0    2   2     1   0   0    0      1    .000   76     .105 
9     Warner, Brandon     D    50  1    15   16    +7    20    0    4    0    0    0   1     0   0   0    0      0    .000   72     .014 
20    Phillips, Bobby     D    54  2    11   13   +19    44    0    0    0    1    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   62     .032 
22    Bertram, Kevin      D    54  2    10   12   +24    84    0    0    0    0    0   1     0   0   0    0      0    .000   56     .036 
19    Rodger, Keith       D    57  2     9   11    +8   103    0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   59     .034 
15    MacMillan, Brad     RW   42  7     2   9     +6   223    0    0    0    0    1   1     0   1   1    0      0    .000   65     .108 
    X Woodard, Matt       D    49  4     4   8     -5    33    2    2    0    0    0   1     0   0   0    0      0    .000   64     .063 
3     Mironovic, Danko    D    59  1     7   8    +15    75    0    1    1    1    0   0     0   1   0    0      0    .000   53     .019 
    X Varone, Rick        C    23  1     5   6     -4    14    1    3    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   47     .021 
    X Klempa, Tomas       RW   24  3     2   5     -6    2     0    2    0    0    0   2     0   0   0    0      0    .000   69     .043 
17    Woods, Mitch        RW   25  1     3   4     0     82    0    1    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   23     .043 
35    Haun, Tim           G    39  0     3   3     0     14    0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   0      .000 
    X Stayzer, Blair      D    13  1     0   1     0     34    1    0    0    0    0   1     0   0   0    0      0    .000   16     .063 
    X Whitehead, Travis   C    7   1     0   1     0     4     0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   6      .167 
    X Saidachev, Evgeny   RW   7   0     1   1     -2    2     0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   6      .000 
33    Boucher, Nick       G    27  0     0   0     0     0     0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   0      .000 
    X Laise, Vince        F    2   0     0   0     0     0     0    0    0    0    0   0     0   0   0    0      0    .000   0      .000 
    X Duffus, Parris      G    1   0     0   0     0     0     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                   63  212  344  556  +241  1349  57   107  13   10   41   36    7  17   9    5      16   .313   2209   .096 
#       GOALIE              GP  MIN      W   L   OTL  SOL  SO  GA   GAA   SHOW  SHO  SHOGA  SHOAA  SAVES  SPCT 
35      Haun, Tim           39  2301:01  25  11  0    2    3   83   2.16  3     5    5      18     976    .922 
33      Boucher, Nick       27  1502:01  16  8   1    0    2   61   2.44  0     0    0      0      722    .922 
    X   Duffus, Parris      1   0:31     0   0   0    0    0   0    .00   0     0    0      0      0      .000 
        TOTALS              63           41  20  1    2    5   149  2.37  3     5    5      18     1698   .919